COLCHESTER, Vt. – Thirty-three Vermont National Guard Military Police Soldiers of the 172nd Law Enforcement Detachment conducted a law enforcement and inner-base security training mission at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania from March to November.
According to Staff Sgt. Zachary Hunt, this was the first military police-orientated mission in the 12 years he has been in the Guard.
“It was beneficial enhancing our military police capabilities here in the state,” said Hunt, who is the readiness training noncommissioned officer for the 172nd Law Enforcement Detachment.
Hunt said Soldiers were responsible for inner-base security, patrolling the base on foot and in SUVs marked and modified for military police activity.
“A lot of it was community policing, the day-to-day operation of patrolling the roads, responding to phone calls, and we did some training exercises with the fire department,” said Hunt. “Basically, making sure everyone on the base was safe and we had no issues.”
Hunt said highlights of the mission included developing and implementing standard operating procedures for base access, conducting joint patrols, and performing law enforcement operations.
“We also worked with Canadian military police to develop common operating procedures as well as conducted ground defense exercises when they were at the base,“ he said. “We also had our meals mostly with Canadians at the foreign forces mess hall.”
Hunt said the U.S. Soldiers were certified in active-shooter threat response, ground defense tactics, and the evasive vehicle operation course during their deployment.
“This deployment gave our Soldiers a lot of experience in community policing, interacting with people, using interpersonal skills to defuse a situation,” said Hunt. “I worked the physical security base access portion. A lot of my job was interacting with the Romanian security manager, and that was the best part — building a relationship was a big thing.”