Military Police Corps Memorial Plaque
Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, DC
Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, DC
~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association History Project ~ |
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Military Police Corps Memorial Plaque Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, DC |
This Page Last Updated 13 May 2009 |
2 October 2003 ~ Army honors MPs killed in action |
By Dennis Ryan The Military Police Corps monument in Arlington National Cemetery honors soldiers of the Military Police Corps who have been killed since World War I. |
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| WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Oct. 3, 2003) -- The Military Police Corps dedicated a memorial plaque at Arlington National Cemetery Oct. 2 honoring the more than 200 military policemen killed in action since World War I. |
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The site chosen at the corner of McClellan and Eisenhower Drives holds special significance to military police and provost marshals since World War II. Retired Col. David Patton, a military policeman and previous Fort Myer garrison commander uncovered the connection. "I discovered the military police school was at Fort Myer," Patton told a crowd of about 150 present. "My search took me to what was then South Post (Fort Myer). We never found the exact place of the school." So the plaque was placed at the approximate location of the South Post main gate. The South Post of Fort Myer was located in land that is now part of the cemetery. Military police have been part of the Army since it's inception during the American Revolution and have served in all of the nation's wars. But the Corps was not officially established until Sept. 26, 1941. |
The corps earned designation as a combat support branch for its service during the bloody battles of the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam. Military policemen fought Viet Cong guerillas on the grounds of the American Embassy in Saigon during the offensive. Retired Col. Jack Hyde served as a military policeman with the 9th Armored Division [9th MP Company] during the Battle of the Bulge. There he met the legendary Gen. George Patton. Hyde, then a second lieutenant, stopped Patton from going through a road block. The general, famous for his temper, objected strenuously, but the young officer refused to let him through. Hyde had captured two Germans that morning less than a hundred yards away from the roadblock.
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Military Police Regimental Honor Guard Presenting The Colors.
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"He asked for my name," Hyde said. "I figured I'd get a letter of reprimand. Two weeks later I got a letter promoting me." Hyde later became bridge control officer at the famous bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen. Military police helped defend the bridge from a furious German counter attack. The capture and holding of the bridge enabled American forces to pour across the Rhine and shorten the war. Left to right, MG Donald J. Ryder, Provost Marshal General; CSM James F. Barrett, MP Corps Regiment (dress blues); BG Stephen P. Curry, Commander MP Corps Regiment and Commandant of the MP School; COL David L. Patton (MP Corps Retired). |
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Today, there are roughly 38,000 military policemen in the Army. Besides performing standard police functions on posts, they provide convoy security in Iraq, detainee handling in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and Iraq and area security operations. Dennis Ryan is a staff writer with the Fort Myer Pentagram. Left to right, MG Donald J. Ryder, Provost Marshal General; BG Stephen P. Curry, Commander MP Corps Regiment and Commandant of the MP School; COL David L. Patton (MP Corps Retired), CSM James F. Barrett, MP Corps Regiment. At podium giving the blessing is MP Corps Regimental Chaplain, MAJ Kenneth Williams. |
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| Our thanks to COL Arnie Daxe who provided the photographs and materials for this page. "I, along with quite a few active and retired MP's, attended the first dedication of a Memorial Plaque for MP's in Arlington National Cemetery. It was a beautiful morning and the ceremony was concluded by the blowing of taps. If one gets off the Arlington Metro, it's only a two minute walk to the memorial plaque - the first ever such plaque in Arlington. I was proud to be there." CPT (COL Ret.) Arnold “Arnie” Daxe, Jr., Commanding Officer, 615th MP Company, 720th & 95th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, Vietnam, February 1967 to February 1968. |
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Arlington by Trace Adkins |
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