~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association Vietnam History Project ~
Operation Rifle
Last Updated   9 January 2012
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18th MP
Brigade
89th MP
Group
720th MP
Battalion
1967

3 March The 720th MP Battalion was officially committed to Operation RIFLE, the escort, security, and traffic control mission in support of the 44th Medical Brigade, 55th Medical Group casualty transports.

   The bulk of the escorts were for ambulatory patients being shipped out of country, however, there were local escorts to other military and Vietnamese civilian hospitals within the III Corps Tactical Zone area.
24th Evac

   The MP gun jeeps were used to escort and secure medical evacuation casualties and personnel from the 24th Evacuation Hospital and 93rd Evacuation Hospital facilities on Long Binh Post to both Bien Hoa and Tan Son Nhut Air Base (Saigon).

   Based on the daily logs currently in the Vietnam History Project archives it appears that C Company was the primary Operation RIFLE escort provider for the 720th.
93rd Evac

   There is one instance on 11 July 1967 where Battalion Operations forwarded a request to the 179th MP Detachment, 95th MP Battalion, Bien Hoa Provost Marshals Office to respond to an escort request. Another on 30 November 1967 that B Company handled. The reasons were not mentioned in the logs.

   The ambulatory patients would be transported in ambulances from the 561st Ambulance Company and specially designed busses from the 439th Bus Detachment. Once at the air base they would be loaded onto specially designed medical air transports for flights to military hospitals located throughout the world.
   The 55th Medical Group would make every effort to schedule the escorts with Battalion Operations (S-3), however there were times when emergency request would be made to move a single patient. The majority of the escorts were for pre-scheduled multiple patient transfers out of country during the daylight hours but it was not unusual to also have night escorts.
1968
31 January The last battalion log entree (based on a limited review of available records) relating to Operation RIFLE medical escorts. It is believed that when the 615th MP Company was reassigned from the 720th to the 95th MP Battalion and returned to a combat service mission on Long Binh Post in January, they took over responsibility of the escorts.
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