720th
2012 Battalion Time Line
~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association History Project ~
This Page Last Updated   4 October 2012
89th Bde.
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At the start of the year the Battalion was headquartered subordinate to the 89th MP Brigade, III Corps at Fort Hood, TX, with HQ & HQ Detachment deployed in Afghanistan to coordinate the training of Afghan Police.
January
June

20 June - Khost, Khost Province, Afghanistan 1LT Ryan D. Rawl age 30, SFC Matthew B. Thomas age 30 and SGT John David Meador, II age 36 of the 133rd MP Company, South Carolina National Guard (Roster Page) subordinate to the HQ Detachment, 720th MP Battalion, Task Force Gauntlet were killed in action when an insurgent using an improvised explosive devise attacked their checkpoint at a marketplace in the city of Khost near the Pakistani border 90 miles northeast of Kabul.

     Five other members of the Company (several yet to be identified), and the Afghan interpreter were also wounded in the attack.
1LT Rawl
SFC Thomas
SGT Meador
     One of the wounded, SPC Jared Bland, was thrown five feet in the air and received multiple ball bearing shrapnel fragments in a leg. Unable to move his legs, he crawled to an intersection to provide security for his fellow soldiers. He was eventually transported from Afghanistan to the Wounded Warrior Transition Battalion at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon, GA. On 18 August, SPC Bland was awarded the Purple Heart Medal.
   WANTED: Names, ranks and personal accounts from the other soldiers wounded in the attack, use the Email Link at the top of this page.
July

8 July, Maidan Shar, Wardak Province, Afghanistan Six soldiers of the 978th MP Company, (Roster Page) attached subordinate to HQ & HQ Detachment, 720th MP Battalion, Task Force Gauntlet were killed in action when insurgents attacked their unit in Maidan Shahr, Wardak Province, with an Improvised Explosive Devise.

     Killed in the blast were SSG Ricardo Seija, age 31 of Tampa, FL; SPC Erica Alecksen, age 21 of Eatonton, GA; SPC Clarence Williams III, age 23 of Brooksville, FL; SPC Alejandro J. Pardo, age 21 of Porterville, CA, SPC Trevor B. Adkins, age 21 of Spring Lake, NC; and PFC Cameron J. Stambaugh, age 20 of Spring Grove, PA. The soldiers were deployed from the 93rd Military Police Battalion, 89th MP Brigade, Fort Bliss, Texas.

     Other members of the Company (yet to be identified) were also wounded in the attack.
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SSG Seija
SPC Alecksen
SPC Williams
SPC Pardo
SPC Adkins
SPC Stanbaugh
   WANTED: Names, ranks and personal accounts from the other soldiers wounded in the attack, use the Email Link at the top of this page.
August
     The 514th MP Company, North Carolina ARNG left North Carolina for Fort Bliss, Texas, in June and departed for Afghanistan in early August with the unit fully in place there as part of Task Force Gauntlet by the end of the month.
September
October

1 October - Khost, Khost Province, Afghanistan SGT Jeremy F. Hardison age 23, SGT Donna R. Johnson age 29 and SGT Thomas J. Butler, IV age 25 of the 514th MP Company, North Carolina National Guard (Roster Page) subordinate to the HQ Detachment, 720th MP Battalion, Task Force Gauntlet, were killed in action when an insurgent on a motorcycle detonated his explosive vest in an attack against their joint U.S. - Afghan foot patrol at a marketplace in the city of Khost near the Pakistani border 90 miles northeast of Kabul. Three other members of the company were wounded.

     The explosion also killed an Afghan translator working with the American troops, four local police officers and six civilians. About 60 Afghan civilians were also injured.
SGT Hardison
SGT Johnson
SGT Butler
   WANTED: Names, ranks and personal accounts from the other soldiers wounded in the attack, use the Email Link at the top of this page.
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