 720th |
2000 Battalion Time Line ~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association History Project ~ This Page Last Updated 22 December 2011 |
 89th Bde. |
|
|
At the start of the year the Battalion was headquartered subordinate to the 89th MP Brigade, III Corps at Fort Hood, TX. |
March |
|
19 March - Fort Hood, TX The 401st MP Company and an attached platoon from the 410th MP Company were assigned in support of the Office of the Special Counsel's, United States Department of Justice, Forward Looking Infrared RADAR (FLIR) Test for the reenactment of the 19 April 1993 FBI raid at Waco, Texas. The raid was the conclusion to the fifty-one day standoff that resulted in the deaths of 75 people at the Branch Dividian Compound, Mount Carlmel, Waco, Texas. The test was ordered by Judge Walter S. Smith of the U.S. District Court. The exercise area was set up to represent the Dividian’s compound and held in a remote location on Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas. Representatives from the U.S. Justice department and attorneys representing the Branch Dividian’s were present to witness the reenactment. The exercise group composed of United Kingdom military and FBI FLIR equipped aircraft, combat outfitted and armed U.S. Postal Inspector’s, U.S. soldiers, and armored vehicles, conducted a live fire exercise to simulate the FBI raid at the Branch Dividian compound. The court ordered enactment was to recreate the scene just before the tank rammed the Dividian’s main compound building so it could be filmed on aerial infrared surveillance cameras. The reenactment film was compared against the film taken by the FBI the day of the incident to test its accuracy. WANTED: Photographs, personal stories, of the Waco enactment from members of the Battalion, regardless of MOS, please contact the History Project Manager via the Email Link at the top of this page. |
October |
Operation Phantom Lifeline, 2000 |
15 October - Texas The 410th MP Company was assigned to support Operation Phantom Lifeline 2000. The operation was conducted at several sites across Texas but centered at Camp Bullis, near San Antonio. The 13th Corps Support Command (COSCOM) troops deployed for two weeks in one of the largest peacetime operations the unit has ever conducted. Operations at the Texas ports of Corpus Christi and Beaumont replicated the actual stages of deployment by sea for the COSCOM, and Camp Bullis represented their destination. |
The 13th Corps Support Command (COSCOM) mission is to provide combat support and combat service support to units of the III U.S. Corps in the areas of supply, maintenance, transportation, field services, medical, engineer support, decontamination and smoke generation. The 13th COSCOM also operates the Fort Hood ammunition supply point, staffs troop medical clinics and provides helicopter evacuation support to units at Fort Sam Houston as well as Fort Hood. Phantom Lifeline 2000 covered 600 miles, from Corpus Christi and Beaumont to Camp Bullis, located outside San Antonio. More than 4,000 service members from the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Texas National Guard, as well as various reservists, carried through the two-week exercise. Corpus Christi and Beaumont acted as civilian seaports to receive equipment for the operations. |
In addition to proving the COSCOM's ability to provide logistical support, the exercise also employed and validated the unit's complex information and communication automation systems. If these systems didn't work well during the exercise, they would have to be redesigned. As it turned out, one of the lessons learned from the exercise was the need for backup systems, in case primary systems fail. Phantom Lifeline 2000 validated all the training conducted by the support command's soldiers during the previous year, said BG Jeanette Edmunds, the 13th COSCOM's commander. The exercise demonstrated the complexity of preparing for and executing a full-scale deployment. More than 30 COSCOM units deployed and provided virtually all types of supply and support, including laundry and fabric repair, vehicle and generator maintenance, construction engineering, chemical decontamination and smoke operations. |
|
Medical support for the exercise included a corps support hospital, a forward surgical team and aeromedical evacuation, and even veterinary services for food safety. The exercise scenario called for a deployment to a country threatened by aggressive neighbors, recent natural disasters, and its citizens' growing distrust of their government. Dissidents demonstrated against the American presence and carried out terrorist attacks. The Air Force and Marines played a critical role in the evacuation of civilian and military casualties. The air piece is the hardest. The COSCOM had to synchronize Fort Bragg parachute riggers jumping in, marines coming from Fort Worth and San Antonio, Air Force personnel coming from San Antonio and another unit coming from New Jersey. And they all came in at the right time. In addition to military units, the exercise was also supported by civilian agencies. COSCOM soldiers worked closely with local police, the Texas Department of Transportation, civilian port authorities and even local labor unions. The joint training and military readiness exercise "Phantom Lifeline 2000" involved the entire l3th Corps Support Command's 11 battalions and other elements based at Ft. Hood, Killeen, Texas. Edited from, Operation Phantom Lifeline 15-24 October, Military Operations, GlobalSecurity.com |
WANTED: Photographs, personal stories of Operation Phantom Lifline, please contact the History Project Manager via the Email Link at the top of this page. |
Photographs ~ Operation Phantom Lifeline |
Your photographs are needed here. |
|
Photographs ~ Fort Hood, Texas |
Your photographs are needed here. |
|
Regardless of MOS if you recognize or participated in any of the events listed on this Time Line page and would like to contribute any information, personal stories, documents, media articles, photographs, or, if you can provide information on any events not listed, please take a moment to contact the History Project Manager at the Email Link provided for you on each page. Your contributions are important to the recording of the Battalion history and always welcomed here.
