25 April, Fort Leonard Wood, MO A three soldier team (#15) from the 720th MP Battalion consisting of SSG Ascencion Carmona Jr. (410th MP Company), SPC Nick Cloutier (178th MP Detachment), PFC Joshua Cook (410th MP Company), and their coach, SGT Josh Barrera (411th MP Company), took second place in a grueling 72 hour competition at the 12th Annual Warrior Police Challenge at Corps Headquarters, Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Twenty nine MP teams competed in nine events including a physical fitness assessment, obstacle course challenge, law and order scenario, field craft event, M9 pistol and M4 rifle weapons proficiency, live fire shoothouse, team weapons proficiency test, written examination and grueling 15-mile endurance march.

5 May, Fort Hood, TX Motorcyclists braved the early morning chill and gathered at the visitor control center at 8 a.m. for the 3rd Annual Fort Hood Ride to Remember to honor 720th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, Soldiers who died in combat. Organizers sold ride T-shirts for a minimum donation of $15 with proceeds going toward maintaining the 720th MP Battalion Memorial. “There are a lot of motorcycle riders in the battalion,” said MSG Danny Weakley, HQ Detachment (rear guard) S2 Intelligence NCOIC and an organizer of the ride. After a quick safety brief and a prayer by the battalion chaplain, nearly 40 bikes sped out of the Visitors Control Center toward Interstate 195 with a police escort. The group stopped at a cafe in Florence to fuel up and grab a snack. From there they drove in staggered formation to a motorcycle shop in Austin where they joined the Texas Peace Officers’ Memorial Foundation’s 7th Annual Capitol Ride for the Fallen. At 11 a.m., more than 450 bikes poured out of the motorcycle shop parking lot onto Interstate 35. The freeway was blocked off by police officers, who cleared the road to a location near the capitol where the group took over three stories of a parking garage.

In his remarks at the ceremony LTC Frank Y. Rangel, the 720th commander, spoke with pride of his Soldiers' success here. "These Soldiers compiled a record of achievement and success that boggles the mind," he said. "Day in and day out, they mounted their rides to work at the Iraqi Police stations, secured the venues for their principals, or turned a wrench or fixed a radio ... all the while the threat of an (improvised explosive device) or indirect fire loomed just a moment away.

" The 720th's Soldiers travelled nearly 1.8 million miles on some of the most dangerous roads in the most dangerous neighborhoods in the world, to develop a police force capable and worthy of the Iraqi people, said COL Mark Spindler, commander of the 18th MP Brigade, the 720th's higher headquarters while in Iraq. LTC

Michael Blahovec, commander of the 793rd, said his unit will benefit from the efforts of the 720th and the progress its Soldiers made before the 793rd's arrival. "We fully intend to take all the progress that's been made over the past 15 months by the 720th MP Battalion and begin building on that," Blahovec said. "Fortunately we got to spend the better part of the last three weeks working with their staff and leadership and getting out to see all of the units they support."

During the ceremony, Rangel and CSM Jerry A. Craig cased the 720th's colors to symbolize their departure, and Blahovec and CSM Eric Hodges uncased the 793rd's standard to complete the transfer of authority. This is the 793rd's second deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Its first was in 2004 and 2005. The 793rd is a U.S. Army Europe unit based in Bamberg, Germany, and is part of the 18th, which is headquartered in Mannheim, Germany.