Story and photo by Pvt. Alexis Koster
Special to GUIDON

The friends and family of the 512th Military Police Company, 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, bid farewell to their deploying Soldiers, Feb. 25. This is the first deployment for the 512th since it stood up on Fort Leonard Wood on Oct 2, 2008. Their mission, while deployed, is to assist in Iraqi police training and readiness.

 “512th Titans you’re going to do well over there,” Brig. Gen.  David Phillips, Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood commanding general said. “Your generation has a defining moment, and that moment happened nine years ago and is the reason you are standing here right now. When your grandkids or great grand kids ask you what you were doing on 9/11: and there’s a follow up question to that, what did you do to help with the war on terror; every one of you standing here will say with pride that you made a difference.”

The company went through a rigorous train-up process, from individual skills training and leadership certifications to collective training.

“We’re trained and ready to go,” said Pfc. Nicole Gray, 512th MP Co. gunner. “We’ve been training since September doing field exercises.”

The company’s training included successful Mission Rehearsal exercises at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, La., and at Camp Gruber, Okla. for certification and validation exercises.

“I’m excited; we received the best training, and we have a great team and great equipment. I think we will do an outstanding job. There are always concerns about missing your family but it’s a modern war, and we have many tools at our disposal to keep in contact with the people back home,” said Spc. Gabriel Sleighter, combat medic.

The 512th’s Family Readiness group has been actively involved with the company and their family members to make sure that everyone is ready for the deployment.

“Our FRG has taken form and really helped us take care of all of our personal issues so that we don’t have any problems before we deploy,” said Cpl. Aaron Ebersole, Military Police Team Leader.

Lt. Col. Dennis Zink, 92nd Military Police Battalion commander, spoke directly to Col. Robert Risberg, 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade commander, saying, “Sir, it’s my honor to report to you that the 512th MP Company is trained and ready for deployment. They have met all the training requirements and are ready to go.”