As the people of Iraq set about rebuilding their country and their society, they’ll be helped by the expertise and experience of several units from the Rhode Island Army National Guard.

The 118th MP Battalion and 119th MP Company with headquarters in Warwick, R.I., and the 115th MP Company based in Cranston, R.I., are now working in and around Baghdad, providing stability to areas abandoned by the Iraqi military and civilian authorities. Their headquarters is an abandoned Iraqi Army Anti-Aircraft Artillery location.

When the American troops arrived, newly washed clothing from the Iraqi soldiers was still hanging on the line as a mute testimony to the speed with which the operation proceeded.

The units initially left Rhode Island in February as part of the build-up leading to Operation Iraqi Freedom. They rolled out in a convoy of Humvees on February 12th that snaked through Rhode Island, along the Massachusetts Turnpike, en route to their Mobilization Station at Fort Drum, N.Y. It was the largest deployment on a single day of the Rhode Island National Guard since World War II.

At Fort Drum, they engaged in refresher training for the skills they might need during the deployment.

“Standardized training at Mobilization Stations focuses on individual soldier skills, followed by a collective training exercise,” according to Maj. Andrew McManus, the Operations Officer for the 118th MP BN. “Individual training is in first aid, mine awareness, nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) training, and weapons qualification.”

Maj. McManus says the weapons qualification is particularly time consuming and challenging. “That’s because of the number of different weapons, such as the M9 pistol, M16 rifle, M203 grenade launcher, M249 SAW light machine gun, MK19 automatic grenade launcher, and shotgun.”

The training culminated with a Mobilization Readiness Exercise (MRE), where units perform as a whole in a field environment. During their time at Ft. Drum, soldiers also had their medical and dental records reviewed, and received required inoculations. For this deployment, those included yellow fever, hepatitis, smallpox, and anthrax.

The units shipped out to Kuwait in late March and April, and entered Iraq behind the front-line units, as their skills were required to achieve the objectives of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The units have a broad range of responsibilities, according to LTC Michael McNamara, Public Affairs Officer for the Rhode Island Army National Guard.

“Their duties include physical security of critical facilities, area security, maneuver and mobility support operations, police intelligence operations, and law enforcement,” he says. They also provide convoy escort security over a wide expanse of distance that stretches to almost every border of Iraq.

Their presence was important during the early days of the fall of Baghdad and the dissolution of the regime, and continue to be as the country slowly reestablishes its police force and emerges from periods of looting following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

“The units have been involved in activities in which hostile fire has been received,” says Maj. McManus. “The operational environment is not completely secure, but it is improving gradually.”

Soldiers from the 115th MP CO have provided security for a number of convoys to the Presidential Palace on the west bank of the Euphrates. The trips to the palace involved meetings concerning reconstruction. The soldiers have also escorted engineers who are restoring power grid to country.

The day-to-day interaction with the civilian population is perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of the deployment, says McManus.

“For the most part, the Iraqi people welcome the American presence,” says Maj. McManus. “It is striking to see the absolute poverty of much of the country, especially in areas outside Baghdad. On the two-day drive through the country, units saw thousands of civilians begging on the side of the road. Children as young as two years old stood by the main convoy route asking soldiers to throw them rations.”

He added that some of the most satisfying contacts involve helping the people in personal ways.

In one case, the tribal leader of a village approached the 115th and asked for medical help for himself and his people. A physician’s assistant and U.S. Army Civil Affairs unit (military personnel who are tasked with directly interacting with the local populace) were dispatched, along with two MP teams from the 115th who served as a protective service detail and two observers from the 118th. They found about 150 villagers living in 20 small houses.

“The Iraqi’s were very hospitable,” says CPT Peter Plante, 118th MP BN intelligence officer, who was one of the observers. “Several members of the village spoke English well enough to have a conversation. They asked about our life in the United States, our families, what we do for work, and our favorite foods. They said they were very happy that Saddam was out of power and that the Americans were here. They said they are ready for a change.”

“Civilians tell us things are a lot better now that Saddam Hussein is not in power,” echoes SFC Dean Lawrence, an MP platoon sergeant with the 115th MP CO, who is a policeman in New Bedford, Maine, in civilian life.

SPC Rich Smith, a communication specialist from W. Greenwich, R.I., hears the same comments when he talks to the local population. “It’s a whole different world. The people here really appreciate what we do.”

For some of the soldiers, this deployment meant a return to somewhat-familiar territory. The 118th participated in Operations Desert Shield\Desert Storm in 1991.

“This is much more challenging than the last deployment here,” observes SSG Mitchell Parkhurst, 115th MP CO Operations NCO.

This is also a return to the theater for LTC James Kieghley, the Commander of the 118th MP BN. A police lieutenant in Fall River, Maine, he served as commander for the 115th MP CO during Desert Shield\Desert Storm.

“For me as a commander to have had the opportunity for two commands and two deployments has been an experience I will always treasure. The odds for deploying twice as a commander are so remote that those who realize this experience can most likely be listed on a single page of a pocket notebook.”

Maj. Jim Williams, the 118th MP BN executive officer, says all of the units are enthusiastic about their assignments. “The soldiers are eager to conduct their missions. I think there is a real sense among them that they would like to help get the country on its feet so the Iraqi people can experience freedom and democracy.

“Morale is very high, and the soldiers are doing a great job with every mission they’ve been assigned. There have been several positive comments from supported units and higher headquarters.That’s not surprising to me, given the caliber of people in our units....”

Williams notes that the work of the Rhode Island units is augmented by guardsmen from other places.

“In addition to our organic companies — the 115th MP CO and 119th MP CO — we also have the 1166th MP CO from Alabama and the 363rd MP CO from Pennsylvania. They’re doing a super job as well and have fit right in with their sister companies.”

The 363rd MP CO is a 161-member unit from Grafton, W.Va., while the 1166th MP CO has 115 soldiers from Montgomery, Ala. They initially reported to Mobilization Stations in Ft. Lee, Va., and Ft. Stewart, Ga., respectively, before linking up with the 118th in Kuwait. The 1166th is in the Baghdad area, while the 119th and 363rd are at Camp Arifjan, a logistics base in southern Kuwait. The 118th MP BN also coordinates and monitors the activities of the 1207th TRANS CO, based in East Greenwich, R.I.

“The 1207th was also mobilized and is currently at Ft. Dix, N.J.,” according to Maj. McManus. “It’s not known if they will deploy overseas, since Operation Iraqi Freedom was so quick that the Army has rescinded movement orders for many units.”

The tasks assigned to the units of the 118th come almost naturally to many of the deployed service people. “About 1/3 of the members of the unit are in law enforcement in their civilian lives,” says LTC McNamara. “There are police and corrections officers. But there are also teachers, engineers, electricians, carpenters, computer specialists, and people from other professions.”

While many of the members joined when they were already involved in law enforcement, others found that joining these particular Guard units shaped their civilian careers.

“We’ve had some people who were not involved in law enforcement who found that they were very interested in the field and who joined police departments or EMT groups as a result of their Guard experiences.”

The geographic spread of the 118th is a little unusual. Since Rhode Island is so small, the composition of the MP Battalion and companies reflects the geography of New England. They come from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York.

As with most of the other National Guard and Reserve units called up for Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 118th MP Battalion, 115th and 119th MP Companies do not know how long they will be deployed. That uncertainty and the length of the assignment so far is a strain for the families, both those overseas and those at home.

The Rhode Island Guard unit is no stranger to being called up for high-profile assignments. The battalion deployed to Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991. Individuals from the battalion deployed as augmentees with the 43rd MP Brigade to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the internment and interrogation of al Qaeda prisoners captured in Afghanistan.

In addition, the 119th Company deployed to Bosnia in 2000 and the Winter Olympics in Utah in 2002. It has also served Rhode Island in several domestic emergencies, standing by for possible Y2K problems, serving during Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute job action in 2000, and the blizzard of 2001.