MILITARY SERIES – After spending 20 years in the military and retiring in 2000 as a First Sergeant from the Wisconsin Army Reserve National Guard, I decided to create this series and dedicate it to all of the men and women that served before me, with me, after me, serve today and those who will serve in future generations.
Each of the caches in this series is named after a unit, position, rank or other significant event during my military career.
While some of these may be an easy find, others may require some creative and critical thinking. Look at the rating for each cache as they will vary within the series.
Military Police Investigations Course – Fort McClellan, Alabama: When I initially enlisted, my recruiter guaranteed my initial assignment in the States and with a three year enlistment I would spend the second half of my tour in either Germany or Korea (the two hot spots at the time). He had explained that when I got my orders to go overseas, that I should submit for a specialty course for K-9, Investigations, Traffic or Physical Security.
As expected, during the first 6 months, I received my orders to be transferred to Germany after my first year was up at Ft Carson. I submitted paperwork to attend the 8 week long course for Military Police Investigations School.
A year after leaving Ft McClellan, a place where I swore that I would never come back to after 4 months of Basic Training and AIT, I returned to Alabama. The different this time is that I was no longer a recruit. I was only a PFC (E-3), but I was treated like a human being. In fact, one day while at the main building, I ran into one of my former Drill Sergeants, SSG Poe. Out of habit and fear, I snapped to ‘Parade Rest’ while taking to him. He was very quick to take the edge off pointing out to me that I was no longer a recruit in basic and that the MPI course I was attending would make a huge difference in my career in the future.
All I can say is, ‘thank you’ to my recruiter, SSG Remington and to SSG Poe. They both were spot on and hit the nail on the head. After graduating from MPI school, it added the ‘V5’ identifier to my MOS as I was now a 95B10V5. The MPI course not only gave me a great duty assignment in Germany but also gave in an inside track in my civilian law enforcement career as I ended up spending a third of my career in civilian law enforcement as a detective. Be sure to check out my ‘Police Series’ of caches.
Congratulations to kalkranz on the FTF on this Cache Ba$hless weekend!