Saturday, June 26
INTEL DUMP - Archives 2004-06-22 - 2004-06-28
From: INTEL DUMP - Archives 2004-06-22 - 2004-06-28:
This is for Garfield, who is currently in boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood, and who will be going into MP training there under the new commander. I'll print this out for him when I send him my next letter, which should be soon. Relevant Link Permanent link posted by bytehead @ 6/26/2004 11:38:00 PMU.S. Army MP school to get new top general
It's hard to say this story is just a coincidence, but I think that's what it is. The commandant of the Army's Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, is retiring on Monday.Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Curry, a 32-year Army veteran, has been in charge of military police training for the past three years.Analysis: For an MP, 1 star is about as high as you can go (there is 1 MP 2-star on active duty), and thus BG Curry's retirement is appropriately timed. Plus, he was in his position for three years, which is a bit long. Nonetheless, it's hard to shake the coincidental timing of this, given problems with MPs in Iraq. I've met BG Curry on several occasions, and while he's not the warmest of people, he is the epitome of a modern Army officer in terms of professionalism and tactical competence. I do not think he is being fired over Abu Ghraib, or because of any failure by the MP school to prevent the bad acts there. On the other hand, BG Curry's retirement will allow the Army's leadership to hand-pick an officer to remake the Military Police corps, and institute a tougher law-of-war training program at the MP school. (I'm not sure that it needed one, and that the problem lies at the MP school, but sometimes you have to take action even where it's not needed in order to respond to something as bad as the Abu Ghraib abuses.) We'll see how this story develops. BG Curry is not known as an outspoken officer, but I'd be surprised if he doesn't say something public soon about the MPs at Abu Ghraib and where he thinks the breakdown occurred.
He will relinquish his command Monday during a 9 a.m. ceremony at the post, according the installation's public affairs office.
Curry's departure comes amid ongoing investigations into alleged abuses of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of military police guarding them.
In response to the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal, Curry recently invited journalists to tour the post and watch how military police officers are trained.
At the time, he said the alleged abuses had 'sullied' the reputation of the military police training program.
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