Re: the assigning of other METL tasks, arty as MPs etc.

I'll start by pointing out that many of you think of MPs as, apparently, an "easy", but still relevant MOS. As an Armor guy, in the process of converting to MPs, I don't think that's the case. When I moved over, I was shocked by how much was going on in an MP unit that I hadn't realized. Of course, if what you really want is gun trucks and dismounts, that's not that hard. That, alone, doesn't make an MP. If what you really want is troopers with an outstanding grasp of EOF criteria, intelligence integrated by doctrine, experience and assigned ASIs, trained prison guards, Army Law Enforcement personnel, etc etc, then you can't just slap a badge on some redlegs and expect them to perform the same way.

I don't think that's an ego or branch bias thing. But the branches that are largely soft skill focused have legitimate concerns of their own. I can't fly a Kiowa or calculate winds aloft, which wouldn't surprise an Aviator or Artilleryman. I don't see why we would think that they should have the same situational awareness as an experienced cop, just because it's a soft skill, instead of a hard one.

With that said, this isn't an attempt to keep the 5 MP METL tasks all to ourselves. Some sort of rollover\fallback METL tasks make a lot of sense, particularly for branches like arty. Formalizing it makes sense. You can't expect the redlegs to be full fledged MPs, but you could expect them to take over Interment and Resettlement Operations under conditions x or y, under the leadership of the Brigade Provost, or to support IO, or to do Civil Affairs project nominations, or whatever. Planning and training for that contingency makes sense, as you could plan for the inherent limitations. It makes a lot of sense in the MPF scenario that Rob and Ken talk about, because the commanders would have a road map given a certain set of conditions\guidance.