220th Military Police Brigade (United States) - History

History

The unit was first constituted on 3 April 1959 in the Army Reserve as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 220th Military Police Group before being activated on 25 May of that year in Washington, D. C.. On 23 July 1960, the location of the group's headquarters was changed to Rockville, Maryland. The group remained in the reserves throughout the Vietnam War, and was never called upon to serve in the Vietnam theater of operations, as active duty military police groups were already being organized in the theater and additional, reserve commands were not needed. As such, the group received no campaign participation credit for the conflict.

Ten years later, on 17 April 1970, the location of the group headquarters was again changed to Gaithersburg, Maryland where it is presently located. It received a shoulder sleeve insignia on 24 July 1972 and a distinctive unit insignia on 27 September 1972.

The group was reorganized and redesignated on 10 December 1971 as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 220th Military Police Brigade, allowing it to command a larger number of military police units. On 16 April 1980 the brigade's command element was again reorganized as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 220th Military Police Brigade. Prior to the Iraq War, the brigade remained on reserve status, prepared to deploy if needed, but it was never called upon for any contingency operations or conflicts, as other active duty military police commands, primarily the 16th Military Police Brigade, were called upon to be deployed instead. By 1999, after 40 years of existence, the brigade had yet to be deployed to a foreign theater of operations or participate in any conflicts or contingencies.

The brigade saw only a single activation into active duty service, at the start of the Iraq War. It was ordered into active military service on 10 February 2003 at Gaithersburg, Maryland as part of the U.S. Military's mobilization in preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Some 13,800 reserve component Military Police were called into active duty for the invasion, including the Headquarters of the 220th as well as the 800th Military Police Brigade. Overall, over 57,000 reserve and national guard troops were called into active duty service for the invasion. The brigade assumed command of other reserve and national guard military police units during the operation, including company sized units from Virginia, New York, Illinois, Kansas and Texas The brigade was, in turn, subordinate to the 377th Theater Support Command. During its tour, the Brigade suffered five casualties; three soldiers killed in combat, and two soldiers killed in vehicle accidents. The brigade served in Iraq for a year before returning to the United States in early 2004. It was relieved from active military service on 21 April 2004 and reverted to reserve status once again. The brigade is an "AC/RC" (Active Component / Reserve Component) formation.

Since 2005, the brigade has provided detachment and company sized units to active duty combat brigades for use in exercises at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana. These exercises were highly varied in nature, and primarily aimed at training those units for future deployment to Iraq. One such unit was the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which the brigade provided several company sized units to during their training exercises.