US Army Military Police MP MOS Patch

The crossed pistols in the middle of this patch are modeled on the Harpers Ferry Model 1805 flintlock, the first American military pistol, and the Military Police Corps has carried them as its branch device since 1922. Anyone who has worn the MP brassard knows that pair of pistols on sight. The branch's roots go back to 20 May 1778, when Congress created the Marechaussee Corps to keep order in the Continental Army. The modern Military Police Corps became a permanent branch of the Army on 26 September 1941, just ahead of the war that would test it hardest. This is the MOS patch for that branch, the soldiers in green and gold who answer to Assist, Protect, Defend.

The enlisted military police job is MOS 31B, with 31D for CID special agents, 31E for internment and resettlement specialists and 31K for military working dog handlers. In World War II the 793rd Military Police Battalion's first mission in theater was keeping the Red Ball Express moving, the truck supply route that ran from Normandy toward the front lines. At Remagen, First Lieutenant John Hyde and his detachment were credited with gallantry. In Vietnam, combat success during the Tet Offensive helped earn the branch its standing as a combat support arm. In Iraq, MPs carried the main load of rebuilding and training the Iraqi Police, and Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester of the Kentucky National Guard's 617th Military Police Company earned the Silver Star for her actions on 20 March 2005, the first woman to receive it since World War II.

The patch is cut in the classic MOS shape, a wide panel with curved top and bottom, framed in a black merrowed edge. UNITED STATES ARMY arcs across the top banner in white block letters, and MILITARY POLICE runs along the bottom banner. The center field is a deep green, with a large white M on the left and a white P on the right. Between them sit the crossed flintlock pistols in gold, outlined in brown thread so every lock and trigger guard stands out. Green and gold have been the Military Police branch colors since 1951, so the patch says MP before anyone reads a letter.

Military police work seldom makes the history books, and most MPs are fine with that. They run the gates, the road nets, the convoys and the detention facilities, and when a base takes fire they are often the first armed response on the scene. The job asks a soldier to be a cop one day and an infantryman the next, and the Corps has been doing both since 1941. The Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, trains the newest of them now. Commanders who had good MPs remember them.

It fits a shadow box next to your brassard and your unit patches, or the back of a reunion vest for the MP company you served with. It is iron-on backed and can also be sewn on, at 4.5 by 3.25 inches with a merrowed edge. For a son or daughter shipping out to Fort Leonard Wood, it is a quiet way to say you know what they signed up for. Assist, Protect, Defend.