My name is Dr. Kate Hendricks Thomas, and I am a public health professional whose research focuses on the well-being of military-connected women. Long before I became an academic, I was a Marine Corps Military Police Officer. I served from 2002-2012 in garrison commands, overseas in Iraq, and aboard Parris Island, the training command where the Marine Corps makes Marines. I loved the Marine Corps; it was my identity, and Marines are my people. Unfortunately, I did not know that my military service came with significant risks of toxic exposure. In 2005, as I ran laps around the burn pit in Fallujah, I never imagined that I would be diagnosed with a terminal cancer before I turned 40.
MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif.
Combining civilian police officers and Military Police personnel to staff the Marine Corps Police Department provides an enhanced law enforcement presence aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California.
Capt. Mark Machado, MCLB Barstow’s police chief and provost marshal, has been overseeing the influx of Marine Corps Military Police personnel coming in from divested MP battalions as well as MPs coming right from the United States Army Military Police School.
“Right now we have 12 MPs on hand, of which 10 are on the patrol force and we have two Military Working Dog handlers,” he said. “With the exception of two MPs coming from Okinawa, Japan, the rest are from USAMPS at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and this is their first duty billet.”
5 Combining civilian police officers and Military Police personnel to staff the Marine Corps Police Department provides an enhanced law enforcement presence aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif.
Captain Mark Machado, MCLB Barstow’s police chief and provost marshal, has been overseeing the influx of Marine Corps Military Police personnel coming in from divested MP battalions as well as MPs coming right from the United States Army Military Police School.
“Right now we have 12 MPs on hand, of which 10 are on the patrol force and we have two Military Working Dog handlers,” he said. “With the exception of two MPs coming from Okinawa, Japan, the rest are from USAMPS at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and this is their first duty billet.”