Constituted in the Rhode Island Army National Guard as HQ and HQ Detachment, 103rd Replacement Battalion on 4 March 1959, today’s 43rd Military Police Brigade would spend five years as an Engineer Group before being converted, reorganized, and redesignated as MP brigade in 1968. The Brigade’s HQ and HQ Company was called into Federal service in August 2005 and deployed to Iraq in October.
The 43rd Military Police Brigade was in command roughly 5,000 personnel hailing from the major DoD branches of the U.S. military, as well as forces from coalition countries, serving at five detention facilities in Iraq. In addition to overseeing the closure of Abu Ghraib in Jul 2006, the Brigade built a new detention facility (at Camp Cropper) and expanded the facility at Camp Bucca into the largest such facility in the world. It also helped develop the Iraqi Corrections Officer Academy. For these and other achievements, it was honored with a Meritorious Unit Citation in 2008.
Approved for wear on 16 May 1969, the green and yellow used throughout the 43rd Military Police Brigade Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (unit patch) are the branch of the Military Police. Most prominently displayed in the insignia is an upright pike, an early weapon wielded by guards that epitomizes the Brigade’s ability and responsibility to give protection and strong support, as well as to keep prisoners secured until they have had justice. Three wavy bars stand for the Narragansett Bay and other waterways in the unit’s home state of Rhode Island; the embattled fortification is a reference to the walls surrounding the 15th-century city of Rhodes, namesake of the state.
Related Items
43rd Military Police Brigade Unit Crest (DUI)
43d Military Police Brigade Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB)