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There are four career paths, or Military Occupational Specialties (MOS), for enlisted personnel in the Military Police Corps: Military Police (31B), CID Special Agent (31D), Internment/Resettlement Specialist (31E), and Military Working Dog Handler (31K). Training for all four MOS is held at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, which is also home to a “base within a base” called Stem Village—and it’s not used to bring Soldiers up to speed on Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics.
Opened in 1999 and named in honor of former Military Police School Commandant General David H. Stem, Stem Village is a mock military installation/town used to provide a realistic setting for the training of 31B Soldiers. The faux village features a wide variety of buildings—residences, banks, stores, medical facilities and of course an MP installation—that allow Military Police trainees to get a feeling for what it is like to perform certain tactics in a realistic setting.
The village has also been used to train soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan in the basics of Urban Warfare, including 31E Internment/Resettlement Specialists who must learn how to deal with the detention and internment of insurgent forces under less than optimal circumstances.
How long 31B Soldiers will spend in Stem Village depends on whether they are undergoing Military Police One Station Unit Training (OSUT) or Advanced Individual Training for the 31B MOS. Under the OSUT program, Soldiers receive both Basic and Advanced Individual Training at one location, with Military Police OSUT broken into five phases. Basic Training comprises the first three phrases, named “Patriot” (Orientation and Soldierization), “Gunfighter” (Weapons Training), and “Warrior” (Individual Tactical Training).
Phases IV and V are Advanced Individual Training for Military Police 31B; soldiers who have transferred to the Military Police branch and thus have already went through Basic Training begin their MP training here. Almost the entirety of these two phases are carried out in Stem Village, with training in the skills they’ll need to serve in both law-enforcement and combat roles. Subject areas include but are not limited to Advanced Communications and Map Reading, Preventive Vehicle Maintenance (for the HMMWV), Small Arms (9mm pistol), MP Law Enforcement Operations, Defensive Tactical operations, Battlefield Forensics, Crew-Served Weapons, and Active Shooter Response.
Training culminates with a Field Training Exercise. For 31E Internment/Resettlement Specialists, that includes “running” a mock prison complete with a dining area and exercise yard, as well processing “visitors” coming to see detainees. Reading about the various techniques used by prisoners to circumvent regulations or attempt escapes is one thing, but actually seeing “inmates” trying to pull them off under their watchful eyes provides Military Police Soldiers a level of insight no amount of classroom training could ever hope to duplicate.