Marine Corps Police Academy (MCPA) Graduation Ceremony, April 5, 2022.

Transcript

mm hmm. Right. Mhm mm hmm. Let us pray almighty God as we come together today to witness this graduation, we do so humbly and in thankfulness we invite you to be present with us as we recognize the hard work and accomplishments by student and instructor alike. And mark another milestone in the lives of these new officers graduating today. God, we thank you for the efforts put in by the instructors and staff to make this day possible. And for the graduates, Lord May, you be with him in the journey ahead and grant them the grace needed to execute their office with confidence, humility and sound judgment. Help them rely upon one another and prove trustworthy as others rely upon them. May you grant them your protection as they perform their duty to keep the peace and grant those who hold them dear your peace as they protect and serve and Lord and all that you have laid before us to do this day. Help us to act in obedience to you, to work our task diligently that we may honor our families and glorify your name. Both today and in the days to come and your name, we pray amen. Thank you chaplain Bennett, please be seated. We are here to honor the graduates of the Marine Corps Police Academy, acknowledge those who have helped make their success possible and present awards for its outstanding performance. We hope that this will be a memorable and pleasurable event for everyone here as well as those watching from home. I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge a few of our distinguished guests here this morning. It is my honor and privilege to introduce to you. Mr. Randi R Smith. Mr. smith is the Assistant Deputy commandant Security for plants, policy and Operations and the Director Security Division. Mr. Timothy Gerald Mr. Gerald is the Deputy Director of Security Forces. Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection Headquarters, United States Air Force. Additionally joining us today, our major Wayne Williams. The acting branch Head Law enforcement investigations and corrections. Branch Security Division PS Plans, policies and operations. Mr. Macy Oh frank’s Program Manager, Marine Corps Law Enforcement Program Head supporting establishment, law enforcement, law enforcement and corrections. Branch PSL Major Colin Edwards. Deputy program Director Marine Corps Law Enforcement Program, Head supporting establishment, law enforcement, law enforcement and corrections. Branch Major Daniel mora provost Marshal from Marine Corps Base Hawaii Mr. Derek Austin, Chief of Law and Order Division, United States Air Force. It is also my privilege to introduce to you the Executive Director of the Marine Corps Police Academy. Mr. Darwin O’Neill. Today’s graduates have been challenged for the last 14 weeks to put forth their best efforts in the field of endeavor. Unlike anything most of them have experienced before successful completion of the academy training has required a total commitment by our recruits and their families. They have completed 476 hours of academic and practical training. The following statistics provide a small glimpse of their overall achievements As a class through overall academic average was 93.14%. They attained an average score of 345 on the handgun qualification test. Out of a possible score of 400, it is the academy’s goal to develop in our students, the technical skills, discipline and work ethic that will prepare them for a long and rewarding career as a Marine Corps police officer or Air Force defender. A very important factor in developing these attributes is the leadership and role modeling provided by the Academy staff. The staff members are former or retired members of the military and law enforcement community with extensive backgrounds in law enforcement. We are truly dedicated to the law enforcement profession and the pursuit of training. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce to you the training staff for the Marine Corps Police Academy. The Director of training, Mr. Richard Holman. Our instructors for class 4-22 Gerry Anderson Christiane a Ball West de Sosa, David Giles chad McCauley and the team lead Travis Scroggins. Our administrator, Dakota McCarty as well. In the back, we honored this morning to have remarks from Mr. Smith and Mr. Gerald Mr. Smith currently serves as the Assistant Deputy commandant, Security for Plans, policy and Operations and the Director of the Headquarters, Marine Corps Security Division and Mr. Gerald currently serves as the Deputy Director of Security Forces, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection Headquarters. United States Air Force Mr. Smith began his career with the Marine Corps as a second lieutenant and served over 25 years as a military police officer in a wide variety of command billets. Since being assigned to headquarters, Marine Corps, Mr. smith has served within the operations division as head U. S. Marine Corps, Law Enforcement, Security and Law enforcement branch. And after retiring he has served as the head mission assurance branch within the security division. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage. Mr. smith. Good morning. How are y’all this morning? What a great morning. What a great morning weather wise. What a great morning to be out of the pentagon. What a great morning be graduating huh? for tech 20 to 476 hours, Wow, What does 476 hours look like? Mhm. For the families, This is what 476 hours looks like. Big right bicep was a big left bicep. There’s more knowledge in this book than I have in 45 years serving Marine Corps. You actually read this stuff. Ask questions. Yeah, it’s a distinct pleasure to be with you all this morning from my boss. Lieutenant General Dave Furness, who’s the deputy commandant for planning and operations and the current head of law enforcement at the three star level. He bids his uh Congratulations to class 4-22. Actually, I wish I’d talked him into coming out here giving this speech instead of me. But he had to go to Europe because of a small thing going in Ukraine. So unfortunately you’re stuck with me this morning but I am honored to be here to celebrate your graduation. Um I got my notes here from my staff, wrote me some great, great notes, I’ll refer to them 17, students will get 17. That audience all 17 graduated. Excellent. Both Marine Corps and Air Force law enforcement professionals. And by the size of that book you can see they truly are professional. That the level of knowledge that these young men and young women have in the law enforcement field is immeasurable. They’re going into a great career field and they’re going in well prepared to execute everything that that career field requires of them. It has been mentioned already. They’ve gone through a very challenging period of instruction. I got 500 hours. 4 76. Where’s Wayne? Wayne is? 4 76, not 500 hours okay. These students have committed themselves to the service of our nation whether returning to uniform from a previous military law enforcement career or just starting a new path. The course they just completed with Soap was no easy feat and was made challenging in all the right areas to ensure they’re ready to respond to emergencies and threats aboard our bases and stations across the globe as you can see by the knowledge base. He uh the preparedness to go out there and take on this law enforcement mission across our services at our bases and stations across the globe is absolutely tremendous amount of knowledge required for that thing. So you’re to be commended on the amount of effort you put into this course to get where you are right now, I have to tell you. So, one of the, one of the phrases we use in the naval service for doing well is bravo zulu so classic 1422 Bravo Zulu to you. You’ve done well both individually as a group during your course and I have great confidence in your abilities to serve, protect our military communities across the, across the globe. At this point, I imagine you’re ready to go back and put your knowledge to test, go back there and clean up the streets of camp whatever base, whatever and do the right thing for your constituents, do the right thing and making sure you protect those airmen, marines, family members, civilian employees and ensure the integrity of our basis so that we have the ability to forward deploy our forces as our services, transition to a security environment. That’s evolving into one that resembles the Cold War days and that’s a timeframe I’m personally familiar with. Maybe you’re not, I was around during the Cold War days, one of our near peer competitors as our near peer competitors to compete for strategic dominance. The security of our bases and stations will be critical to ensuring that our nation can project power whenever and whenever necessary. Your efforts in ensuring the security of our installations is absolutely paramount. I know you’re gonna be involved in all kinds of law enforcement situations, whether it’s the vehicle stops crime, taking reports, responding to alarms, taking care of people. But providing the security for the basis station that you’re gonna be working at, it is absolutely vital to the ability of our forces to be able to deploy and meet the, the pure competitors that challenge our country to this day. So everything you do keep in the forefront of your mind that the security, those installations is absolutely paramount because that’s where we project power from and, and every shift you work. You never know when something’s gonna happen that the black swan events gonna happen on your shift. So all the things your instructors taught you all the time and effort you put into becoming a professional law enforcement individuals are, it’s going to come into come into play at that moment in time. So always be prepared for that. I have to take a moment and uh, and thank a lot of folks because it takes a lot of people and a lot of effort to produce this outstanding class. So let me just a minute. If I could uh, to go through my, thank you’s first off, let me thank the Marine Corps Police Academy staff. I want to have a chance to talk with him this morning and tell them on the Marine Corps side, the general officer community thinks very highly of our civilian police officers. They think we’ve got the most professional civilian police officer of course in the Department of Defense. And the result is the result of that is because we hire and train good people and the training of evolution takes place where the folks you see sitting up here in the front row, if you wouldn’t mind if we get a round of applause for the staff Second, I gotta thank my staff. I gotta thank my staff and my law enforcement branch because they run this program and they do a great job both in the recruiting, the man training equipped aspect of the title 10 function of our commandant to provide forces and that force in this case is civilian police officers for the Marine Corps. Thank you folks, you’re just doing a great job wherever you are hitting around the audience out there. I had a chance to see Colonel Long this morning and I want to thank him personally. Uh Colonel Long in the Marine Corps Detachment. This is truly a great partnership between my division and training education command. Uh You you have not hesitated to support our mission whether during this relocation of our academy last year or during the subsequent steady state operations since we’ve been here and without your support, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today. So thank you to Colonel Long and the Marine Corps Detachment. I have to make. Uh thanks to the folks, good folks here at Fort Leonard Wood and the maneuver Support Center. Again, we could not accomplish our mission without the outstanding support of the folks, the team here at Fort Leonard Wood um and the maneuver support center were proud to call Fort Leonard Wood, the home of our police academy. And we thank you for all the support we’ve gotten thus far in the, in the support you’re gonna provide us into the future. I got to thank my, my partner in crime this morning, Mr. Gerald uh from the United States Air Force Security Forces directorate. Coming from the Air Force headquarters to come out here for this graduation. We share the same vision and ensuring our respective services are ready to face. Today’s threats with highly skilled law enforcement professionals. And I look forward to this partnership enduring over time and growing and thank you for coming out Tim The families of the graduates of Deepak for Tech 22. Thank you because really it’s, it’s support you provide to your students that gets them through the course of instruction. You’re always there, you’re the silent heroes. You’re the ones that provide the support to them as they go through this very challenging course. You endure the multiple moves, the anxiety of company to loved ones being in law enforcement as it has its moments of danger. There’s no question about that. It’s a difficult time to be in law enforcement today anywhere in this country and that pertains equally on our installations as it does out in the civilian community. But your family members do so with a smile and the words of encouragement to remind these police officers with protecting and serving is all about. I appreciate you and I please I want you to know that your efforts and your sacrifice did not go unnoticed. Thank you. There’s many silent heroes behind the scenes that were not called out by name and there’s there’s many more than I can possibly put on this list. I could spend all day describing the great effort you put forth to make this mission possible. So your name is not mentioned. You’re surely not forgotten and greatly appreciated it truly. It truly takes a village of people contributing to the effort of our police academy to make a successful course of instruction to produce the quality of the police officers you see for you today. So for my graduating police officers, please believe me when I say that it’s my honor to be your guest of honor this morning. I wish you the best of the best of luck. We have a naval term and naval services called fair winds and following seas. May you endure fair winds and following seas as you go forward in this next journey in your life. Remember you have great responsibility. You have a great job ahead of you and people depend upon you. It’s a life life and death situation. I know you’ll live up the expectations of the example set by the folks here in the instructor class. So thank you very much. I wish you the best to let Godspeed semper Fidelis. Thank you sir Mr. Gerald enlisted in the Air Force in September 1985 and served 22 years on active duty and held a variety of positions in the security forces career field. He also deployed in support of the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and Operation Iraqi freedom prior to his current position, Mr. Gerald served as the chief requirements and readiness division. Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection Headquarters, United States Air Force. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Gerald. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I promise not to talk too long. I’m sure you guys are not really interested in hearing me. You’re really ready to go home. Um after being here for the past 12 weeks or so, I’d like to begin by thanking Mr. smith and his team for the support and embracing the Air Force and not holding a holding it against us that were Airmen uh and not marines um and making us part of the family. We really appreciate that. Uh Mr. O’Neill and the team here at the at the schoolhouse. We really appreciate the outstanding instruction and the way that you guys welcome the team and welcomed our defenders in um to the families most importantly without you, we wouldn’t be able to have have your troops here. You guys gave them up for for a few months, allow them to be away and you guys took on the line show the responsibility back home. So thank you very much And you guys really did give yourselves a round of applause so please. Okay, mm hmm. This is the beginning of of what I hope is a long and fruitful relationship and to the graduates, congratulations on making it to the finish line. Um I was talking to a class that’s currently in session about 20 minutes or so ago and we were talking about when I joined the Air Force 37 years ago and the response I got was you know, just like I see the looks on some of your faces right now, probably before some of you were born and we were born. And that was during the Cold War, just like Mr. smith. I’m a Cold warrior. And the landscape looked a lot like it does now with what’s going on in Russia, you guys are are taking on the responsibility of defending our air bases and and marine corps bases at a time when the National Defense Strategy says that the home station is not a sanctuary, there’s nowhere that’s safe anymore. So it’s really up to you to make sure that you’re the front line of defense and protecting our installations. It’s a thankless job. And if you guys have watched the news over the last several years, law enforcement is not the profession that most people would choose across the country right now, recruitment of police officers is way down. But what you’re doing is an honorable, honorable profession. And I thank you for picking up the mantle and being willing to except the accept the challenge now is the time for for you to take your new skills back to your home station. Also, we’re relying on you to go back and train those who haven’t had the opportunity to to come through the course yet. And for those of you who are Air Force and defenders, you may have heard by now of what we call the deaf Next 32 it’s an initiative by which we’re transforming the Security forces career field. Back in 1997 the Air Force had actually three separate career fields. We had law enforcement, we had security specialists who were responsible for nuclear security aircraft, security and all of our ground combat skills. And then we also had combat arms and some of you may not realize that the Marine Corps used to actually go through the Air Force’s Law enforcement Academy. So this is a relationship that has endured for a long time and I think we’re just resurrecting that. And as part of death. Next 32 we briefed the Chief of Staff of the Air Force back in June of last year. And we came out of that with 32 recommendations. And one of those recommendations was to enhance and strengthen our law enforcement capability across the enterprise. Because we merged the career field some of that law enforcement skill that we had, it was eroded and it wasn’t really where we thought it should be and where the Chief of Staff of the Air Force thought it should be. So when we started looking across the landscape and figuring out what’s the best way to get. After that, we looked at having an in house academy but it was cost prohibitive, $34 million in all the manpower that went, went with that. And so we linked with the Marine Corps and figured out that hey, this is a potential avenue to train up our folks. We currently have an academy at the V A Law enforcement training center down in Little Rock Arkansas. And this was another avenue. And if you look around at the Air Force students, we also have Active Duty Guard and Reserve troops that are going through the course as well. Our vision is a total Force, Active Duty Guard reserve and our civilians that we send through this academy and take those skill sets back home to professionalize our law enforcement. Mm hmm. We’re also after this course. We’re credential credential in all of our law enforcement officers. And what that means for you is when you go back home, you’re gonna be the tip of the spear in this effort and the work that you do when you return home is gonna set the standard for law enforcement across the entire enterprise. So again, what I want you to do is value what you’ve learned here, value the work that you do and understand that in the pentagon you’re a topic of discussion every day. We’re going back in here in about two months and we’re gonna have a conversation with the chief of Staff to talk about the progress we’ve made. And you guys will be at the forefront of that conversation because he and the undersecretary uh and as and as Chief of the I’m sorry the Secretary of the Air Force as well as the Vice Chief of Staff for the Air Force are really interested in what comes out of this program. So please make sure that you give us some good feedback because it’s going to shape the future. Because we have about 7000 more people that were sending through this course. So understand that the world, the landscape is changing and we see what’s happening in in the Ukraine. We see that china has an eye on Taiwan and it’s gonna be your responsibility to make sure that you’re protecting our air bases so that the Air Force can deliver Air power when the President, the Secretary of Defense and the cocom is needed at the time and place of our choosing. Your job is important. What you learn here is important. And I thank you for staying the course and graduating again. Congratulations on your achievement and congratulations on what the future holds for you. Thank you. Mm hmm. I promised I wouldn’t talk long. Thank you sir. And now for the presentation ceremonies, each graduate will receive a certificate of graduation from the academy and a set of law enforcement credentials from the Executive Director Officer Nicholas Arnold Officer, Ryan Blakely Officer Adolfo Contreras, Officer Troy, Daniels. Officer, Nicholas Ferdinand person. Officer Brett Ferguson. Officer, Barrington lawyer smith Officer Cory McNutt. Officer Joshua, Minton Officer Daniel Nahi era. Officer Rudy Nunes. Officer mason O’Neill. Officer Jason Owen. See officer Phillip Paymer officer Amy record Officer Javonte Cedric. Officer Michael Stern. Now thank you. Mhm. The academy’s Deputy Director. Captain Logan boom Garden will now administer the oath of office to the new graduates. Would all the graduates please rise, raise your right hand, repeat after me. I say your name. Do you solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States. Mm hmm against all enemies foreign and domestic that will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. I take this obligation freely. Yeah. Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of which I am about to enter. Which so help me God please be seated. Thank you sir. This morning’s graduates have been tested and evaluated both academically and physically successful. Completion of the academy is an honor that each has worked hard to attain. We will now present certificates to those who have distinguished themselves in several categories of our curriculum. Mr. Gerald will assist in presenting the firearms and physical fitness awards. Firearms training plays a major role in law enforcement education. The Academy High shooter award is presented to Officer Rudy Nunez. Officer Nunez attained a perfect score of 400 out of a possible 400 on the Marine Corps Combat Pistol Course. Mhm Physical fitness is essential for law enforcement officers and we strongly emphasize it. At the Marine Corps Police Academy. The Academy Staff administers both the Air Force and Marine Corps physical agility tests. The final scores of these events are used to determine the recipients of the fitness awards. The Academy Physical Fitness Award for the Air Force is presented to Officer Nicholas Arnold Officer Arnold performed a standing vertical leap of 28 Completed the Illinois agility run in 14.97 seconds, ran the 1.5 mile in 11 minutes and 33 seconds performed 80 pushups and completed the 300 m sprint in 42 seconds. The Academy Physical Fitness Award for the Marine Corps is presented to Officer Barrington loyal smith. Officer Loya Smith performs 63 push ups in two minutes, 56 crunches in one minute. Ran the 1.5 mile run in nine minutes and three seconds And completed the 300 m sprint in 41 seconds. Woo! Mr. smith will now present the academic and leadership awards. Academic success has been a goal for each and every graduate. However, there is one individual we wish to recognize for excellence in their academic academy studies. This student has achieved the highest cumulative grade point average for both academic and performance evaluations. The academic achievement award is presented to Officer Nicholas for the Nansen. Mhm. Officer Vernon Nansen graduated with a grade point average of 96.64%. Thank you sir. Our final award is a class leadership award. This award is selected by the academy students and instructors and is given to the graduate who best exemplifies leadership, inspiration, commitment and most importantly, an unselfish desire to help others. The Academy leadership award is presented to Officer Cory McNutt. Okay, you, it is difficult to convey just how hard these graduates have worked to complete the academy. The academy has put together a slideshow that will provide you with a glimpse of their academy experience. Please direct your attention to the screen. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm mm hmm. Mhm. At this time, would you please stand for the playing of the Air Force song anchors away and the marines him. Yeah, mm hmm. Okay, mm hmm mm hmm. All right, mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. Mhm. Thank you. Please be seated. I would like to thank once again the training staff for their hard work commitment and dedication to the academy curriculum. Additionally, I want to thank forts Underwood, the Marine Corps Detachment and the Air Force Detachment for their support, which has been vital to the success of this program. At this time I would like to invite the class leader Officer Nicholas Arnold to come forward for a short presentation. That means residents. Yeah, yeah, thank you. The Director of training Mr. Richard Holman will now dismiss the class graduates. Please stand For the last and final time. Class 04 2022. It’s perfect. This concludes our graduation ceremony semper Fidelis.