372nd Military Police
Encyclopedia
The 372nd Military Police Company is a company law enforcement
Law enforcement agency
In North American English, a law enforcement agency is a government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.Outside North America, such organizations are called police services. In North America, some of these services are called police while others have other names In North American...

 unit within the U.S. Army Reserve
United States Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve is the federal reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the reserve components of the United States Army....

. The unit is based out of Cresaptown, Maryland
Cresaptown, Maryland
Cresaptown is a community located in Allegany County, Maryland, United States of America. It is an unincorporated community which, for United States Census Bureau purposes, is united with Bel Air to form the census-designated place of Cresaptown-Bel Air. Cresaptown's post office was established...

. Eleven former members of this unit were charged and found guilty in the Abu Ghraib scandal
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Beginning in 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to public attention...

. Another member of the Company, Joseph Darby
Joseph Darby
Sergeant Joseph M. Darby , of Corriganville, Maryland, is best known as the whistleblower in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. Darby is a graduate of North Star High School, near his hometown at the time, Jenners, Pennsylvania....

, was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for exposing the abuse at the prison.

The 372nd MP Company is credited with the securing and stabilization of the city of AL-Hilla (Babylon), alongside of the 1st Marines (MEF).

One of the most heavily engaged units in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, the unit was responsible for guarding main supply routes
Main Supply Route
A Main Supply Route is the route or routes designated within an area of operations upon which the bulk of traffic flows in support of military operations....

 (MSRs).

Lineage

  • Constituted 25 September 1942 in the Army of the United States
    Army of the United States
    The Army of the United States is the official name for the conscription force of the United States Army that may be raised at the discretion of the United States Congress in the event of the United States entering into a major armed conflict...

     as the 372d Military Police Escort Guard Company
  • Activated 15 October 1942 at Florence, Arizona
    Florence, Arizona
    -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 17,054 people, 2,226 households, and 1,540 families residing in the town. The population density was 2,056.2 people per square mile . There were 3,216 housing units at an average density of 387.7 per square mile...

  • Inactivated 14 November 1945 at Camp Myles Standish
    Camp Myles Standish
    Camp Myles Standish was a U.S. Army camp located in Taunton, Massachusetts. It functioned as a prisoner-of-war camp, a departure area for about a million U.S...

    , Massachusetts
    Massachusetts
    The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

  • Allotted 14 June 1947 to the Organized Reserves
  • Activated 26 June 1947 at Baltimore, Maryland
  • (Organized Reserves redesignated 25 March 1948 as the Organized Reserve Corps
    United States Army Reserve
    The United States Army Reserve is the federal reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the reserve components of the United States Army....

    )
  • (Organized Reserve Corps redesignated 9 July 1952 as the Army Reserve
    United States Army Reserve
    The United States Army Reserve is the federal reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the reserve components of the United States Army....

    )
  • Location Changed 17 March 1949 to Cumberland, Maryland
    Cumberland, Maryland
    Cumberland is a city in the far western, Appalachian portion of Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Allegany County, and the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,859, and the metropolitan area had a...

  • Changed 20 August 1951 to Lonaconing, Maryland
    Lonaconing, Maryland
    Lonaconing is a town in Allegany County, Maryland, United States located along the Georges Creek Valley. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,205 at the 2000 census.- History :...

  • Reorganized and redesignated 15 November 1952 as the 372d Military Police Company
  • Inactivated 15 June 1959 at Lonaconing, Maryland
  • Activated 22 February 1972 at Lonaconing, Maryland
  • Location changed 30 June 1973 Cumberland, Maryland
  • Ordered into active military service 27 September 1990 at Cumberland, Maryland
  • Released from active military service 24 May 1991 and reverted to reserve status
  • Ordered into active military service 24 February 2003 at Cumberland, Maryland
  • Released from active military service 10 October 2004 and reverted to reserve status
  • Order into active military service 26 April 2010 at Cumberland, Maryland
  • Released from active military service 1 May 2011 and reverted to reserve status

Campaign Participation Credit

  • World War II
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

     – EAME:
  1. Naples-Foggia
    Allied invasion of Italy
    The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group during the Second World War. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign...

    ;
  2. Rome
    Battle of Monte Cassino
    The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans...

    -Arno
    Trasimene Line
    The Trasimene Line was a German defensive line during the Italian Campaign of World War II. It was also sometimes known as the Albert Line...

    ;
  3. Southern France
    Operation Dragoon
    Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...

     (with arrowhead);
  4. Rhineland;
  5. Ardennes-Alsace
    Battle of the Bulge
    The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...

    ;
  6. Central Europe
    • Southwest Asia:
  7. Defense of Saudi Arabia
    Saudi Arabia
    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

    ;
  8. Liberation of Kuwait
    Liberation of Kuwait campaign
    The Liberation of Kuwait was the campaign to retake Kuwait from Iraq after the massive air campaign, between 24–28 February 1991. U.S. troops and the Coalition entered to find the Iraqis surrendering en masse; however, pockets of resistance existed, particularly at Kuwait International Airport...

    ;
  9. Cease-Fire
  10. Bosnia
  11. Operation Noble Eagle
    Operation Noble Eagle
    Operation Noble Eagle is the name given to military operations related to homelandsecurity and support to federal, state, and local agencies...

     2001–2002
  12. Operation Enduring Freedom 2001–2003
  13. Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003–2004
  14. Operation Enduring Freedom 2010–2011

See also

  • Megan Ambuhl
    Megan Ambuhl
    Megan M. Ambuhl is a former United States Army reservist and member of the 372nd Military Police Company who was convicted in court-martial in connection with the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse.-Life and career:Ambuhl was born in Centreville, Virginia...

  • Lynndie England
    Lynndie England
    Lynndie Rana England is a former United States Army reservist who served in the 372nd Military Police Company. She was one of eleven military personnel convicted in 2005 by Army courts-martial in connection with the torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad during the occupation...

  • Ivan Frederick
    Ivan Frederick
    Ivan Frederick II , called Chip Frederick, of Buckingham County, Virginia, is a former Staff Sergeant in the United States Army. He was the highest in rank of the seven U.S. military police personnel who have been charged with torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, all of whom were...

  • Charles Graner
    Charles Graner
    Charles A. Graner, Jr., is a former U.S. Army reservist who was convicted of prisoner abuse in connection with the 2003–2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal...

  • Sabrina Harman
  • Jeremy Sivits
    Jeremy Sivits
    Jeremy C. Sivits is a former U.S. Army reservist, one of several soldiers charged and convicted by the U.S. Army in connection with the 2003-2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Baghdad, Iraq during and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq...

  • Standard Operating Procedure
    Standard Operating Procedure (film)
    Standard Operating Procedure is a 2008 documentary film which explores the meaning of the photographs taken by U.S. military police at the Abu Ghraib prison in late 2003, the content of which revealed the torture and abuse of its prisoners by U.S. soldiers and subsequently resulted in a public...

  • Joseph Darby
    Joseph Darby
    Sergeant Joseph M. Darby , of Corriganville, Maryland, is best known as the whistleblower in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. Darby is a graduate of North Star High School, near his hometown at the time, Jenners, Pennsylvania....

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