An Cosantóir September 2018 www.dfmagazine.ie
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BY CPL LEE COYLE PHOTOS BY CPL LEE COYLE AND ARMN JAMIE BARRETT
T
he Military Police Corps is an essential part of a functioning military, providing security services at military barracks and bases
around the world. They also conduct military law enforcement functions, carry out investigations of minor crimes, and per-
form a wide range of patrolling duties. A high degree of specialised training is required to fill the MP role and the basics of this
are learned on the MP Probationers Course.
In May, the 66th MP Probationers Course conducted their final exer-
cise in late May of this year. Codenamed 'Exercise Redcap', this was
the culmination of 16 weeks' hard work for the 26 students and was
designed to put them through their paces in a wartime scenario
and to test them on the various skills they had learned through-
out the course. The exercise was supported by RDF MPs, who
stepped in at section level to make up numbers, and also played
roles in some of the scenarios during the week. A ComOp course
also contributed to the week-long exercise by providing signals
and sending data packets back and forth to higher HQ.
For the students on the MP course the exercise began the
evening before the main convoy was due to depart from the
DFTC, when their first task was to conduct a route recce from
the DFTC to the exercise location in the Glen of Imaal. The
information gathered during this recce would be used to pick
out locations along the route where the probationers would
