but he knew that asking dumb questions was part of the learning process.
“Sir,” he said.
“Jak.”
“Sir, this is a two-squad mission. Why does it require an officer?”
Obannion studied his newest officer for a brief moment, then said, “Politics. We’re dealing with a newly colonized world here. They don’t have a lot of self-confidence yet, and their egos are liable to get bruised if they think the Confederation believes they don’t rate anyone higher than a sergeant. An officer will be along to hold the hands of the planetary administrator and the board of directors.
“Now, if that’s all, you’ve got work to do.”
Ensign Barnum opened the door and stepped aside to let the others precede him.
CHAPTER
NINE
Seventh Independent Military Police Battalion, Fort Keystone, Arsenault The day for the Seventh Independent Military Police Battalion began at five-thirty hours, even though reveille didn’t sound until six hours. That was followed by calisthenics, which consisted of a warm-up followed by an eight kilometer run. No exceptions. The run was led by Colonel Raggel and Sergeant Major Steiner. Sergeant Queege was not excused. At first she, and more than half of the others in the battalion, did not make it all the way. By the end of the second week, though, she was completing the run, toward the end of the column to be sure, but she was making the entire eight kilometers. She’d also lost six kilos. By the beginning of the third week Colonel Raggel had extended the run to twelve kilometers. And so it went.
If the training schedule did not call for an all-night or earlymorning exercise, chow—field rations, not prepared meals; they were only provided one day a week—followed the morning run. Then first call, when the respective company commanders took charge of their units for the day’s scheduled activities, which might include classroom instruction, practical exercises—
to include firearms training on the ranges—or a variety of other courses from driving instruction to handcuffing, the laws of land warfare, battalion general orders, and so on. The MPs should have known all subjects by heart, but few did because
before coming to Arsenault the battalion had not been commanded properly and what training the men had received had grown very cold.
In two other areas that had become “traditional” with the Seventh Independent MPs, Colonel Raggel broke with that tradition. He personally developed the battalion training schedule, which, under its previous commander, had been a joke. Normally, maintaining a training program is the job of the battalion S3, the operations officer. But under Raggel’s command the S3 merely assisted in the program’s development and oversaw its execution; the battalion commander actually wrote the schedule himself. Raggel also rewrote the battalion’s general orders book, which before he came to the Seventh MPs had been an even bigger joke than the virtually nonexistent training schedule. The general orders was a set of instructions governing every activity performed by military police officers in their law-and-order operations. The book contained precise instructions governing everything an MP could or could not do when dealing with civilians under the laws of Lannoy, and each man in the battalion was required to memorize them. Raggel rewrote them to make them consistent with Confederation laws, which were stricter than those enacted on Lannoy. The Seventh Independent Military Police under Colonel Raggel’s command were losing their reputation as renegades. But the bible for the Seventh Independent Military Police Battalion from Lannoy became Confederation Army Field Manual 3-19.1, “Military Police Operations.” Raggel used it to define the battalion’s mission in area security, internment and resettlement of local nationals, law-and-order operations, police intelligence operations, and MP support to echelons up to army level. It also told him his
“Sir,” he said.
“Jak.”
“Sir, this is a two-squad mission. Why does it require an officer?”
Obannion studied his newest officer for a brief moment, then said, “Politics. We’re dealing with a newly colonized world here. They don’t have a lot of self-confidence yet, and their egos are liable to get bruised if they think the Confederation believes they don’t rate anyone higher than a sergeant. An officer will be along to hold the hands of the planetary administrator and the board of directors.
“Now, if that’s all, you’ve got work to do.”
Ensign Barnum opened the door and stepped aside to let the others precede him.
CHAPTER
NINE
Seventh Independent Military Police Battalion, Fort Keystone, Arsenault The day for the Seventh Independent Military Police Battalion began at five-thirty hours, even though reveille didn’t sound until six hours. That was followed by calisthenics, which consisted of a warm-up followed by an eight kilometer run. No exceptions. The run was led by Colonel Raggel and Sergeant Major Steiner. Sergeant Queege was not excused. At first she, and more than half of the others in the battalion, did not make it all the way. By the end of the second week, though, she was completing the run, toward the end of the column to be sure, but she was making the entire eight kilometers. She’d also lost six kilos. By the beginning of the third week Colonel Raggel had extended the run to twelve kilometers. And so it went.
If the training schedule did not call for an all-night or earlymorning exercise, chow—field rations, not prepared meals; they were only provided one day a week—followed the morning run. Then first call, when the respective company commanders took charge of their units for the day’s scheduled activities, which might include classroom instruction, practical exercises—
to include firearms training on the ranges—or a variety of other courses from driving instruction to handcuffing, the laws of land warfare, battalion general orders, and so on. The MPs should have known all subjects by heart, but few did because
before coming to Arsenault the battalion had not been commanded properly and what training the men had received had grown very cold.
In two other areas that had become “traditional” with the Seventh Independent MPs, Colonel Raggel broke with that tradition. He personally developed the battalion training schedule, which, under its previous commander, had been a joke. Normally, maintaining a training program is the job of the battalion S3, the operations officer. But under Raggel’s command the S3 merely assisted in the program’s development and oversaw its execution; the battalion commander actually wrote the schedule himself. Raggel also rewrote the battalion’s general orders book, which before he came to the Seventh MPs had been an even bigger joke than the virtually nonexistent training schedule. The general orders was a set of instructions governing every activity performed by military police officers in their law-and-order operations. The book contained precise instructions governing everything an MP could or could not do when dealing with civilians under the laws of Lannoy, and each man in the battalion was required to memorize them. Raggel rewrote them to make them consistent with Confederation laws, which were stricter than those enacted on Lannoy. The Seventh Independent Military Police under Colonel Raggel’s command were losing their reputation as renegades. But the bible for the Seventh Independent Military Police Battalion from Lannoy became Confederation Army Field Manual 3-19.1, “Military Police Operations.” Raggel used it to define the battalion’s mission in area security, internment and resettlement of local nationals, law-and-order operations, police intelligence operations, and MP support to echelons up to army level. It also told him his
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