The story you are about to read is true but the names have been changed to protect the innocent. This is an adaptation of the narrators opening line from the 60’s television series Dragnet. It is accurate and appropriate here also.
In Jan 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, the 401st Military Police Camp (EPW), a U.S. Army Reserves unit headquartered in Nashville TN became the first US operated Enemy Prisoner of War Camp since the Korean War. As the number two sergeant in Enclosure Two, the section of the 401st chosen to receive the first prisoners, Ricky Scales was in a unique position that enabled him to experience, document and photograph this history making adventure. Journey with Ricky, the men and women of the 401st as they respond to fears of medical experimentation, rocket launched chemical attack, and how to safely confine the infamous Iraqi Republican Guard. Be with them as they cope with freezing cold nights, scorching hot days, blinding sandstorms, prisoner riots, practical jokes, and sexual misconduct. Go on a road trip with Ricky, his Enclosure Sergeant and their Saudi Arabian language interpreters as they tour the war torn Kuwait. Find out what happened when an Army Reserve unit from the South is sent to the ancient lands of the Middle East to confine and care for captured soldiers and citizens of a very different culture. Find out what it takes to get an Army Reservist to war, and then back home again. Ten years before the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, the 401st MP Camp provided Custody with Dignity to over 23,000 Enemy Prisoners of War, had a grand adventure and made history too.