Courtesy Patrol

[skyrider]

Bless Patrol........in The Way International.

Courtesy Patrol.....in Columbus, Georgia.

Two senior non-commissioned officers will start making the rounds. Although they will have no real authority, the Courtesy Patrol will monitor and make their presence known. From the hours 10pm - 3am, this extra security will help.

All those shifts of Bless Patrol and I never saw anything except the movement of the stars. But hey.......at least, I wasn't sitting in another boring meeting.

Courtesy Patrol

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- Starting at 10 o'clock Friday, two senior non-commissioned officers from Fort Benning will be on courtesy patrol. The soldiers will be wearing arm bands that read, "Courtesy Patrol."

Fort Benning Commanding General Robert Brown and Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson made the announcement earlier this week.

They need to increase security in Uptown Columbus comes after two weekend incidents in early April.

In the first incident, police say five soldiers beat another man. The beating was witnessed near First Ave. and 10th street- sending the victim - a former solider - to the hospital with head injuries.

The other, a shooting that left four injured - one fatally - at Mario’s restaurant on Broadway. A man is charged in connection with the assault.

Now, Columbus police will have the company of two uniformed Fort Benning soldiers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Mayor Tomlinson says the soldiers will not be able to make any arrests, but will be able to command order of all military personnel and if need be, alert military police.

“You can’t arrest someone for being intoxicated, but a senior officer can order you back to base or have military police come get you and bring you back to base,” says Tomlinson.

Charlotte Burton says the extra patrols might not be enough.

“I know this is just a start but i think they will have to increase security that's being offered….a lot of people come down here at night,” says Burton

For Specialist Ryan Jesse - stationed at Fort Benning - he says soldiers will think twice after seeing another in uniform.

“It keeps things in check. It avoids thing getting out of hand which happens a lot with soldiers unfortunately,” says SPC Jesse.

The patrols will last about five hours ending at 3a.m. when the bars close.

This is not the first time the City of Columbus has enlisted the help of military courtesy patrols, but it has been years since the practice was used.

[johniam]

Courtesy patrol??? Are they serious? That sounds LAME! Doesn't sound like it would strike fear in any serial troublemakers. (RUN!!!It's the COURTESY PATROL!!!!) Ought to call them the exterminators or something.

I worked bless patrol at the 1986 ROA late at night in tent city. Didn't do very well. Earlier in the evening I kept 2 plastic forks from a food stand. I cut off the handles and smoothed them down so if I put both forks side by side in my mouth it looked like scifi monster teeth. I was paired with a woman. We walked past these 2 guys who were talking excitedly about, believe it or not, the word. One guy was quoting 2 Kings of all places. Then they saw me with those teeth and...HUH! End of conversation. Then a minute or so later a small child saw me and ran to his tent. Aw, man. Hopefully he was safe and secure in his tent knowing the fang teeth bless patrol guy had his back. I dunno. The woman gently persuaded me to save the teeth for halloween. Maybe they ought to put ME on courtesy patrol.

[Jim]

Courtesy Patrol is an old Army tradition.

When I was stationed in Germany and pulled the duty, it was an E6 Staff Sergeant and a Spec 4 driver (myself).

Our orders were to get a 3/4 ton pickup from the motor pool, spend the evening and early morning driving around the local community and pick up and return to the post any drunk or disorderly soldiers. This was in 1972 and I was given to believe the tradition had been going on for a long time. It was a win-win for the Army and the German community. Trouble was averted with a minimal amount of bad feelings and red tape. We didn't carry any weapons, and anyone that we returned to the post would not be disciplined as long as they didn't make trouble.

Of all the non mission-related duty I pulled, Courtesy Patrol was probably the least unpleasant. I actually enjoyed driving around the community shooting the bull with a career sergeant.

As to Bless Patrol, I never had the privilege.