My "run in" with the Military Police

Most people don’t know that I was one of the fastest recruits into the 294th Dental Detachment of the Iowa Army National Guard. Or that the M.P.'s (Military Police) had showed up looking for me at the house I had previously shared with my younger sister.

When my term of service ended in the U.S. Army, I opted to join a reserve unit in Michigan. I drilled with the unit for two months, and they were preparing to do their two-week annual training. However, I was convinced by one Ed Taylor to move to Iowa with him and enjoy the low unemployment rates. It seemed very scary to pack up and move to Iowa, but after three years in the Army, I was no stranger to moving out of state. With a promise to only be in Iowa for a little while, I said goodbye to my little sister (who I never saw again) at the end of May and moved to Iowa.
I had previously told my reserve unit that I was leaving, and I did the paperwork to process out. I was told to let them know when I found a unit in Iowa.
However, no one told me that if I didn’t find a unit by the time my reserve unit did their annual training, I was obligated to attend training with them. And so, after the long drive with the U-Haul trailer in tow, I called my sister to let her know I arrived okay. She proceeded to freak out on the phone, telling me how the M.P.'s showed up looking for me and stating that I was “AWOL." Needless to say, I was incredibly freaked out, as well, not expecting in a million years that I would ever be Absent Without Leave. And this was a first for me--to be in trouble with any kind of police, let alone the MILITARY POLICE. Between the stress of moving and the threat of military law-breaking, it was hard to sleep that night.
Monday morning, I contacted my old unit and they informed me that in order to no longer be considered "AWOL," I needed to get into another unit right away.  So, we contacted the 109th  Medical Battalion, and I arrived on-site to do the paperwork to join the 294th Medical Detachment. The finalized paperwork was faxed to my old reserve unit. This was within the first week of my arrival in Iowa.
And that was the beginning of my five-year term with those awesome men and women that I served with in the 294th Medical Detachment. 

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