When the Army faced a nightmare at the Abu Ghraib prison with worldwide media coverage of Iraqi inmates being sexually abused and photographed by a group of reservists activated for prison guard duty, Army leaders called David Quantock for help.
Quantock, then a colonel, commanded the 16th Military Police Brigade at Fort Bragg, N.C., and took over operations at Abu Ghraib in early 2004 from the 800th Military Police Brigade, the unit whose soldiers included Pfc. Lynndie England and Cpl. Charles Graner, two of the soldiers in the abuse photographs.
Quantock was credited with cleaning up a command breakdown at Abu Ghraib, replacing the personnel at the prison, and changing detainee treatment practices. Following that success story, he was tapped to command the Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood where he’s served since July 2006 and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
Quantock officially turned over command of the Army’s Military Police School Friday morning to Brig. Gen. David Phillips, a fellow career Army MP; the two said they’ve known each other and have been close friends for more than two decades since both were fellow students in the Army captains’ career course. During Friday morning’s change-of-command ceremony on Gammon Field at Fort Leonard Wood, Maj. Gen. Bill McCoy, commander of Fort Leonard Wood, said Quantock’s work at the Military Police School has been superb. Quantock personally took charge of programs to add tens of thousands of new soldiers to the Military Police Corps, raising the total number of MPs from 43,000 to 67,000, and revising the school’s curriculum so soldiers understand how inmates must be treated under military law, McCoy said.
“He took a personal interest in it because he saw how badly we can screw that up,” McCoy said. “The frustrations that came with that environment really caused soldiers to forget where they were at, and that can have serious strategic consequences.”
McCoy said he was “astonished” by Quantock’s “capacity to aggressively tackle problems,” including demanding that the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command provide what he needed to make sure MP training had enough resources to prevent problems.
“He spearheaded an effort to train detainee operations soldiers where he could to make sure they know what ‘right’ looks like,” McCoy said.
Quantock has repeatedly said the Abu Ghraib debacle was a failure of leadership, and part of his efforts at Fort Leonard Wood included a revision of the captains’ career course at the Military Police School that added nearly 80 new tasks for newly-minted captains to learn, McCoy said.
Quantock will soon be going back to Iraq to head up Task Force 134, responsible for all detainee operations in Iraq.
“David Quantock is probably the best-qualified person to take over Task Force 134. While I am sad to be losing him, I am confident that he is the best-qualified person to take over that role in Iraq,” said McCoy. “He’s handled the pressures of command at the Military Police School and he’s handled them very well.”
Quantock, who has already spent three tours of duty in Iraq, said he looks forward to going back but was glad for the opportunity to help improve and revise military police training at Fort Leonard Wood.
“It’s been a great ride at Fort Leonard Wood,” Quantock said.
Quantock said despite limitations in resources and personnel, he “asks all our great soldiers and civilians to do the impossible every day” and they “make the mission” even with those limits.
Phillips, the new commandant of the Military Police School, currently serves as the deputy commanding general of the civilian police assistance training team in Iraq. In that role, Phillips’ key duties have included trying to retrain and rebuild the Iraqi police force to take over civilian security duties in that country.
McCoy said that task is crucial both for Iraqis and for Americans.
“He understands leadership and he understands hard training,” McCoy said about Phillips. “We are safe because of an Army in the field, on the ground … It is not heard much in the media, but that is a fact.”
Phillips said little about his own role during his introduction to the Fort Leonard Wood community and primarily focused on some of his guests, largely military police and civilian police, who he had invited to be in the audience and who he singled out as good role models for his own conduct as the conduct of other soldiers.
Phillips said he and his wife are both looking forward to their new roles, both on and off-post.
“Dawn and I pledge our support to be a value-added member of the MANSCEN community and the south-central Missouri community,” Phillips said.
Not mentioned in the change-of-command ceremony was Phillips’ assignment seven years earlier. On Sept. 11, 2001, Phillips had been director of security at the Pentagon for just two months when the terrorist attacks that day turned his office building into one of the first two combat zones in the new War on Terror.