Who remembers/Served on a "Courtesy Patrol"?

I can honestly say I never partook in courtesy patrol but most of the time they served a valid purpose. I know there have been a few Soldiers "saved" by the courtesy patrol instead of becoming a statistic on the blotter.

We had them regularly (weekend nights) in Bamberg, Germany. I think they were a good thing, and gave the Army a way to police our own and get them back to post and turned over to their CoC when not doing so might have ended up in an off-post arrest. I think that many times CPs resulted in a minor punishment instead of a full-on incident/article 15.

In my case, it was positive.

When a few of us SNCOs and Officers went out "on the town" one Saturday night at Fort Polk, LA...I imbibed a bit too much tequila and beer. In my disoriented state, I hadn't realized that one of the LTs had secured a ride for us back to camp with the Courtesy Patrol.

At some point during the ride back I noticed uniformed driver and shotgun rider, then realization that I was in the back with the LT. "What did we do?" was the question I asked every couple miles. Bless the LT and the Courtesy Patrol for their patience :D

We had them every night in Korea (Camp Howze/Bongilchon - 3rd Bde, 2nd ID - 1986-1987). They were needed to enforce the curfew and watch over the troops who were out in town having a good time, until midnight at that time. I remember them well.

We had them in Wuerzburg, Germany, although I never drew the duty. Their primary job seemed to be policing drunks, especially drunks who wanted to fight Mostly, they seemed bored, which I assume is a good thing

I had the misfortune of being assigned at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland in the Ordnance Center when the big sexual harassment deal came out in the mid to late 1990's. Of course, the COC went overboard and 4-6 senior NCO's (E-7) were assigned to perform Courtesy Patrol of barracks, bowling alleys, gyms, activity centers, PX, etc, from 1800-2300 hours nightly for about 6 months. It was so ridiculous.

If Courtesy Patrol is the same as/similar to the Navy and Marine's "Shore Patrol" then it very well does serve a valid purpose.

Later in my career as a senior First Class Petty Officer I often drew Shore Patrol duty while on deployment. Just my presence alone (along with the rest of the team I was with) was usually enough to thwart problems before they became too serious. There were a few times when a Sailor or Marine (usually very young) had way too much to drink and wanted to start fighting bartenders, waitresses, each other, or not pay their bar tabs and it took our intervention to prevent the local police from becoming involved. It usually ended with the (usually intoxicated) service member being given a ride back to the ship and maybe a quick trip to medical to ensure they weren't suffering from alcohol poisoning to sleep it off. 9 times out of 10 the person wouldn't get in trouble. It was always that 1 time out of 10 that made the lot of us look bad though.