Often, I still find myself thinking about Operation Capitol Response, the official call given to our mission. Most of the time, it’s when I walk down East Capitol Street and sit in the dome of the Capitol while practicing the field. Last year, I found myself internally in the rotunda as my boots walked over the shiny floors, creating the permanent footprints we left when we left.
People ask me how it was on January 6, 2021 and in the five months that followed in one of the most outstanding missions of the DCNG. I’ve come to believe that those doing the consultation actually mean, “What was it like to protect the Capitol after a coup attempt?
Most of the time, I respond and say things that I almost hope other people need to hear; the ordinary stories of our ordinary days of service.
“It’s an absolute honor. ” It’s something none of us will forget. “”We have served and walked the halls of our country’s history, and now we are part of that history. “those who helped shape and shape this country. “
But, what most people don’t know or perceive are the many sleepless nights, the ever-changing missions that each unit had to adapt to, the sustenance and logistics that the DCNG had to manage for the other 26,000 troops who arrived and were processed from the states, and that because we were the house team, we would be the first to enter and the last to leave.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, DCNG’s participation in the Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA) has been unprecedented as our country’s climate and culture have continued to change. Like many National Guard outfits across the country, our help began in March 2020 with COVID-19 operations, where we helped test sites in the district and the U. S. Park Police. U. S. with a social distancing app in Tidal Basin’s cherry blossom season. The adaptability of the mission manifested itself when we switched from COVID-19 operations overnight to assist the Secret Service at Lafayette Park Operation Guardian to protect and protect federal assets after the death of George Floyd. During our era of restarting operation Guardian, we helped several First Amendment protests in addition to preparing for the upcoming presidential inauguration, not knowing what the long term might hold.
On January 6, 2021, I watched from the DC armory, about two miles from the Capitol Grounds, as the U. S. Capitol Police watched as they did not. The U. S. Department of Homeland Security (USCP) and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) defended not only the U. S. Capitol building. In the U. S. , they also opposed U. S. citizens. As we walked the hundred steps and watched, we waited for the order to move from the armory to the Capitol grounds in an effort to enforce the law and protect the temple of our democracy. Congressman Jamie Raskin detailed our story in his e-book Unthinkable: “I remember a Black Lives Matter protest in D. C. on June 2, when masked, helmeted National Guardsmen dressed in camouflage clothing piled up on the steps of the Capitol in a formidable and impressive show of force. . . I haven’t looked at the National Guard yet. today, however, I tell myself that they will have to be here somewhere, or they will have to be on their way. . . “
As we watched and waited, the minutes seemed like hours, hours, or days. Around 5:09 p. m. , we were informed that we would be moving to Capitol Grounds.
When buses departed from the DC Armory training floor with infantrymen of all ranks of our 74th Troop Command (372nd Military Police Battalion, 104th Maintenance Company, 547th Transport Company, and other detachments), no one knew what it might portend in the long run, yet what was transparent was that we were about to be part of something bigger than ever.
After the departure of the first wave of forces, I was appointed officer in charge (ICO) of the detachment who would relieve the initial forces and secure the terrain during the night. As infantrymen and airmen continued to show up for work, we began to make plans and in coordination with Capitol Police leaders. Finally, 150 airmen and infantrymen would surround the Capitol building securing the perimeter as members of Congress returned to finish the Electoral College presidential vote.
During our originally scheduled 12-hour shift, my noncommissioned officer in charge (NCOIC) and I walked through the box to the balcony of the platform from where President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be sworn in in less than 15 days. As we climbed the steps, we went through and through piles of debris: signs, beer cans, cigarette butts, motorcycle stands, and folding chairs. It was dark and only the lights in the most sensitive part of the rotunda illuminated the post-apocalyptic shadows. The only words spoken by any of us come from my NCOIC: “It reminds me of the streets of Iraq. “
As we approached the tunnel where Capitol police officers held the line, the smell of pepper spray and CS fuel filled the air. Once upon a time, beautiful windows and glass doors were now frames filled with plywood. To this day, I don’t know. I forget very well each and every one of the steps we have taken. The sound of debris – damaged glass, dirt and pieces of building fabric – squeaking under my boots. Something like this had happened on American soil and had thus become part of our collective memory forever.
During the last hours of our shift, when the sun reached the horizon of D. C. , we obtained the recommendation of the Capitol Police to order citizens to stay away from the side walks of the field. After finding many other people who wanted to photograph the consequences. From the events of the previous day, I approached a woman who had walked toward one of the parallel concrete walls on the west side of the Capitol. As I approached, I noticed that she was looking at the debris and damage we had suffered for hours past. and I was crying. He turned to me when I approached and said in a low voice: “I’m so sorry, I used to paint here, and to see this beautiful construction like this is sad. “As I was surprised by his words, he thanked me for my service and I started to get off the street and cross the street.
Many of us who held the line with police officers on the night of January 6, 2021, found ourselves in and out of many roles over the next five months as we continue to adapt to the ever-changing project environment. As we moved from Operation Response I on Capitol Hill to Operation 59 Presidential Inauguration, the wave began, when 26,000 army workers from all 54 states and territories joined our task force. Our DCNG force of approximately 2,700 army workers who actively participated in each stratum worked 24 hours a day not only for operations at the tactical level, but also for support and logistics for each state. This included hiring accommodation in and around the National Capital Region, food services, COVID-19 vaccines and transportation.
As the tactical point shifted to presidential inauguration aid, our DCNG task force assisted the vehicle locking positions around Capitol Grounds. This will continue to be our number one project, the inauguration.
Although both presidential inaugurations are a ceremonial moment for our country and our city, this one was very different. A few days before the inauguration events, army and law enforcement officials may be observed from one and both corners of the National Capital Region. The army wore combat kits, remained armed, and wore protective masks against COVID-19. “How do you feel conquered by the public?” a close friend asked. “Your infantrymen are in a different posture than past missions and almost faceless and without human appearance beyond what the audience has noticed in war movies. “inaugurations non-violent transitions of power, but never in the posture as we were now constituted.
As Americans watched from home, the music of the marching band filled the January morning without bloodshed as the sound passed through the sacred air where the crowd roared. The army covered the fence, bold to glimpse the exclusive moment we were all waiting for after the last 14 days. This was where we would put our new commander and leader on a platform to show the global we were still united.
As Vice President Kamala Harris stood up to take the oath of office, a friend I was paired with that day nudged me. When Kamala raised her right hand, I looked over to practice my friend’s reaction. She watched not only the first woman, but the first as well. African Americans take this oath. After Vice President Harris’ swearing-in concluded, cheers and applause echoed through the mall as the military congratulated the vice president.
When the applause and cheers were over, President Joe Biden intervened on the same platform that I had protected a few days earlier and ready to take office for the next 4 years. Everyone is silent about preserving, protecting, and protecting the Constitution of the United States. ” The very Constitution we all swear to protect.
Following the presidential inauguration, the 26,000-man task force moved on to Operation Capitol Response II. Originally a project that extinguished our orders within days of the inauguration was extinguished until the end of February, then until the end of March and then until the end of May, when we would conclude operationsArray As our extterminated orders have been, the project and the DCNG has continued to transform. The footprint of 26,000 service members around the NCR began to shrink and DCNG’s tactical point operations became the Rapid Reaction Force (QRF) for a short time before taking over command operations for the entire task force known as task force Capitol Grounds. This would move our DC Armory operations inside the U. S. Capitol building.
As the project progressed, DCNG’s role and the importance of what we did and how we operated continued to grow. As we painted 24 hours a day, with little staff and little sleep, outside the Capitol Visitor Center, many of us reflected on how it all felt. The ultimate popular feeling among us resonated that this was our home, our community, where we painted and lived. Despite being exhausted for a few days, we fulfilled a wonderful goal in our city that other National Guard states might not have experienced since it wasn’t their hometown. There have only been a few other times that the DCNG has mobilized to the Capitol and one is shown just outside the building’s inner crypt. Behind a statue of President Abraham Lincoln is a bronze plaque that reads, “This pill records the fact that the following troops were quartered in the United States Capitol in reaction to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers on April 15, 1861. “One of the 4 entries indexed on the plaque is the District of Columbia National Guard.
After operating in solid conditions for several weeks after the transition of operations from our command post, it happened.
Service members were armed in stalls around the Capitol, House, and Senate buildings that covered a variety of project sets in the joint operational area. For our team, we follow our overall fighting rhythm. Capitol between the Russell and Dirksen Senate buildings, across the north barricade and at Capitol Grounds, where I would avoid and communicate with the Capitol police officers at the station to start my morning. He would then walk around Capitol Grounds while searching the Capitol. Dome that I admired each and every morning before entering the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) to begin operations for the day.
On that day, we conducted our morning update for the commander and the joint working group briefing. The chaplain made some comments about the fact that it was Good Friday and the fact that Easter Sunday would come within a few days, and we continued our journey in a different way. general working day.
Around lunchtime, a friend and I left our command post for lunch just outside one of the intermediate guest cafes. When we left the command post, each of the senior staff officers was traveling with an ATAK device that allowed us to track and talk to every detail of the task force. As we sat and chatted in the Zone of Silence, the silence was damaged by the echo of quick steps as a Capitol police officer ran past. My friend looked at me with interest when I started grabbing the ATAK to see if we had gained any reports of an imaginable situation. When I was handed over to throw away my trash, another USCP officer ran past and the words “shots, shots” echoed on his radio and in my ears. I watched my friend as our ATAK started ringing with our USCP liaison officer at the other end, informing us that an incident was occurring at the north barricade. We ran to the command post and without delay began to act.
Entering the command post, the rest is a blur I put together from a detailed timeline my friend wrote down as events unfolded. Capitol Police ordered our roving patrols to begin moving through the domain and temporarily ordered our Immediate Response Force (IRF) to move to the Constitution Avenue issues to protect the avenue. Once the call to fire up the IRF was made, and as more calls poured in, I turned around to see a live IRF news feed in full swing from the civil unrest coming down Constitution Ave to settle. After about an hour, Acting Capitol Police Chief Pittman appeared on the East Front of the Capitol to tell the nation of the events that had unfolded. At that time we learned that Officer Billy Evans in charge of the north barricade was killed when the barricade was struck and another officer was also injured but did not sustain life-threatening injuries. danger. The assailant who crashed his car into the barricade was pronounced dead at the scene.
Within hours and days of the barricade onslaught incident, those of us directly involved took the time to soak up what happened, adding to many of us that we had never been deployed. Secondary to the protests in Lafayette Park last summer, it was one of the first genuine reports from the military where lives may have been lost, and when one of our Capitol Police brothers with whom we had served in recent months lost his life. Although the DCNG and the executing group states operated effectively that day and we did what we had been trained to do, there was still a life lost.
With questions and rumors of some other extent imaginable after the barricade onslaught, we continue to drive with an end date in sight for May 31. As that day approached, we utilized operations and created lasting relationships with the Capitol Police that would continue. in the years to come. Our task force secured the box and participated in several vital occasions that followed: Vice President Harris’ first deciding vote in Congress, the joint congressional consultation, Officer Evan’s rite at the roundabout, the Jan. 6 committee vote and formation, many joint IRF trainings with Capitol Police, and visits through members of Congress.
As redistribution operations began to be integrated into our project summaries and plans, it was easy to ask the question, “Where are we headed from here?But it’s much more complicated to answer. In a letter to the force, Gen. Daniel Hokanson, head of the National Guard Office, said, “The National Guard is america’s history. It is the history of the struggle for independence, the fight against tyranny, the fight for democracy and the fight for freedom. “
We have served and walked the halls of our country’s history, and now we are part of that history.
Krystina George is the commander of the 273rd Military Police Company in the District of Columbia National Guard. Without a uniform, she served the public as a videographer and photographer, and Maximum recently accepted a position in the U. S. Senate. From January 6, 2021 to May 23, 2021, he served in the J3 Operations Cell as an operations officer of the existing task force. During his time, he took thousands of photos, videos, and wrote every day to capture the history of the DC National Guard.
The perspectives expressed are those of and do not reflect the official position of the U. S. Army. The U. S. Navy, the D. C. National Guard, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.
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