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National Guard on duty to support inauguration

  • Published
  • By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
About 9,300 National Guardsmen and women are supporting the
56th Presidential Inauguration, the Guard's largest contribution to an
inauguration in its 372-year history.

"The scope is incredible," Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National
Guard Bureau, said on Monday. "This is the largest footprint the National
Guard has ever had for an inauguration."

McKinley visited Guardmembers on duty around the nation's capital on the eve
of the inauguration.

"My takeaways today are the professionalism, the breadth and depth of our
organization, the fact that we have multiple states involved," McKinley said.
"It gives me great hope and promise that [the inauguration] will be both
successful and safe."

National Guard members from several different states and the District of
Columbia are working for Joint Task Force-District of Columbia.

Citizen-Soldiers and -Airmen are providing communications, transport, traffic
control and medical and logistical support - as well as playing music and
marching in the inaugural parade.

Contributing National Guard states include Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. According to
state National Guard officials:

* Members of the 257th Army National Guard Band are among 250 troops on
duty from the District of Columbia. The band is providing ceremonial and
inaugural ball support.

* More than 2,000 National Guardsmen and women from Maryland and
Virginia are working in support of their states' lead law enforcement and
transportation agencies to assist with traffic flow into and out of the
District of Columbia.

* For the first time Iowa is supporting an inauguration: The Iowa
National Guard is sending about 1,000 Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat
Team, 34th Infantry Division.

* More than 200 members of the New York National Guard are helping with
communications and traffic control.

* In addition to about 400 Soldiers and Airmen, the West Virginia
National Guard is providing specialized homeland defense and security units,
fixed wing and rotary aircraft and mobile satellite communications equipment
in support of federal and local agencies to help manage the large crowds
expected at the event.

* Tennessee's contribution includes Airmen from the 228th Combat
Communications Squadron and the 118th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and
Soldiers from the 117th Military Police Battalion.

The National Guard Bureau participates in Armed Forces Inaugural Committee
efforts while coordinating the support provided by the National Guard with
federal and state civil authorities. A joint coordination center at the
Bureau in Crystal City, Va., is being staffed around the clock through the
inauguration.

The National Guard has a long history of supporting presidential
inaugurations. Local militia units marched with George Washington as he
proceeded to his first inauguration on April 30, 1789, according to Guard
historians.