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Ok, well, watching the first couple minutes will tell you - not much. Listen and watch carefully. I'm going to have to recommend that people watch the full presser. Trying to summarize it would be difficult, but I will point out a few things.

Top Army Leaders Provide Update of Guard Activities in Washington D.C.

Here is a transcript of a question from around the 23:03 mark

Press Question: "Because this deployment has turned into weeks and months and all these guardsmen are on state orders to be here their not getting active duty days towards benefits, retirement,retirement benefits, that sort of thing is there any reconsideration the way they have been activated or some sort of memo maybe to rectify that?"

General Hokanson: "Actually - um - all the.. the soldiers that are here - and airmen - are on federal orders um under title 32 um they remain under the command and control of their governor but they're paid by the federal government and they're under the control of General Walker as the D.C. Guard Commanding General while they're here."

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The most interesting exchange and is a must listen is when General Walker took the question about the NG being in the Garage. Go to the 19:10 mark

General Walker said "regarding the photographs "they were taking a break, every single guardsman has a hotel. But you stand 12 hours on your feet you want to take a break. And that's what these guardsmen were doing they were taking a - as we say in the military - they were "taking a knee" so they took a knee - and sometimes they did more than that they actually laid down ((look at his facial expressions when he says this - the smirk)) but nobody slept there, nobody spent the night there."

((note: No one slept the night because of the outrage!))

Then it is quiet and General Hokanson chimes in:>BR> "And if I could just add that - that was just an unfortunate incident but once the chain of command was notified um they established procedures, got everybody back in and in fact this weekend I got chance to tour all the uh the facilities, they've got interior warming rooms to keep everybody warm for their break um and the time they have between their 8 or 12 hour shift that's out there - and I think we've gone well past that um ... its one of those things - we find an issue we resolve it as quickly as we can and I don't see any issues right now but thank you"

So THAT in summary is 2 star General Walker is saying: nothing to see here they were just taking a knee. And without saying so, says it was fake news. But General Hakanson says it was an unfortunate incident that needed addressing through the chain of command.

So while trying not to contradict each other they both gave different stories.

My conclusion is that General Walker is less than honest here. Politician General for sure. Which means derp.

Follow up to my notes on the Army Presser: Because of the nature of the question at the presser, General Hokanson is likely referring to 32 U.S. Code § 113 - Federal financial assistance for support of additional duties assigned to the Army National Guard

> My conclusion is that General Walker is less than honest here. Politician General for sure. Which means derp.

Col. David Hackworth referred to them as ‘perfumed princes’.

-SB

Thanks so much for that summary.