What I don’t understand is where is logistics in all of this? Where are all the S3 shops? Why aren’t the troops being put up inside any of the thousands of surely empty hotel rooms around the district, lots of empty ballrooms and conference rooms in those empty hotels if they don’t want to pay for individual rooms, or at a bare minimum inside buildings already owned by the military like Fort Myer, the Pentagon, old Walter Reed, etc...
Just look at all those poorly secured weapons. How many units are going to have to go searching around a parking garage because some private picked up the wrong weapon or left his in the bathroom, behind a radiator, etc...
There is space. Warm space, with showers and electrical outlets so they can charge their phones to pass by the hours of boredom. Either the people pushing all these Guardsmen into this position just didn’t care to free it up or pay for it, or the Guard commanders didn’t bother to secure quarters for their troops, which is just negligent.
I echo your concerns. Where is the chain of command here? A few good NCO’s would get this straight (and in proper uniform). No cots, no latrines, etc...this is a joke, right? And there are no planners at the NGB or Pentagon to do the return to Home station plan? The CNGB is a four-star general and he can’t get this done in is own backyard? He needs to resign. It is pathetic.
And, (I’m on a roll here, sorry) do the taxpayers know how much money has been wasted to bring guard personnel from all 54 states/territories for this? All so the the half-assed governors of some some half-assed place like Puerto Rico can say they participated (with their half-assed untrained MP units?)