Guardsmen stationed at U.S. Capitol building to get cots

Politico via MSN ^ | 16 Jan 2021 | Lara Seligman and Natasha Bertrand

[blueplum]

The National Guardsmen providing security in the U.S. Capitol ahead of the inauguration are soon getting cots, after images went viral last week of troops sleeping on the floor in the halls of Congress, according to four people familiar with the decision....Many officials believe the cots are unnecessary, but the photos of Guardsmen resting on the floor of the Capitol quickly became a “PR issue,”...

[Fred Nerks]

can’t hold my breath any longer...

[Lean-Right]

These troops have not been trained
correctly.

Rifles ALWAYS pointed “down range”.
NEVER leaned against anything.
They could be damaged bad enough
to render them inoperable or chance
of accidental discharge, if they
fall to the ground.
At least one guard/watch awake at
all times. (from the pics they look
all to be sleeping).
Boots untied, uniforms not uniform,
as everything worn has a specific
placement.
That’s just a few of the things I
was able to pick out.

[cpdiii]

Those damn cots are hard. But they work. I prefer 4 inches of foam rubber.

[familyop]

The whole thing is funny. National Guard combat soldiers normally don’t get any sleep, and they’re not fat.

[Thunder 6]

This.

[Svartalfiar]

How much is this deployment costing the taxpayer?

I am currently driving a bunch of gear to DC, from Texas, because some other units were unable to bring a bunch of stuff on their flight. We drove 4-5 hours to get to our staging point, so just mileage alone for all of us to get there at 0700, costs more than a single soldier costs all year doing regular m-day duty.

[Svartalfiar]

What a bizarre spectacle! Tens of thousands of poorly trained, poorly led, unfit, and poorly supported troops “defending” Congress while napping.

Astoundingly unprofessional. Our adversaries have to be laughing their butts off.

It's not bizarre at all! I guarantee their training levels are all over - yes, some Guard is poorly trained, but many aren't. Hell, when my old unit went to Ft Polk to play opfor with 509th, we were the first guys in decades to capture Marsoc's horse trailer they use to sneak around the box. There are plenty of Guard units that are pretty high speed.

Poorly led is extremely subjective as well. But many of those issues come from higher - if we don't know what's going on or have clear tasking, how are we supposed to be effective?

Unfit? Guard is held to the same PT test standards as AD. Yes, I'm sure their overall fitness level is not as high as big Army, but it's certainly better than your average random Joe Blow off the street!

Poorly supported? I'll have to agree with you there - Rushing 20M troops to DC, then adding another 6M, Doesn't lend itself well to an effective logistical effort. What were all these soldiers told? I knew our guys were given maybe 12hrs notice, around 6p on Fri wos when we were told to report at 07 the next morning. Bring a week of uniforms, clothing, and toothpaste. No set packing list, no details on where or what we're doing. You can bet the farm that they're all pissed they have to be there, tired from staying up to pack / driving in, and likely running on not much sleep the past few days. Of course they're getting some rest when they have downtime. Probably lots of hurry-up-and-wait, because the guys in charge of them have no clue what's going on with the guys in charge overall.

[Chainmail]

Let me speak more slowly for you:

ANY representatives of our armed forces should be deployed with their NCOs and appropriate battalion command staff. There is no excuse whatsoever for the absence of tentage, mess facilities, medical, and vehicles.

There is no excuse at all for troops laying around on the floor, with congressional staffers stepping over them. Where the hell were their NCOs, their officers? If a situation is considered worthy of armed US personnel, then those personnel better be well-led and ready, not lounging around in a cluster on the floor.

It isn’t “12M” troops, it’s 12k troops and we can do better than this. I’ve been doing this stuff longer than most of you have been alive, and this is shameful.

[Svartalfiar]

Let me speak more slowly for you:

ANY representatives of our armed forces should be deployed with their NCOs and appropriate battalion command staff. There is no excuse whatsoever for the absence of tentage, mess facilities, medical, and vehicles.

There is no excuse at all for troops laying around on the floor, with congressional staffers stepping over them. Where the hell were their NCOs, their officers? If a situation is considered worthy of armed US personnel, then those personnel better be well-led and ready, not lounging around in a cluster on the floor.

It isn’t “12M” troops, it’s 12k troops and we can do better than this. I’ve been doing this stuff longer than most of you have been alive, and this is shameful.

I'm sure plenty of those lazy kids lounging around are NCOs. They might have one or two senior guys in meetings trying to figure out what or where they're supposed to be, and many of them may not be deployed on a battalion level. They might be most of a single company, or even just 20 guys out of their whole unit. My task group is 16pax.

And why would they have tentage, mess facilities, medical or vics? Most of them were likely flown in or bused, and were told they'd be staying in hotels or local armories or other places. Sure, some nearby States likely drove in on tacticals, but I highly doubt most did. The Texas units we're supporting were flown in. If they're a line unit, their mess facilities might consist of a pallet of MREs. Which they wouldn't bring much of if they were informed meals would be provided on site. Guard isn't like AD, we aren't each set up as a self-contained, self-supporting combat brigade that can deploy altogether all the time. These soldiers came from random units within their State, half-what independently of each other. They did not in any way deploy a brigade or battalion as a whole like they would going overseas.

I'll agree the optics of everyone lounging around don't look great, but that happens a lot in the military. They're waiting to be told where to go or what to do, many likely have had little sleep, it's freezing cold there, what do you expect them to be doing? 24 hours of hip pocket training until the powers that be can find some other space out of sight for them to go to?

And I don't know exact numbers, last article I remember said 12M soldiers, but sounds like it's over 20M now. There certainly aren't enough armories in the area for all of them to be staying at. Since you're the logistics master, where would you have them at? What would they be doing now, that isn't already being done by the thousands of Guardsmen already there?

[blueplum]

you’re gonna love this then, /s

Aside from the Domino’s pizzas sent by some Republicans last week - (15,000 troops worth of pizza matched by Dominos) it appears they’re having to rely on the Salvation Army:

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/jose-andres-salvation-army-serving-meals-to-thousands-of-troops-in-dc-for-inauguration

According to a story today we now have regular active duty troops being quartered in the Capitol - this is not the band folks, who are active duty too, but separate active duty. This on top of marshallizing about 2K NG to more thoroughly vet their fellow NG.

“the Pentagon has authorized roughly 2,750 active-duty personnel to support the inauguration, but the bulk of those — about 2,000 — are for “ceremonial support,” such as the band, the official said.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pentagon-deploys-hundreds-of-active-duty-troops-for-inauguration-security/ar-BB1cRrNs?ocid=msedgntp

[DoughtyOne]

Nauseation, come back Donald, all is forgiven...

[Chainmail]

"..the optics of everyone lounging around don't look great, but that happens a lot in the military."

You're darn right the "optics aren't great"! And, no that doesn't happen in the professional military units because they have a Gunnery Sergeant/SFC ready to put a boot up their rear if they even slouch.

If the National Guard troops were filtered in from the hinterlands as you say, what's the plan? Who's in charge? What are their orders if there are "insurrectionists" (like us, I assume)?

There are plenty of resources available at nearby bases to feed, house, support them if the Joint Chiefs are in any way involved in this nutroll.

Yes, I have been involved in operational planning and logistics support throughout my career - I was the G-4 supporting the 1st MarDiv in Somalia and I did the planning and execution for Operation Provide Hope in the former Soviet Union among many other nonstandard missions. This crap is nuts!

I will repeat what I said earlier "12M" is twelve million. "12K' is twelve thousand. I am reasonably sure that we don't have twelve million National Guard available now or ever.

[Svartalfiar]

If the National Guard troops were filtered in from the hinterlands as you say, what's the plan? Who's in charge? What are their orders if there are "insurrectionists" (like us, I assume)?

That's part of my point - any planning doesn't seem to detailed, and certainly hasn't filtered down to ground level. I'm not there so I don't know for sure, but communication filtering down to the lowest levels is very minimal. And I know several guys from AD, this happens plenty too. Guard practices shaming two days a month - AD practices it every day! Of course they're better at it!


There are plenty of resources available at nearby bases to feed, house, support them if the Joint Chiefs are in any way involved in this nutroll.

Yes, there's plenty nearby, but how nearby is it? Like I said earlier, thousands of these guys flew in - what transportation is readily available to move them back and forth? Those bases aren't within walking distance (maybe some but certainly not enough). But are the Joint Chiefs or command of those bases involved? I would think it's a no-brainer that they are, but then why are all these issues popping up?


I will repeat what I said earlier "12M" is twelve million. "12K' is twelve thousand. I am reasonably sure that we don't have twelve million National Guard available now or ever.

12M is twelve thousand (although I did originally say 20). Twelve million is properly denoted as "12MM".

[Chainmail]

In the Roman legions, maybe - but today, in our armed forces K= 1000 (you know, like kilometers, kilovolts, kiloliters, etc.) . M is millions.

Ft. Myers is right next door and there’s lots of room and vehicles to move people at Ft. Belvoir 10 miles down the road.

I keep giving you hints of who I was, back when I was important but you keep missing the cues. Last hint: I moved 28,000 troops to Mogadishu a while ago and kept them supported - food, fuel, ammunition, communications gear and specialty items for three months.

Supporting 12K troops right here in DC shouldn’t be a tough one.

[Svartalfiar]

Yes, K is used to denote kilo-, but using it to say ‘thousands’ is improper English. ‘M’ is mega-, which is a millions multiplier, but that is as a prefix, and again, MM is the proper millions number abbreviation. But really, none of that is that relevant to the rust of the discussion.

Am I supposed to know you specifically? I’m not doubting at all that you have this experience. But as you said earlier you were at the G level, there’s a big difference between the planning up high, and the communication and details that reach the line way below. Especially when that information is splitting amongst hundreds or thousands of separate units, whose only connection is national NGB at the very top.

We’re getting 25000 troops in the capitol sounds like. How many of these are from support units that aren’t being used as support? They’re just bodies to be there like all the line units? Are there any of these Guard members being deployed in a support/sustainment role? I agree, it shouldn’t be an issue supporting them, yet it somehow is, meaning there’s a disconnect or something missing somewhere in the planning or operations. Someone just posted an article that apparently Salvation Army is having to help feed a bitch of these soldiers..

[Chainmail]

I have worked with National Guard units before - we had one supporting us when my battalion was sent to Washington to fight fires. As far as I could tell, they were professionals and had adequate support.

We have gotten far afield in our discussions: the issue I had was how shameful it was to have scores of young people in uniform, flat on the floor, looking for all the world like uniformed homeless people.

If they’re supposed to be taken seriously by our adversaries, they need to do a lot better than this.

[Rlsau1]

They are “extras” in the political theatre production opening Wednesday. I think they wished to redo Caesar’s triumphant parade scene from Cleopatra, but couldn’t come up with enough horses and chariots. Maybe we will see something akin to a Mayday parade at the Kremlin.