Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin has approved an order to send up to seven-hundred members of the National Guard up ahead of an expected trucker convoy to the U. S. capital.
The National Guard said in a press statement that Lloyd Austin approved the requests from the D.C. Metro Police Dept. and the United States Capitol Police for National Guard help with traffic control during “1st Amendment demonstrations anticipated in the city in the coming days.”
“The people who work, visit, and live in the District are a part of our great community, and their security is our 1st mission priority,” stated Major General Sherrie L. McCandless.
“Our USCP and MPD partners have requested our help in making sure that people can demonstrate safely and peacefully, and we are ready to assist,” she said.
Austin approved around 400 National Guard members to give support to the Emergency Management Agency and D.C. Homeland Security at designated traffic posts, provide control and command and cover sustainment requirements also with fifty large tactical vehicles to be put at those designated traffic posts on a twenty-four hour basis beginning no later than one p.m. on Sat., Feb. 26th, or as “soon as logistically possible.”
The mission is approved through 11:59 p.m. on Mon., March 7th, as the Breitbart News previously exclusively reported.
Austin also approved a request from the USCP for help for up to three-hundred National Guard troops that were from outside D.C. to help out with select Capitol hill entry points and designated traffic posts starting no later than seven a.m., on Sat., Feb. 26th.
The statement said Guard members won’t carry firearms or take part in domestic-surveillance or law enforcement activities.
The approval doesn’t allow the use of helicopters or other aircraft by the National Guard or sharing of the equipment with law enforcement agencies, it said.
The DCNG will provide control and command for both missions, although units from outside the District will stay under administrative and operational control of their own governors.
Breitbart News has said that the states sending National Guard members include New Jersey, Vermont, and West Virginia.
