Why Washington’s National Guard is still in DC

The January 6 uprising in the country’s Capitol caused law enforcement officials to seek additional assistance, particularly as the presidential inauguration approached and a new government took over.

The Washington National Guard was one group that answered that call. Almost five months later, as DC has gotten relatively quiet, they’re still there with riot gear, just in case.

“It’s not the craziness that it was, and we’re grateful it isn’t,” said Sgt. Kyle Conley with the Washington National Guard. “We’re all just happy to be here to support the Capitol Police, but we look forward to coming back too.”

Sgt. Conley has been a member of the National Guard for eight years. He recently reached a number of milestones: He started a job with a Kirkland-based forwarding company. bought a house; got a new puppy. But instead of spending time on these milestones, Conley was among the few hundred National Guard members who were activated and sent to DC

It is merely the latest activation in an “undiscovered” year for the Washington National Guard, which has sent members on everything from wildfires to the nation’s capital.

“It’s only been about eight months and this is one of many activations (for me),” Conley said.

“In other words, in my eight years, seven of those (activations) were occasional activations or standby for activation. And then suddenly it’s like making all of your eight years in one year.”

Historic year

The Washington, DC operation is just the tip of an activation iceberg. In a normal year, the Guard activates around 150 members to fight forest fires, floods or election security.

Following the 2020 pandemic, the Guard routinely activated at least 1,000 members at a time, with a peak of 4,500 activations in June.

In addition to the usual natural disaster support, the Guard has been activated for civil unrest and a range of pandemic needs: food banks, Covid testing sites, contact tracing and mass vaccination sites. When the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Department faced overwhelming jobless claims (and massive fraud), the guard was also sent there to help.

When 2021 came along, the number of cases in Covid (at that time) in Washington state seemed to be falling. At that point, a riot broke out in the nation’s Capitol, causing the National Guard to deploy its members across the country.

From Washington State to Washington, DC

The Washington National Guard activated 400 members for use in DC shortly after January 6th. They were initially sent as support as DC prepared for an inauguration of the president. The guard has been present since then and is expected to remain in place until mid-May.

Units have been swapped, but 135 Washington members remain in DC

“We’re in one of the Senate buildings near the Capitol and just on standby,” Conley said. “We are physically present and ready to react if anything should happen.”

Being on “standby” is exactly what it sounds like – waiting in case the Capitol police ask for help.

“We have riot gear close by in case we need to put it on and go out,” said Conley. “We try to fill the time with training. There are a lot of processes going on with this riot control stuff and so on … so we don’t keep thumbs up all day.

“We are here to assist the Capitol Police Department until it is believed we are no longer needed.”

Citizen Soldiers

For the six years she has been a member, specialist Jillian Bolke has juggled the National Guard with the bartender in Vancouver, Washington. She is also a student. Unlike other branches of the military, members of the Guard are mostly like Bolke – working days while being on call when needed.

Instead of serving beer or logging into a secluded class last year, Bolke was mostly on the guard, working in food banks associated with incidents of unrest. Now she is in DC

“The beginning of 2020 was a really big change for the Guard,” said Bolke. “So far we’ve just been doing our monthly exercises.”

But in 2020, most of the soldiers were deployed to food banks, vaccination centers, and DC for several months

“I live for the little things right now,” she said. She looks forward to seeing her family and dogs again and drinking real Northwest coffee. she said. “It’s not really like that here.”

She recently found a moment of joy while walking past a DC coffee shop that serves Stumptown Coffee.

Specialist Alex Wunderlich usually spent his time on a mountain trail or ski slope at this time of the year. He works for a technology startup, Clockwork, in Seattle and has been a member of the Guard for three years.

“It was definitely a burden to be taken away like last year,” said Wunderlich. “For me, this is my fifth activation. So we kind of know the drill. As always when I’m called at the last minute, it’s not as hectic as maybe the first few activations.”

“Personally, I’m trying to buy a house, plan a wedding,” he said. “It’s hard to see your friends out on the hike you should be, but at the same time employers, family, friends – they know. They understand what we signed up for.”