pick guard, trash and Directions booted from a hotel. Inside of a special unit of the controversial distribution in continuous current,

Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Holmer week spent providing prepare. Its US special forces unit has been set for another overseas assignment during the year, so that he and his troops of the Utah National Guard had recently completed the paperwork and the necessary planning. Then, on the morning of June 1, his phone rang. it was like everyone else had seen pictures of Holmer George Floyd, an unarmed black man by a white police officer in Minneapolis May 25 Holmer had asphyxiated visas messages followed by demonstrations and violent clashes erupted in the cities in the entire country. The protests were the roads in Utah state capital of Salt Lake City filled this week, so Holmer believed that what his military commanders wanted to talk about it when he took his listeners. “When he first called, they said, ‘Hey, we need 200 children to support capital’ ‘, says Holmer TIME. “I was like, ‘OK, I think things worse at night in downtown Salt Lake.’Dann one day someone erwähnt, DC’Dann I stopped him and said,” Wait, the nation’s capital “The National Guard? typically called by governors, when you spread in a huge hurricane, earthquake or natural disasters. in rare cases, the guards are sent to help in state lines to a neighbor. But after protests to the United States issued Minister Donald Trump an urgent national call additional soldiers of the national Guard to come to the District of Columbia. Utah was one were to answer the call for help from 11 states of the President. at midnight they had all 200 members of the Utah national Guard loaded their M4 assault rifles, boxes of ammunition and other equipment on a military jet on the way into town. as soon as the troops arrived, bleary eyes, it was not long before they are in the midst of a politicized Konfron uncle It and the heaviest civilian-military divide in half a century found. With the end of the week, members Utah National Guard were part, sent a force of 4,900 National Guard members who have been placed over the District of Columbia from almost exclusively been driven Republican: Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, new Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee. Just outside the city limits, the active service with the 82nd Airborne Division were common on military bases in Maryland and Virginia in standby mode or not Trump weighed appointed to the uprising Act 1807. To the eyes of many Americans, including peaceful protesters dead Floyd and the continuing scourge to protest the brutality of America policy, Trump was American forces exerted as a political tool to talk to their freedom a force to suppress. The dissent came from the Pentagon and retired four-star admirals, generals and former Secretaries of Defense have expressed concern that Trump use democratic norms undermined by the politicization of the military. dredged to use the threat of the President of military force against the protests largely peaceful memories of the Kent State shooting in 1970, when troops of the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed students on a lot of Vietnam War protesters after opening the fire. A week later, he continues to reverberate effects. officials of the state of Kentucky has confirmed another black man, David McAtee May 31 was killed after a shootout in possession, with soldiers and police in a barbecue restaurant Kentucky National Guard. General Mark Milley, who serves as Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, apologized Thursday 1 June in a photo-op with Trump appear after demonstrators were forcibly dispersed by the police near the White House. “I should not have been there,” he said in a video recorded speech Milley National Defense University graduates. “My presence at this time and in this environment creates a perception of the military in domestic politics involved. Uniformly as a commissioned police officers, it was a mistake.” Less than 24 hours after the Lafayette Park photo op was to Utah to take guard on the floor helmets and other protective equipment in the park opposite the White House. The troops had earlier saved their assault rifles and ammunition near DC, Armory, and stopped to avoid motifs with the command, protests to be paid at the White House. The Utah National Guard, like any other big city, from part-time soldiers. They are men and women in their daily lives, veterinarians, dentists and construction workers. Some of the members had their first deployment of basic training. But what makes Utah National Guard is different from other countries is that it contains the 19th Special Forces Group, which consists of several combat missions in places like Iraq and Afghanistan by experts Green Berets. About a dozen Green Berets, including Holmer were the District of Columbia sent. They are easy to identify because a patch arrowhead and a register “special forces,” he says on his left sleeve. If you have begun to Circulate photos of troops on the way, the questions began to swirl why were needed elite forces, especially as the protests were mostly nonviolent. Holmer understood why the presence of his unit was considered critical. On June 4, the decision of the commander of the National Guard, the special forces patch from the uniform in an attempt draws the wrong message to avoid sending. “If you say, ‘Green Beret’, the Rambo people think. And this is not right at all,” he said. “My sense was to exercise patience. I told them not to be confrontational. They are not looking at it or something, it is to keep peace.” The protesters, the mere presence of the military, not to mention the special forces, a bullying tactic was. No matter how beautiful the members of the National Guard may have had on their armored vehicles, helmets and body armor has sent a different message. “This shows that they think will happen unruly,” said Carl-Leak, 41, a librarian Lorton, Va., The daughter showed up with his wife in the protests 17 years. If the loss and his daughter, the March visit to our lives protesting against the force of arms in 2018, has seen no soldiers, Leak said. “It just seems to see a military presence open if it is a marginal group, which has been shown,” he said. The interactions were not confrontational. Important Brent Magnum Utah guard said it was sometimes emotionally shaken by what he saw in the street. On a sultry evening, June 3, he saw a black female protesters in a phalanx of cops go by and fans with their posters sign board. “I heard them say, ‘I know you’re hot, and probably do not want to be here,'” said Magnum. “He touch my heart to see someone who was in pain, uniformed police exactly what pulls represented had come to protest for a way to ease the pain of another person.” Other times, he found the troops with little to do, so it is that the modes to help find. early one morning after a night shift, the Holmer soldiers discovered a maintenance team over graffiti on a building in the vicinity of the painting of the White House. The Guard members wanted to support, then asked some brushes and layers of light brown color, whilst others soldiers discarded plastic bottles, food packaging and waste tilted in Lafayette Square. “With 200 of my boys, we were able to do it very quickly,” said Holmer. “No one we do there.” One part is difficult in an American city in the service, to overcome the lure of fast food restaurants is output instead of the military meal ready to eat meals, which is commonly known as the MRE. But Holmer troops were told to eat while in uniform, to avoid going out to use caution and if they have to food. The caution was offered. The South Carolina Post and Courier reported Thursday that members of the South Carolina National Guard had submitted a report to the Pentagon that they had found the broken glass in a pizza they ordered while staying in Washington at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. On June 4 the Utah troops were forced to leave the same structure after the city invited the night bill and the mayor DC Muriel Bowser all out-of-state a letter to Trump stopped paying National Guard be withdrawn . “Listen, I know. Bad blood between certain political entities This is not our business,” said Holmer. “We had already planned on the armory floor to sleep or a department store or something like that. We have put in first place in a hotel that was over the top. So we do not have to attend the fair.” The Utah soldiers packed their effects on a bus and a hotel in Virginia near the Pentagon conducted. The troops spent three nights positioned near the White House, and in the absence of any riots or looting, had wanted to finally Utah, June 7, “I deleted not return needed, but I’m really proud that we have answered the call” , said Holmer. The Utah National Guard landed in Salt Lake that day to undergo testing for the crown and quarantine themselves were educated at home, but is awaiting the results. That Holmer, who returned home to wait for his phone to ring, maybe this time for distribution abroad.
Photo copyright by Eric Baradat AFP / Getty Images