WASHINGTON — Georgia National Guard Soldiers took over the Washington, D.C. Safe and Beautiful mission Sept. 19 from South Carolina National Guard troops who spent five weeks supporting local and federal agencies in the nation’s capital.
The South Carolina National Guard’s 4th Battalion, 118th Infantry Brigade completed its assignment supporting the Joint Task Force to enhance safety in Washington, D.C.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster mobilized 200 Soldiers Aug. 16, and they arrived in Washington two days later. Most had just completed their annual training at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
“I knew it was a difficult task for them to assume this mission coming out of a demanding annual training,” said Army Lt. Col. Javier Yudice, commander of the 4th Battalion. “Their ability to jump right into this mission as we were building the plane mid-flight is a testament to their professionalism and resolve.”
The Soldiers provided presence patrols at Metro stations, patrolled high-traffic areas including the Wharf and Nationals Park baseball stadium and monitored the National Mall with its monuments.
Army Brig. Gen. Leeland F. Blanchard, commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, praised the South Carolina unit’s performance.
“The task force coming out of South Carolina has been absolutely critical to the overall success,” Blanchard said. “What you all did was come in and immediately set up a professional, disciplined posture where people walking up and down the street could immediately tell the Soldiers knew what they were doing. They delivered every single day.”
During their deployment, Soldiers assisted police and emergency medical services with drug overdose cases, supported arrests and helped locate missing children.
The Georgia Soldiers taking over the mission are from the 170th Military Police Battalion. Many work as civilian police officers, which provides them with valuable experiences that will benefit them as they collaborate with local law enforcement agencies.
“The biggest thing is how we’re doing things logistically, how many people we are having where,” said Army 1st. Lt. Fritz Drescher of Charlie Company, South Carolina National Guard, when briefing Georgia troops. “You know, how the missions have been going, the kind of issues we have and haven’t had to deal with, how we’ve been handling situations, how we’ve been working with local PD.”
Army Spc. Collier Bell of C Company reflected on the mission.
“It feels like we’ve helped definitely make the streets a lot safer, especially Metros, public areas like that, where people feel more like they want to come out, hang out,” Bell said.
Army Sgt. Jasmine Gosnell of H Company said interactions with grateful residents made the mission worthwhile.
“The one thing that made this mission very worth it was for the younger college students or the elderly that came up and thanked us,” Gosnell said. “Just knowing that at least one person felt safer going to where they needed to go, whether it’s school or work or whatever the case may be, that made every single day worth it.”
The South Carolina Soldiers, who are armored infantry, relied on their recent training to adapt to the domestic security operation.
“The high standards and rigor of our training had a direct impact on the battalion’s flexibility to reorient our tactical proficiency into domestic operations,” Yudice said. “Ironhorse Soldiers were polite, professional and prepared in providing a reassuring presence to the people in our nation’s capital while enabling law enforcement agencies to conduct operations in areas that needed it the most.”