WASHINGTON - About 9,300 National Guardsmen and women are supporting the 56th Presidential Inauguration, the Guard's largest contribution to an inauguration in its 372-year history.
"The scope is incredible," Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, said on Monday. "This is the largest footprint the National Guard has ever had for an inauguration."
McKinley visited Guardmembers on duty around the nation's capital on the eve of the inauguration.
"My takeaways today are the professionalism, the breadth and depth of our organization, the fact that we have multiple states involved," McKinley said.
"It gives me great hope and promise that [the inauguration] will be both successful and safe."
National Guard members from several different states and the District of Columbia are working for Joint Task Force-District of Columbia.
Citizen-Soldiers and -Airmen are providing communications, transport, traffic control and medical and logistical support - as well as playing music and marching in the inaugural parade.
Contributing National Guard states include Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. According to state National Guard officials:
- Members of the 257th Army National Guard Band are among 250 troops on duty from the District of Columbia. The band is providing ceremonial and inaugural ball support.
- More than 2,000 National Guardsmen and women from Maryland and Virginia are working in support of their states' lead law enforcement and transportation agencies to assist with traffic flow into and out of the District of Columbia.
- For the first time Iowa is supporting an inauguration: The Iowa National Guard is sending about 1,000 Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division.
- More than 200 members of the New York National Guard are helping with communications and traffic control.
- In addition to about 400 Soldiers and Airmen, the West Virginia National Guard is providing specialized homeland defense and security units, fixed wing and rotary aircraft and mobile satellite communications equipment in support of federal and local agencies to help manage the large crowds expected at the event.
- Tennessee's contribution includes Airmen from the 228th Combat Communications Squadron and the 118th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and Soldiers from the 117th Military Police Battalion.
The National Guard Bureau participates in Armed Forces Inaugural Committee efforts while coordinating the support provided by the National Guard with federal and state civil authorities. A joint coordination center at the Bureau in Crystal City, Va., is being staffed around the clock through the inauguration.
The National Guard has a long history of supporting presidential inaugurations. Local militia units marched with George Washington as he proceeded to his first inauguration on April 30, 1789, according to Guard historians.