Interesting article about one National Guardsman sent to DC

An Anonymous DC National Guardsman Tells All   “This is not what I signed up to do.”

The main deadhead bar in DC is located within sight of the White House. I've been down there a couple of times recently and seen these guys in the trin station, subway, and in the street. I should say gals, cause may of them appeared to be college age women. I feel sorry for them. I  also respect them.

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[...At one point, I asked if the soldier participated in immigration raids. Emphatically, he told me no—that guardsmen aren’t authorized to do so, which the National Guard confirmed. But he was frustrated by the question itself. “It’s not that you’re uninformed,” he said, it’s “the failure of my leadership to explain to the public why we’re there,” that “we’re not jackbooted thugs who are stripping away your freedoms”—that actually, members of the DC Guard live around here, they’re federal workers and bus drivers and teachers and cops, and they provide security for inaugurations and help sick people get Covid swabs. “Obviously, if someone is trying to wrestle a weapon away from a cop, we’re probably going to intervene,” he said. “But we’re not arresting people or handcuffing them or whatever.”]

https://washingtonian.com/2026/01/21/an-anonymous-dc-national-guardsman-...

This article appears in the February 2026 issue of Washingtonian.