Photo By John Hughel | Washington Air National Guard Commander Brig. Gen. Gent Welsh meets with Airmen...... read more read more
CAMP MURRAY, Wash. - Similar to the outbreak of COVID-19 in early February, the Pacific Northwest emerged as a significant national region for civil unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Just as areas of the Evergreen state were emerging from months of stay at home orders, citizens from coast to coast took to the streets to demonstrate against abusive policing policies.
As protests turned violent with the destruction of public places and businesses, Washington Army and Air National Guardsmen were activated to support local law enforcement agencies in Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane and other areas of the state. Working as a joint team, Guardsmen were quickly trained and dispersed to counter the most concentrated areas of unrest from June 5 to 8.
“So as this developed early in the week, it went from a position of sending out Airmen already trained, to, ‘we’re going to need a lot more’ than these troops,” said Washington Air National Guard Commander Brig. Gen. Gent Welsh. “All of this was developing daily, and then shifting hourly as the mission just kept getting more and more complex.”
For members of the Washington Air National Guard, Military Assistance for Civil Disturbances (MACDIS) training was normally accomplished by Security Forces Airmen. As Army Guardsmen across the state were activated, more than 300 Airmen from various Air Force career fields were trained to be part of the total force.
“This agency has spent years working at becoming more joint,” said Welsh, explaining how the Army and Air National Guard have worked to become more integrated on critical missions. “We had done some of this with the COVID-19 response, but this civic disorder developed so quickly. The Army has about 200 soldiers a year taking part in training for the MACDIS mission, but it was remarkable how quickly we got our members ready.”
Even as members were trained and geared up to head into troubled areas, Welsh thought at first they would be used in more of a peaceful or contingency scenarios.
“My first thoughts were, ‘Hey we’re just going to have the Air Force guard a sleepy area of Seattle,’ or backfill when needed,” he said. “But soon enough, we had members take rotations in the East Precinct because things were getting really unruly and ugly.”
Concerns from other Air National Guard senior leadership was also evident for a mission this critical, moving so rapidly.
“There was a lot of anxiety with our entire leadership team because we were sending our Airmen into harm’s way,” said 194th Wing Command Chief Master Sgt. Allan L. Lawson. “The quick training was part of the stress, but we have members who supported the peaceful protest sentiments stemming from George Floyd’s death.”
There were many other ‘first time’ circumstances Lawson noted, that was part of this prompt mobilization. “For the first time, we had AGRs (Active Guard Reserve) as part of the force and they were combined with our traditional guardsmen, making up an integrated, diverse and highly skilled team.”
Welsh along with Lawson and other senior leaders visited the troops at various sites last weekend and were inspired with how quickly they had absorbed the mission.
“I’ve been in the military for over 25 years, to include the 9/11 attacks, and I’ve never seen anything like this, where everyone had come together in such a unified mindset,” said Lawson.
As some of the Airmen had first time training, several members with advanced proficiencies were thrust into leadership roles. Senior Master Sgt. Cory Welton, a member of the 116th Air Support Operations Squadron, was assigned to lead an-11 member group moving to various location in Olympia and Tacoma, to finally stage at Century Link Field in Seattle with tasks in both the East and West Precincts in Seattle.
“I am used to being in positions where we have to be adapted,” he said, recalling the long weekend’s activities in the Puget Sound area. “It was a reassuring fact that these guys I work with responded to a myriad of situations and we can count on each other.”
His group of Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) took on one of the more difficult areas in the Seattle’s’ East Precinct and worked with local law enforcement where object and insults were thrown at them during the late-night and into the early morning hours.
“It was an eye-opening experience to see how the two sides were lined up and where one person’s perspective could vary from others,” he said.
Across the state in Spokane, members of the 141st Air Refueling Wing were also activated in areas of Eastern Washington. With just over six years of military experience, Staff Sgt. Aaron Simpson, a member of the 141st Security Forces Squadron, has already been deployed to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. His training had prepared him for protest situations but it was still somewhat stunning to see vandalism in Washington State.
“This was the first time in Spokane’s history to be called up for this type of response,” he said. He was primarily assigned to the Campus Center area of Spokane.
“When we got on-site after 1:00 am on Sunday, there had been looting at the Nike store and a lot of graffiti sprayed on buildings,” Simpson said.
Still, Simpson said he relied on past training and experience as his 13-member group integrated with local authorities, helping bolster exhausted partners.
“They were really happy to have us there,” he said. “The sheriff and other staff [members] kept checking with us to make sure we had everything we need. They really took care of us.”
As the weekend concluded and Airmen were deactivating, Welsh was able to gauge the impact of having so many members called-up and return home safely.
“They did awesome,” he said. “What we have done over the last seven to ten days, you couldn’t write a better script for professional development, from Airmen being pulled out of the SFS who are used to this and them being paired with Force Support Squadron members who were not accustomed to this mission or job.”
Knowing that his Airmen responded so well to the challenge was satisfying for Welsh, who began his military career as an enlisted active duty Air Force Security Forces Airman.
“This is a cross-cutting experience for the structure of this organization. You’re going to find Airmen who would have normally not worked together meeting other Airmen, who shared cots next to each other and have that common experience for the rest of their career, and maybe the rest of their lives.”
But Welsh also emphasized how this brought Airmen and Soldiers together in a way they had not foreseen but had been working toward in other areas of training.
“This experience made this organization better,” he said, underscoring the years of preparing for a Cascadia earthquake in the region. “During this, we got to know our Army counterparts a lot better. First COVID happened and we developed a unified response, and then civil disturbance happened…all those relationships, all that trust and interconnections that we had been building upon for all these years -- it really paid off.”
| Date Taken: | 06.12.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 06.12.2020 20:39 |
| Story ID: | 372072 |
| Location: | CAMP MURRAY, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 467 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Airmen entrusted to support civil disturbance response during pandemic, by John Hughel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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