Courtesy Photo | U.S. Army Spc. Colin and Cameron Pare, both assigned to the N.Y. Army National Guard's...... read more read more
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WASHINGTON (April 20, 2021) – Twins brothers Colin and Cameron Pare, both specialists in the New York National Army National Guard’s 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion spent more than two months on duty in D.C. on the capital response mission.
Colin, an unmanned aircraft operator and Cameron, a geospatial imagery intelligence analyst, both 19 years old, are assigned to the battalion’s Delta Company. They arrived in D.C. on Jan. 9, days after the capitol riots, joining more than other 26,000 Guardsmen.
“We got the call to get down here literally the day after the riots happened,” said Cameron. “We were talking about it honestly, we didn’t think we were going to get activated because we’re part of an intel company.”
Having not been to D.C. since they were children, they found a great reception when they arrived from their homes and jobs as security guards at Lockheed Martin in Syracuse, New York, as part of the capitol response mission.
“All of the agencies were definitely welcoming,” said Colin. “They needed the help at the time, they were very unsure of what was going to happen in the days or weeks to come.”
The twins, along with other members of the New York National Guard, were deputized as “special police” and assigned an area around the Hart Senate Office Building, across the street from the U.S. Capitol building. They worked on the night shift, securing a perimeter surrounded by vast lengths of fencing and razor wire.
“We’ve been pulling guard on the fence mostly,” said Cameron. “We were QRF [quick reaction force] for the first month when we first got down here.”
With the Capitol Police being the lead on responding to security incidents, the National Guard maintained QRF teams that were on standby to respond in a moments notice if the police needed support.
“It was hasn’t been too rough,” said Colin. “For something that had to happen so quickly and on such a large scale, I’d say it went off without many hitches.”
The brothers said they both volunteered to go for the experience of it being their first activation in the nearly three years they’ve been in the Army National Guard.
Colin said he joined on Oct. 26, 2018, with his brother following two weeks later.
“For me, I wanted a lot of experiences and I didn’t quite want to go to college immediately out of high school,” said Cameron, who also said he wants to seek out more opportunities for missions in the future.
“I had to explore my options a bit, I wanted a good challenge so I decided to join the Guard.”
Colin, who aspires to become at least a first sergeant, said “I wanted to do some sort of public service, something military related.”
“I thought the National Guard would be a perfect way to do still service my community and my country while pursuing a civilian career.”
Looking back on being able to be some of the few people to witness the 59th presidential inauguration in person, they said it was a very memorable experience.
“It was weird knowing that usually there would be thousands of people lined up across the streets,” said Cameron. “When the day came, it was a ghost town. We pretty much saw nobody.”
Ultimately at the end of the mission, Cameron said they appreciate being able to see how the National Guard handles activations and responding to a situation.
“The more experience I have, the better leader I’ll be in the future,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 04.20.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.20.2021 13:40 |
| Story ID: | 394261 |
| Location: | WASHINGTON, DC, US |
| Web Views: | 115 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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