By Senior Master Sgt. Andrew J. Moseley, 177th Fighter Wing
The 177th Fighter Wing mobilized more than 60 Airmen from across the Wing on a mission to support the D.C. National Guard in the Capitol Region, providing security, protecting National Monuments, and ensuring a peaceful transfer of power. The short-notice New Jersey National Guard movement on January 14th included New Jersey Army National Guard Soldiers from the 1-114th Infantry Regiment, B Troop from the 102nd Cavalry Regiment, and the 508th Military Company, as well as Airmen from the 108th Wing and the 177th FW, in support of this security mission.
“I would venture to say it was unprecedented,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Aaron Dunn, 177th Fighter Wing Mission Support Group commander. “We mobilized, from the time the Wing commander asked us for volunteers to them being immediately ready for mission requirements and enroute to D.C., in under 48 hrs., with a couple of the advanced operational node team members actually in D.C. in under 24 hrs.” “There has been a ton of direct collaboration using CVR (commercial virtual remote) Teams that has been amazing,” said Dunn. “We’ve gotten to the point where there is so much information flowing back and forth that we’ve set up separate chat rooms for the Joint Force Headquarters and the Joint Operations Center and the command and control communication has been fantastic. Lots of communication. Due to COVID, because we’ve hurried up and got it on the street, CVR has fully enabled us. It’s made it so everyone has the same information in front of them at the same time, in real time, and it has been fantastic.”
“I’m so incredibly impressed with everything our enlisted noncommissioned officers in charge have been able to do,” said 2d Lt. Jennifer Love, 177th Logistics Readiness officer and interim installation deployment officer. “This is a completely unprecedented time and then you add the complexity of COVID-19, you add the complexity of another movement and in some way, they’ve been able to make all of the complexity uncomplicated and make it happen, in a matter of hours.” 177th FW noncommissioned officers from supply helped equip the Airmen, Force Support Squadron personnel helped coordinate individual units’ ability to process their Airmen’s orders, Security Forces Squadron conducted just-in-time arms training, the plans office choreographed logistics with all of the unit deployment managers, the 177th Medical Group coordinated health checks, and vehicle operations. “I really want a lot of the junior Airmen to understand what it took to make this happen,” said Love. “And how completely unexpected it was and how well it was able to be executed, with a lot of teamwork, a lot of coordination, and a lot of that Jersey Devil grit.”
Up to 15,000 citizen-Soldiers and -Airmen from 43 states and territories are currently authorized to provide security, communications, medical evacuation and other support to civilian authorities throughout the presidential inauguration. At the request of the U.S. National Guard Bureau, and authorized by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, 500 Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen are deploying to Washington, D.C. “The National Guard has a long and proud history of inauguration support. The forefathers of today’s National Guard were present for the Inauguration of George Washington, and we have been part of every inauguration since,” said Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, Chief of the National Guard Bureau.
