Lt. Colonel Gregory C. Goodwater

The D.C. National Guard requested an additional 15,000 National Guard be present through the Inauguration.  These guards came from all 50 states plus U.S. territories.  On January 17th, 274 troops from the Nebraska National Guard prepared to go to our Nation's Capitol.  They come from almost every county in Nebraska.  They are made up of both men and women.

 

They were processed, got medical supplies ready, plus other equipment and loaded up and was ready within 72 hours to go to Washington, D.C.  There job was to prevent any more insurrections or riots from happening during the inauguration festivals.  Their mission for to last 96 hours.  Their directions came from the D.C. National Guard.  They were met at Andrews AFB, taken to an area to be processed, sworn in and given their instructions.  They were bused to four different hotels, where they could sleep and eat.  This as you can see took a lot of coordinating to get things done. Fortunately, nothing happened during the Inauguration ceremonies, but it was nice to have some type of protection in place.

 

During their stay, the Republic of Czechosolovakia made them a hot meal.  The Nebraska National Guard has a partnership with the Republic of Czechosolovakia and they wanted to help out.  The troops from Nebraska was in good spirits at all times.  Their job was to help with administration and disciplinary control.  They had only 24 hours of training.  Each year they do some training in these two areas and on occasion do some riot training.  

 

The Nebraska National Guard is made of individuals how have occupations, and come from at least 40-50 counties out of our 93 counties.  They have to leave those occupations each time they are called up for duty, so their employer must be flexible with them.

 

Goodwater said that it took them longer to get back home because of the weather.  We had gotten over 15 inches of snow, so it took about three days to get back to Lincoln.  Lt. Col. Goodwater also told us that Andrews AFB is not a huge base.  With all the planes that came in with troops, it was difficult to get those planes out when everyone wanted to get back home.  He did admit it was quite an adventure.