According to Commandant-General William Walker, DC National Guard, the shift in leadership was announced in a January 5 memorandum stating that he must seek the approval of the defense minister and the defense before preparing troops for a civilian disorder to respond. .
“It required me to ask permission from the defense minister and the defense minister to essentially protect my guards,” he told senators during a hearing on security failures related to the Capitol attack.
“No civil disruption equipment may be granted unless it has come from the Minister of Defense … the Secretary of Defense told me that I needed his permission to escalate to have that kind of protection,” he said. Walker added and called the January 5th. memo “unusual.”
Asked about the military’s response to former US police chief Steven Sund’s request for additional forces, Walker said he was “dumbfounded”.
“I was frustrated. I was just as dumbfounded as everyone on the call,” he said.
Walker also testified that it took Army leaders more than three hours to authorize the use of troops to quell the January 6 uprising, indicating that the response time did not have ‘sprint speed’, as characterized by the US top official.
Walker told lawmakers that on Jan. 6 at about 1:49 p.m., he received a “wild call from” Sund, whose “voice of emotion cracked,” indicating that there was a serious emergency at the Capitol and he had asked for immediate help from as many available National Guardsmen as I could muster. ‘
“They had the equipment”
Asked how he would respond to the call if the additional DoD restrictions were not imposed, Walker said he would “immediately pull all the guards supporting the Metropolitan Police Service”.
“They had the equipment and the vehicles.” Walker said. “I would get them in the armor, and then get on buses and go straight to the armor and report to the most popular Capitol police officer they saw and take direction, and so on.”
Walker testified that shortly after 2 p.m., he was able to send 155 guards to the Capitol, but could not do so without approval, adding that he eagerly loaded the guards into buses to put on their equipment and waited.
But unlike Milley, who said the Pentagon acted quickly to mobilize National Guard troops as soon as it received a request for additional assistance on January 6, Walker indicated that he believed the authorization process needed less time. take and said that about 150 troops were ready to be deployed. to the Capitol hours before they finally got the green light.
“The approval for Chief Sund’s request would have finally come from the acting defense minister and be handed over to me by the army’s senior leaders at 5:08 pm – 3 hours and 19 minutes later,” Walker said on Wednesday statement said.
“We already had guards on buses ready to pull up to the Capitol. As a result, the District of Columbia National Guard arrived at the Capitol at 5:20 p.m. (within 20 minutes),” Walker added.
But Walker’s timeline contradicts the testimony of Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Security Robert Salesses, who said Wednesday that the full DC national guard was activated within an hour, highlighting the differences of opinion – even between the Department of Defense and the National Guard – Emphasizes how quickly the Pentagon responded to the riots.
Former Secretary of State Ryan McCarthy has instructed the DC National Guard to begin full mobilization. The approval of Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller took place at 4:32 p.m., Salesses added, and McCarthy then ordered the guard to leave the armor and leave for the Capitol.
Capitol police and officials point fingers at Pentagon
During hearings last week, the former Capitol police chief, as well as the former gun sergeant, who all resigned following the riot, accused law enforcement agencies of proving bad intelligence and blamed the Department of Defense for not doing so. does not respond quickly. enough to their requests for help.
But military leaders insisted there was no delay in their end and that it took time to respond to what they said was a vague but urgent request from city officials and the Capitol police. and to organize.
“It’s the DC National Guard that started from a cold start, and they had troops there within two and a half, three hours,” Milley told reporters who traveled with him Monday, according to the Post. a visit to Colorado. “They reacted faster than our most elite forces from a cold start.”
In talks over the past few weeks, defense officials have reiterated that the National Guard is not a first response unit that can send armed troops into a hostile situation with minimal planning. There is also a sense of frustration and annoyance among some former officials that police in the Capitol and others in Washington, DC, expect guards to show up immediately.
“The military cannot mobilize guards or plan for emergencies without request,” former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said in late January.
Pentagon officials repeatedly offered more national guards before January 6 and were turned down, also the day before the riot. Meanwhile, some Department of Defense officials questioned why the Secret Service and Park Police did not sound the alarm earlier in the day of the riot when they saw large crowds gather and make their way to the Capitol.
Last week, the former Senate arms sergeant, the former arms sergeant and Sund all said they needed help from the National Guard. But the three, although they blamed the Pentagon for delaying aid, did not agree when they knew they needed the help and seemed unaware of the process or the command chain for requesting and activating the National Guard.
Sund said he first noticed the need for more help on January 4, two days before the riot. But former Arms Sergeant Paul Irving said he did not interpret Sund’s call as a request, and that Sund, Irving and former Senate Sergeant Michael Stenger agree that intelligence does not support calling in more troops.
The final decision was to mobilize 340 soldiers from the DC National Guard, along with a rapid reaction force of 40 people and a team for chemically-biological hazardous materials. The guards had the specific task, which the Pentagon, Washington officials and others agreed on, to help with traffic control.
This story has been updated with additional developments.