Washington, D.C. – Approximately 340 Soldiers and Airmen from the Florida National Guard are scheduled to assist with the upcoming presidential inauguration on Friday.



The collection of Florida National Guardsmen, led by the 779th Engineer Battalion as 83rd Troop Command’s task force command and control element, began their journey northward in the early morning hours yesterday.



The mission for the Soldiers includes supporting Task Force Crowd and is one of the many varied roles National Guardsmen serve. For this particular assignment, supporting the 58th Presidential Inauguration is classified as Defense Support of Civil Authorities with guardsmen assisting local and federal civilian agencies in the Washington, D.C. area.



“We are the eyes and ears of the U.S. Park Police and civil authorities that are out there,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Edson Kline, Joint Task Force Florida/Task Force Crowd Commander and 779th Engineer Battalion Commander. “We do have the mission of Task Force Crowd, but if you see something, say something. We need to make sure that we are reporting any issues that we see up through the [U.S.] Park Police and up through the chain of command.”



Overall, Florida National Guard has mobilized Soldiers and Airmen from 83rd Troop Command, 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 50th Regional Support Group, Joint Force Headquarters and the 125th Fighter Wing.



“The Florida National Guard’s participation in presidential inaugurations has grown over the past decades,” said U.S. Army Maj. Sidney Hill, Joint Task Force Liaison to the District of Columbia National Guard. “Florida has been providing a larger number of service members every four years and this time we’re in charge of nearly 1,100 Guardsmen from nine other states.”



The 779th Engineer Battalion, the component that has overseen the direction and planning for the mission, is also in a unique situation as it begins to undergo force restructuring. The battalion has had to balance support to its eight companies, address personnel reassignments while also planning, coordinating and preparing for the inauguration.



“We learned that we were tasked with this mission in October last year,” said U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Christopher Butler, Headquarters 779th Engineer Battalion, who is helping to oversee the planning and mission coordination for Joint Task Force Florida. “But things have been going pretty well for a complex operation especially considering all the other units participating we’ve had to work with from different states and our force restructuring.”



The eight other states supporting Task Force Crowd hail from Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. All are tasked with supporting the U.S. Park Police. Approximately 7,500 National Guardsmen from 41 different states and three territories will be in and around the main parade routes during the inauguration.

NEWS INFO Date Taken: 01.18.2017 Date Posted: 01.18.2017 21:07 Story ID: 220615 Location: DC, US Web Views: 234 Downloads: 0 Podcast Hits: 0 PUBLIC DOMAIN This work, Florida National Guard Leads Eight-State Task Force for the 58th Presidential Inauguration, by MAJ Colleen Krepstekies, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.