Secret military task force securing DC (originally posted 04/2020...)

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U.S. EXCLUSIVE: AS WASHINGTON DC FACES CORONAVIRUS SPIKE, SECRET MILITARY TASK FORCE PREPARES TO SECURE THE CAPITAL
BY WILLIAM M. ARKIN ON 4/16/20 AT 9:58 AM EDT

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But a little-known military task force charged with evacuating Washington has already been activated, a task force charged with the most sensitive government mission of "securing" Washington in the face of attackers, foreign and domestic—and if necessary, moving White House and other key government offices to alternate locations.

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Activated on March 16, Joint Task Force National Capital Region (JTF-NCR) is chartered to "defend" Washington on land, in the air, and even on its waterfronts. The special task force, the only one of its kind in the country, demonstrates how there are two sides of government preparedness. The public face, and even the day-to-day work of most men and women assigned to JTF-NCR, is the same as it is everywhere else in the country—medical support, delivering supplies, manning health-check stations. Ads by scrollerads.com But behind the scenes, JTF-NCR is responsible for what the military calls "homeland defense": what to do in the face of an armed attack on the United States, everything from guarding Washington's skies to preparing for the civil unrest that could occur if a nuclear weapon were detonated in the capital. But most immediate, JTF-NCR is charged with facilitating continuity of government, particularly moving civil and military leaders to secret locations were the order given to evacuate the city

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And yet the activation of Joint Task Force National Capital Region, including almost 10,000 uniformed personnel to carry out its special orders, contradicts those assurances. JTF-NCR is not only real and operating, reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense for some of its mission, but some of its units are already on 24/7 alert, specially sequestered on military bases and kept out of coronavirus support duties to ensure their readiness.

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On March 12, families and friends gathered at a Decatur, Illinois, National Guard armory to say their goodbyes to guardsmen and women who were shipping out. "This is my first time getting to do something big for my country," Alycia Thomas, 29, an Army Specialist from Peoria, told the local Herald & Review.

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All anyone would say was that two Blackhawk helicopter companies of the 106th Aviation Battalion were headed to Fort Belvoir, in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. There, "something big" was a special assignment in support of Joint Task Force–National Capital Region.

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On that battlefield, the Illinois 106th Aviation Battalion's helicopters would be used to evacuate everyone from Army leaders to the White House. "We are that quick reaction force that allows us to help mobilize forces within the Washington DC area, evacuate people, or whatever that might be," says Cpt. Adam Kowalski of the Illinois Guard. "We're kind of like that big taxicab that makes sure everybody gets where they need to be and keeps the government going."

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In peacetime, the Joint Forces Headquarters is merely a coordinator, with each of the military services retaining control of their forces. But once the Joint Task Force is activated, as it has been now, operations and units shift to what the military calls "operational command." Maj. Gen. Jones is now in charge. He isn't some martial law commander who takes precedence over any civil authorities, nor is he out in public telling anyone outside his secretive task force what to do. But he is the military man who would be in charge in Washington if civil government broke down.

Gen. Jones' battlefield is defined in U.S. law as the "National Capital Region," which includes the District of Columbia; Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties in Maryland; Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William Counties in Virginia; and all cities and towns included within the outer boundaries of that area. The Pentagon plan for the Joint Task Force's operation says that the NCR houses all three branches of the Federal Government, over 270 federal departments and agencies, an inventory of over 880 government-owned and leased facilities and nearly 300,000 federal workers.

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Beyond the 3rd Regiment, Maj. Gen. Jones can call on a dozen or more specialized units, all allocated for DC area duties under JTF-NCR:

The Marine Corps Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF), a specialized unit able to provide "swift and robust support" to the White House, U.S. Capitol Police and the Secret Service in the event of a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, or High-yield Explosive incident. Two subordinate initial response forces (IRFs) are assigned approximately 150 personnel each. One IRF is maintained on a constant 24-hour alert, with the second IRF prepared to deploy within 48 hours.

The Army Special Reaction Team (SRT), a sort of super SWAT team comprised of elements from 289th Military Police Company and 947th Military Police Detachment, infantry of the 3rd Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard); officers from the base-level Directorate of Emergency Services and DC, Maryland and Virginia State Police Departments.

The Army Aviation Brigade, including the 12th Aviation Battalion, the Army Priority Air Transportation detachment; and the now deployed Illinois National Guard 106th Aviation Battalion. Other helicopter evacuation units include HMX-1, a large Marine Corps unit that provides the "Marine One" helicopter for the President, and the 1st Helicopter Squadron, an Air Force unit at Andrews air force base also chartered with Washington-specific duties. A specialized "technical rescue" unit, the 911th Engineer Company, able to conduct urban search and rescue; even burrowing into the rubble of the White House, were it attacked.

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Maj. Gen. Jones gave an interview to "Fort Meade Declassified" on March 17, an official and breezy official podcast about goings on in the Washington area military. There he talked about growing up in Maryland and his job as senior officer responsible for the Washington battlefield. When asked what he was doing in his leisure time, he said that he had just finished reading a book about the riots in Washington, DC in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The name of that book? "A Nation on Fire."

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