Can we get a location check on the 200 Colorado National Guard forces sent to Washington in January to assist with the mostly virtual Inauguration Day festivities?
Gov. Polis has been completely mum as a few weeks turned into a few months.
We were told all the guardsmen would be sent home in late March, assuming ours are still with them. Polis won’t say and we can’t find any media updates.
But now Nancy Pelosi and the Biden administration are insisting on keeping about half the force, 2,300, through May 23.
According to CNN, governors who still have troops guarding these miles of fences topped with razor wire are being asked to extend the duty of the men and women who volunteer their time away from family and work.
For the next several days the troop levels are likely to be in flux as the Pentagon tries to finalize commitments from governors around the country on how many troops they will commit to the extended operation. If governors who want to participate are not able to get enough guard forces to volunteer they could face having to order involuntary call-ups, officials say.
They still won’t give a reason for heavily armed troops guarding the Capitol along with thousands of Capitol Hill Police officers, except they need to hire more police before the guard can be let go.
The Defense Department also claims to need a permanent number of National Guard on standby to protect Congress against the threat of … angry voters, we presume.
Meanwhile, Polis announced two weeks ago he deployed 130 of our state guard to Africa for a year of duty.
Polis also deployed 60 guard troops to the Middle East in February, and 200 of our troops were sent to D.C.
Last year, more than 400 National Guard troops were activated to assist with vaccinations and other COVID-19 duties, while hundreds more were deployed during the summer wildfires.
This week, we have 50 guard troops currently on stand-by in the aftermath of the massive snowstorm to assist with search and rescue.
Colorado’s National Guard serves a vital purpose to our state, and should not be used as political props by politicians and kept any longer in the nation’s capital.
Tell Polis it’s way past time to bring our troops home.