- Oct 17, 2011
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Not directly related, but good for contrast.
The D.C. National Guard’s deployment of helicopters to quell racial justice demonstrations in Washington last summer, a chilling scene in which two aircraft hovered extremely low over clusters of protesters, was a misuse of military medical aircraft and resulted in the disciplining of multiple soldiers, the Army said Wednesday.
Senior officials, including then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, have maintained that the mission was to observe crowds and help police track people’s movements, and they have dismissed assertions that the maneuvers were intended to frighten and scatter protesters on the streets after a curfew had been imposed.
But a redacted investigative report released Wednesday appears to contradict those claims, with some soldiers involved in the operation telling investigators they believed their mission was to deter looting and vandalism with their helicopters. “Be loud … fly low over the crowds,” said one unidentified member of the Lakota crew, describing the mission parameters as they understood them.
The next day, as D.C. officials and members of Congress demanded answers, Army officials informed [Brig. Gen. Robert K.] Ryan there were concerns about the helicopter flights. Ryan told them the mission had been “fully vetted” by Trump.
Investigators found “no evidence,” the report says, that the use of air assets was ever discussed among senior leaders coordinating the military’s response that night.
The D.C. National Guard’s deployment of helicopters to quell racial justice demonstrations in Washington last summer, a chilling scene in which two aircraft hovered extremely low over clusters of protesters, was a misuse of military medical aircraft and resulted in the disciplining of multiple soldiers, the Army said Wednesday.
Senior officials, including then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, have maintained that the mission was to observe crowds and help police track people’s movements, and they have dismissed assertions that the maneuvers were intended to frighten and scatter protesters on the streets after a curfew had been imposed.
But a redacted investigative report released Wednesday appears to contradict those claims, with some soldiers involved in the operation telling investigators they believed their mission was to deter looting and vandalism with their helicopters. “Be loud … fly low over the crowds,” said one unidentified member of the Lakota crew, describing the mission parameters as they understood them.
The next day, as D.C. officials and members of Congress demanded answers, Army officials informed [Brig. Gen. Robert K.] Ryan there were concerns about the helicopter flights. Ryan told them the mission had been “fully vetted” by Trump.
Investigators found “no evidence,” the report says, that the use of air assets was ever discussed among senior leaders coordinating the military’s response that night.
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