Student-soldier recalls D.C. duty
A couple of blocks away from the U.S. vice president’s house, Terell Gray, CSC student and military police soldier, sat cramped on a bus in full kit waiting for riots to break out, as Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.
When he joined Chadron’s 1057th National Guard unit a year and a half ago, he did it to further his education. He never expected to be one of the 26,000 soldiers that were deployed to Washington to guard the Capitol Building.
“When I first got there, I was super geeked out,” he said. “Then I started seeing all these news reports saying there is going to be armed protests and I was like, ‘Wow, I might get shot. People might pull out AR-15s and start shooting at us.’ It was scary at first, I’m not going to lie.
“I was hoping something would happen. I was like, ‘let’s go, let’s go.’ I think they had us on that bus for 18 hours.”
Gray, 18, a freshman of Kimbal, had just finished his first week of classes when his sergeant asked him, “’how do you feel about going to Washington’?”
Gray’s feelings didn’t matter; it wasn’t really a choice.
He arrived in Baltimore on Jan. 17 and returned to Chadron on Jan. 27.
Gray, along with many of his “battle buddies,” as he called them, had never been trained to use riot gear before shipping off to Washington. They hadn’t needed it, until now. So, he spent the first two days cramming for riot duty instead of tests wherever he and his buddies could find space in their Baltimore hotel and their spirits remained high.
“Me and my friends, we were in the hotel just going crazy and acting like morons,” he said. “We spent so many hours in the hotel just hanging out and training.”
On Jan. 19 they moved to Landover Maryland’s FedEx Field, home to the NFL’s Washington football team.
“That was my first time ever being in an NFL stadium,” Gray said. “I’m a carpe diem type of person. I was like, ‘I’m just going to live every moment to the fullest.’”
Gray and the other 300 soldiers from the Nebraska National Guard and the Nebraska Air National Guard were part of the Quick Reaction Force (QRF). Their job was to provide backup if any protests broke out before, during or after the inauguration. In addition, they also stood guard at various checkpoints around the Capitol.
“It was cool and all, but we did a lot of sitting and waiting,” he said. “Technically we were always ready to go but we all knew that nothing was going to happen.”
One of the biggest national stories that came out of the inauguration was National Guard soldiers sleeping in parking garages.
Gray was one of those soldiers.
In his mind, he said that it wasn’t as bad as the media portrayed it. However, he did describe it as “loud” and “rambunctious,” which sometimes made it hard to sleep during his rest hours.
“If you had headphones you just put your headphones in and drowned it all out,” he said.
Gray also said that the USO played a significant role in maintaining high morale among the soldiers stationed in those garages.
“They would bring us food, water, and jerky,” he said. “The USO was probably the biggest help there. A lot of times you’d see them bring a big box and you’d just get swarmed by, like, 50 soldiers.”
With those days now passed, today it turns out that Gray and his battle buddies were not needed. He served his country while simultaneously fulfilling his carpe diem wishes. In the days since he’s returned to Chadron, he’s had opportunity to reflect about his time in Washington.
“It was so pointless for us to be there,” he said. “They did not need 26,000 (soldiers). I think 26,000 is one of those things where the government can go ‘wooha, we sent 26,000 we’re so cool.’
It’s so sad that it came down to that.”