That unit insignia is 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, “Old Hickory,” most of which is here in North Carolina. Now our Democratic governor has not sent any troops to support this deployment; that means these are the West Virginia NG contingent. That means they are the 1st Squadron, 150th Cavalry Regiment. I spent some time with their predecessors 16 years ago in Iraq. Their predecessors were good men, West Virginia hillbillies of course but citizen-soldiers of good character. Hopefully these men are too, because suddenly a lot depends upon that.
They are armed with M4 carbines in condition Amber — I assume, since it’s cosmetically indistinguishable from Red but Red would be reckless beyond what I can imagine a military commander supporting.
This is all remarkably reckless in any case. Trump and Hegseth, of course, but it’s already well beyond the risk tolerance of the regular military.
Now the 1-150th are mostly cavalry scouts and armor personnel. They’re at least not trained infantry whose practiced responses are extremely lethal. Still, this is a perilous decision. The risk they are running here is very high.
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