A look inside the unprecedented Nat'l Guard deployment securing DC - exclusive
| Date | 17 January 2021 |
| Published date | 17 January 2021 |
| Author | SETH J. FRANTZMAN |
"For many of us, this wasn't just an attack on our democratic institutions; it was also an attack on our friends, families and neighbors," he said.
Tiffen holds a Juris Doctorate degree from the George Washington University Law School and a bachelor's degree in international business from Thomas Jefferson University. He is a veteran of three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and an infantry officer in the Maryland Army National Guard.
"Within an hour of first hearing about the attack on the US Capitol, I received a call telling me that Maryland was mobilizing our unit," he told the Post. "In some situations, for example, a natural disaster, we often can anticipate a call-up and begin to get ready days in advance.
"That wasn't the case here, so soldiers suddenly dropped everything and prepared to deploy within a matter of hours. On the morning of the seventh, we began deploying into Washington, DC, and securing the Capitol."
The call up was supposed to last a week, but hours after the mobilization, it was clear it would last longer, Tiffen said.
That was on January 6. His units were the first to arrive in the city, he said. At the time, most roads were open to the public, and residents were still going about their daily routines. However, there was a major ramp-up taking place in the security posture across the district.
The city went from feeling "normal" to completely different, Tiffen said.
"Authorities have installed miles of non-scalable fences," he said. "Military and civilian forces have blocked roads and established checkpoints, and thousands of troops and civilian law enforcement have arrived to take up positions across the region."
Tiffen, like people across the world, was shocked by the scenes on January 6.
"When I joined the military, I took an oath, as do all members of the US military," he said. "The oath begins, 'I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.' The idea of a 'domestic' enemy – of our fellow Americans who seek to overthrow our government and destroy our way of life through terrorism and violence – is a hard reality to accept. It is a reality that I, like our nation, will have to come to terms with."
Many of the soldiers in his unit live and work in Washington, Tiffen...
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