Newcastle native deployed to D.C. with National Guard

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent
 
With Jan. 6 marked as a day that could go down in history due to the storming of and break-in at Washington, D.C., the U.S. National Guard made an extra effort to be present at the 2021 inauguration of President Joe Biden. Not only was the Washington, D.C., National Guard deployed but other units across the country joined the forces. Among the troops were local coal miner Justin Kolbeck, who has been a member of the South Dakota National Guard since 2005. Kolbeck was part of the military team that served in D.C. on Jan. 20. He was deployed a few days before the inauguration and came home around Jan. 27. 
Kolbeck, a squad leader, said his unit was in charge of guarding Independence Avenue, which included everything from Third to 14th streets. Basically, he said, they were responsible for an area that reached from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. During the week, Kolbeck and other Guard members carried 0.9 mm handguns and were deputized by the Department of Homeland Security. While nothing too exciting happened, Kolbeck said, Guard members were exhausted from pulling long days. The first day they started their deployment turned into an 18-hour day with the remainder of the week averaging 14-hour days or sometimes longer. 
Of news articles reporting that Guard troops were sleeping in parking garages, Kolbeck said that he “can’t tell you what’s fact and what’s fiction” of the reports. But he and his team did not have to sleep in a parking garage, he said. Instead, due to COVID-19, each member of the Guard received a hotel room for the week. Kolbeck said they were originally supposed to take their breaks in a garage, but the location was changed to the top floor of the Deskin building. 
With all the uncertainty and controversy surrounding the events on Jan. 6, serving in D.C. during the inauguration gave Kolbeck the perfect opportunity to hear what happened from the perspective of those who were actually there on that day, he said. 
According to Kolbeck, he talked with officers from the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C., and out of the dozens he connected with, only two of them were present at the Capitol during the incident. Those officers told him that there were supporters of President Donald Trump, as well as many ANTIFA members present, some of whom even dressed as Trump supporters. Kolbeck said that he merely wanted to point out that, contrary to media reports, the information he received was “first-hand knowledge” from local people. 
During the storming of the Capitol, the National Guard was not activated, and Kolbeck said he found it “odd” because the Guard has always been enlisted for protests and demonstration events. After talking with members of the Capitol’s Guard unit and learning they were told to stand down on Jan. 6, Kolbeck said, he wondered why. While he was able to ask some questions of the locals in D.C., he said the trip left him with even more questions. 
However, serving in the National Guard hasn’t been all work and no play. Over the past 16 years, Kolbeck said, he has had some very rewarding moments too. He considers himself a patriot, which was his primary reason for joining the Guard, but he was also following in the footsteps of his father, who also served in the Guard. And while the deployments that come with military life are hard on his family at times, he likes the fact that the Guard allows him to serve in the military while still remaining local. 
“I wanted to serve my community,” Kolbeck said. 
In 2006, he was part of a combat tour, and over the years, he’s seen eight countries, including those in South America, Europe and Southeast Asia. He even had the opportunity to operate a 0.50 caliber machine gun in Iraq. 
But his most rewarding experience occurred in the local area when a blizzard hit South Dakota during the winter of 2008. The Guard was activated to help with snow removal, so Kolbeck began clearing Interstate 90 and local streets before moving on to gravel roads with 10-to-12-foot drifts. A local rancher waved him down, explaining that his family had no heat and his baby was sick and needed to go to the hospital. Although, for liability reasons, the Guard isn’t supposed to clear private roads and drives, Kolbeck made an exception and immediately started removing snow. The rancher was able to take his baby to the hospital. 
“That was one of the most rewarding moments with the Guard,” Kolbeck said. 
Another thing Kolbeck appreciates about the Guard is although they’ve seen a lot of conflict during active duty, there are many good experiences. Every guard unit has a “sister nation” that it helps, and his unit is responsible for Suriname. Kolbeck had the opportunity to go to the South American country and do humanitarian work, such as building schools and clinics. 
While he sees both good days and bad, Kolbeck said he has learned a lot from being in the National Guard and it has allowed him to serve both his local community and beyond.