Norton to Speak at D.C. Army National Guard Farewell Ceremony, Today

Press Release

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will speak at the send-off for the District of Columbia Army National Guard's 276th Military Police Company today at 1:00 p.m. at the D.C. National Guard Armory (2001 East Capitol Street SE). Norton, who has seen off every deployment and welcomed every return of the D.C. National Guard during her congressional service, will send off 35 soldiers who will deploy for nine months to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The team of D.C. National Guardsmen will help manage the Theater Field Detention Facility, and their mission will focus on detainee operations, including providing for the care and detention of U.S. prisoners in the region.

"Each time I send off our Capital Guardians, I am reminded by their dual service--from here at inaugurations, to far away in Kuwait, where they are headed today," Norton said. "The 276th Military Police Company is an elite unit in every sense of that word. Today, we recognize not only their sacrifices, but the many untold sacrifices made by the families of our Capital Guardians, the bedrock of our city's military community."

For years now, Norton has gotten annual appropriations to encourage the enlistment and retention in the D.C. National Guard by providing financial assistance to attend undergraduate, vocational, or technical courses through the District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program. Normally, most funding for the National Guard comes from states, but because the D.C. National Guard is 100 percent federally run, and because the mayor lacks jurisdiction to call them up, Norton has insisted that the annual education funding come from the federal government. Norton got $435,000 in funding for the District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program in the fiscal year 2015 omnibus spending bill.

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