*Rubicon Security Detail at the Gathering of Eagles*
The article that follows is an abridged compilation of After Action Reports (AAR) security at the March 17, 2007 Gathering of Eagles rally in Washington, DC.
The main intent of the Gathering of Eagles was to protect the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the other memorials from desecration by the various anti-war protestors (Answer Coalition, Free the Cuban 5, 9/11 Conspiracy,and the Black bloc, to name a few) coming together that day.
The rally grew quickly in the veterans' favor to include a counter rally and a rally to show support for our soldiers currently serving around the globe. Attendance figures have shaken out to be anti-war protestors 15,000: veterans and others 30,000. So with the background set we’ll move on.
Our group of 12 was tasked with providing a roving security detail. Our jobs were to assist wayward protestors who stumbled into the wrong areas and remove them safely; help protect the veterans from their own charged emotions; be witnesses to, and try to prevent, any altercations that presented themselves; and to assist as liaisons between the DC Metro enforcement teams and the veterans.
We broke our group into four teams of three individuals each, as we were short of identification shirts (one for each team), with two members of each team serving as backup and communications between our teams and police.
GOE communications consisted of FRS radios. We saw right off that, due to the amount of traffic and the inferior radios in use, this was going to be a problem. Fortunately, one of our members brought some extra mobile radios using dedicated bands, so we had good inter-team communications which aided us greatly.
All Rubies involved in providing security for the GOE both took and gave orders. When one team called for reinforcements at an intersection, we moved immediately. Egos did not get involved. Nobody stopped and said "who does he think he is" or questioned whether any other Rubies' calls were legit...we fully trusted each other to exercise good judgement in issuing directives and in responding to them.
This was a huge part of why we were so effective at keeping a lid on things and operating as a coordinated team. That kind of trust doesn't just happen; it is built both organizationally (i.e. the Rubicon) and individually (i.e. FTF's, team meets, etc).
We were thanked by the Park Police afterward for the very professional job we did in keeping order. We were also thanked by a number of veteran attendees, including some of the same ones we had to talk out of rash actions.
Attendees: Blackhawk, Sierra37, Gator211, Texan, Delta, Hillblufer, Goshin, Skid, OuldSoldier and son, Brian, Shogun, Triad, and Shogun
Shogun
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