Norton to Speak at Welcoming Home Ceremony for D.C. Army National Guard’s 1946th Support Detachment, Today
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today will give remarks to honor the D.C. Army National Guard's 1946th Support Detachment's return home at a Freedom Salute at the D.C. Armory (2001 East Capitol St. SE) at 3:00p.m. Norton has seen off every deployment and welcomed home every return of the D.C. National Guard during her congressional service. The group is a contracting support element, which deployed four Army Nation National Guard soldiers last year in support of Operation: Enduring Freedom; three soldiers were deployed to Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar, and one solider was deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan. Norton will also salute D.C. Army National Guard Capt. Miranda Summer-Lowe, who served as a public affairs officer in 2014 with the U.S. Africa Command, Combined Joint Task-Force-Horn of Africa while deployed in Djibouti.
"This ceremony reminds us of how widespread, diversified and continuous the service of our D.C. National Guard in America's wars has been," Norton said. "That's why I am so proud and humbled to stand up for our Capital Guardians, whose sacrifices can never be fully repaid. Our D.C. National Guard is an elite group comprised of the finest men and women our community has to offer. Each of them is ready at any moment to answer the call and protect their nation both here and abroad. The District of Columbia is fortunate to have such selfless men and women serving our country and our city."
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 this year's District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program in the fiscal year 2015 omnibus spending bill.