{"id":5160,"date":"2021-02-01T15:39:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T15:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=5160"},"modified":"2021-07-18T14:07:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-18T14:07:28","slug":"protecting-democracy-at-a-moments-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2021\/02\/01\/protecting-democracy-at-a-moments-notice\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting Democracy at a Moment’s Notice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Article and photos by Sgt. Chazz Kibler, 29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
U.S. Army, Lt. Col. Adam Tiffen, Commander, Maryland Army National Guard, 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, left, pins a rank to 1st. Lt. Justin Kevan, an infantry officer assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment based in White Oak, Maryland, during a promotion ceremony at the U.S. Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 2021. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Chazz Kibler)<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON – A formation of U.S. Soldiers with the Maryland Army National Guard stand at attention facing the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 2021. Within those ranks, then, 2nd Lt. Justin Kevan, an infantry officer assigned to B Company, 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, based in White Oak, Maryland, waits for his name to be called during his promotion ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States,\u201d said Kevan. \u201cSo, to be out here for my promotion during such an historic time is incredibly rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevan and his unit were sent to Washington, D.C. to provide security, communication, and logistical support to federal and district authorities in the U.S. Capitol Complex. Kevan\u2019s mission and location look much different than his mission did five months ago when he was stationed in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a security forces platoon leader,\u201d said Kevan. \u201cWe provided security for advisors for the 3rd Security Force Assistance Brigade during their key leader engagements at the Afghan National Army compounds or Provincial Governor compounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a member of the National Guard, the tagline, \u201cAlways Ready, Always There,\u201d are words Soldiers live by at a moment\u2019s notice. For Kevan, that moment came on a Wednesday evening January 6.

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
U.S. Army, 1st Lt. Justin Kevan, Maryland National Guard, infantry officer, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment based in White Oak, Maryland, stands at attention in front of a formation during his promotion ceremony at the U.S. Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 2021. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Chazz Kibler)<\/sup><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

\u201cWe got called and were told that we needed to be at the armory at six o\u2019clock the next morning,\u201d said Kevan. \u201cSo, I went home, and I had to re-dig through all my Army equipment, pack it up, and then make it up to an armory that I\u2019ve never been to, to meet a unit and a command team that I\u2019ve never worked with before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevan\u2019s adaptability on such short notice earned the newly promoted 1st Lt. high praise from his commander.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst Lieutenant Kevan brings a wealth of experience to the unit,\u201d said Lt. Col. Adam Tiffen, Commander of 1st Bn, 175th Infantry Regiment. \u201cDespite being new to Bravo Company, he has stepped up during a difficult mobilization to help secure our nation and has done an outstanding job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Maryland\u2019s part of the mission is over in Washington, Kevan said he looked forward to getting back to work, catching up on his fitness routine, and continuing his graduate school education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A formation of U.S. Soldiers with the Maryland Army National Guard stand at attention facing the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 2021. Within those ranks, then, 2nd Lt. Justin Kevan, an infantry officer assigned to B Company, 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, based in White Oak, Maryland, waits for his name to be called during his promotion ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":5163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[945,939,946,873,137],"class_list":["post-5160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-29th-mpad","tag-capdc21","tag-inauguration","tag-maryland","tag-national-guard"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5160"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6702,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions\/6702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}