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Update on ANC6B and National Guard Beautification

by Larry Janezich

Posted October 17, 2025

Marcus Hunt, Office of the Deputy Mayor’s Director of DC Government Operations for the DC National Guard, makes a presentation to ANC6B.  Hunt has been billed in local media as “Director of the National Guard.” 

Wednesday night, at its hybrid October meeting, ANC6B re-affirmed its decision not to place a discussion of the National Guard on the meeting’s agenda.  The genesis of the proposed discussion was an offer from the Guard – via Marcus Hunt, DC’s liaison to the Guard – to help with beautification projects in ANC commissioners’ single member districts.  The offer was sent to individual ANC commissioners across the city.  Some commissioners suggested that since Hunt’s offer was sent to individual commissioners, the decision should be left to them, and as such, there was no role for the ANC in this matter. 

Commissioner David Sobelsohn continued to push to hear from two individuals on the subject. First, from Marcus Hunt, who was billed as the Director of the National Guard, but who is actually an employee of the Office of the Deputy Director of Public Safety.  He is the city’s liaison with the National Guard on the issue of beautification efforts.  And while he is also a Lt. Col. in the National Guard he did not appear in uniform and is currently not acting “under orders.”  Second, from ANC2G01 Commissioner Howard Garrett who authored a letter opposing Commissioners accepting the offer for the Guard to assist in beautification projects because that would “normalize” the Guard for tasks that belong to civilian agencies. 

It is routine for the commission to provide a period for “Community Announcements” and it was the consensus of the commission that Hunt and Garrett could use this time to discuss the National Guard.  Comments are usually limited to three minutes, but the Commission agreed to a motion to allow discussion at the beginning of the period and then subsequently set a time limit of 20 minutes. 

As it turned out, the discussion lasted some 40 minutes, but produced little clarification on beautification possibilities as Hunt discussed his background, history of the Guards and its relation to DC, his job with the Deputy Mayor’s Office and some of the beautification activities the Guard has undertaken.  He referred questions regarding the safety activities of the Guard to Master Sergeant Arthur Wright (who was not present), saying he could only speak at tonight’s meeting to talk about beautification.

During the Q&A, the meeting turned confrontational as some of the dozen community members attending in-person challenged the legitimacy of the deployment of the National Guard on DC streets – a subject on which Hunt could not comment.  One member of the audience expressed his appreciation for the Guard’s presence in the community.  Afterward, Commissioner Howard Garrett, appearing on-line, read a prepared statement reiterating the points of his letter (which many ANC Commissioners have signed) opposing requesting assistance for beautification efforts. 

Following the discussion, Sobelsohn proposed two more motions.  The first asked the ANC’s Public Safety Committee to make a recommendation about what commissioners should do regarding the Guard’s offer to help with beautification projects.  When that motion failed for lack of a second, the second motion asked for a recommendation from the ANC’s Parks and Public Spaces Task Force.  That motion also failed for a lack of second. 

ANC6C meeting on October 8, 2025. National Guard Director Lt. Col. Marcus Hunt is at center. Chair Karen Wirt is top, center.

National Guard Director’s Q&A with ANC6C 

by Larry Janezich

Posted October 9, 2025

National Guard Official’s Q&A with ANC6C 

Wednesday night, ANC6C heard a short on-line presentation from Lt. Col. Marcus Hunt, DC National Guard Director of Government Operations, on how the National Guard connects to the DC community.  The occasion was the ANC’s October meeting, conducted virtually and chaired by Commissioner Karen Wirt. 

Hunt is the liaison between the Guard’s commander – Brigadier General Leland Blanchard – and Lindsey Appiah, DC Deputy Mayor of Public Safety and Justice.     

In a 20 minute session ANC commissioners Hunt stressed the home-grown character of the National Guard, presenting them as neighbors who like himself live in the community.  Commissioners heard how the Guard’s beautification program works, asked questions about what kinds of beautification assistance the Guard could provide and expressed concerns about the Guard’s role as a military presence in the city. 

Hunt explained the current mission ordered by the President on August 11, has two components: Task Force Safe and Task Force Beautification.  He said he was at the ANC meeting to discuss Task Force Beautification and that any questions on Task Force Safe should be submitted to National Guard Master Sergeant Arthur Wright, whose email he provided. 

He said Task Force Beautification has three components:  resilience, opportunity, and community and each of these components has two subsets:  food/housing, youth/jobs, and help/safe and public spaces.  He spent considerable time on the youth/jobs component and the Guard’s efforts to provide opportunities for and mentoring of at risk youth. 

With respect to the help/safe and public spaces subset, in September Hunt had sent an email to all ANC commissioners in the city asking about neighborhood beautification projects and offering assistance.

On Wednesday night, Hunt emphasized that community requests for assistance must be filtered through ANC Commissioners (but apparently not through the full ANCs).  Upon receipt of the request by his office it undergoes an assessment regarding whether it is  something the National Guard can support. 

Commissioner Jeremiah Foxwell began the short Q&A by asking about the limits of what the Guard could do, specifically if that would include acting as crossing guards on H Street to provide an element of safety for school children crossing H Street NE.  Commissioner Daniela McInerney added to Foxwell’s question expressing resident’s concerns about armed National Guard in battle gear noting that “we have had the National Guard patrolling the streets around Ludlow Taylor Elementary School without the community being notified.” 

Hunt replied that he wasn’t trying to deflect the question about patrolling streets but said that any question relating to Task Force Safe should be directed to Master Sergeant Wright.  He added that what he could say regarding not notifying the community of a mission operation is that a lot of those are just not shared publicly for operational safety purposes.

Rather than giving Foxwell a specific response to the crossing guard question, Hunt said that “once I receive an email from an ANC commissioner inviting Task Force Beautification into the community to serve side by side with community members – that’s where we kind of lean forward – to go through our process to partner with the community.”  

Just how “partner with the community” is defined is somewhat uncertain, but it implies personal interaction.  Though not explicitly stated this appears to mean working alongside community members (for example in cleanup and other projects) which allow the Guard to engage directly with community. 

Hunt added, “We have been very successful in the safe public spaces subset in responding to invitations from the ANC commissioners…a half dozen Ward 8 commissioners have invited us out…we have an event in Ward 4 this Saturday at Fort Stevens Park…we also have a bit upcoming with Ward 5 to do some community clean up and partnership.”

Commissioner Andrew Hayes addressed the resentment of the presence of the Guard on city streets felt by many residents.   He acknowledged that some of the Guard are neighbors…“but at the same time I think it is unacceptable and not appropriate for our streets to be policed by people in military gear and I would really appreciate if you could take the message back that we would only be open – at least I personally would only be able to support assistance from the current beautification if those folks can work in (civilian attire)….”   

Hunt replied that if an ANC Commissioner sends an invitation with requirements regarding – for example – community clean up in civilian clothes, “I believe that’s doable.”

It appeared that Hunt had limited his availability to 20 minutes, and Chair Wirt thanked him for appearing.  He may not have still been online in the virtual meeting when former ANC6A Commissioner Drew Courtney summed up his own feelings which likely crystallized the mixed feelings many have about neighbors who are Guard members, Guard members sent from other parts of the country and the other federal law enforcement officers deployed in DC. 

Courtney said, “I am so grateful for the service of our neighbors in the National Guard and I think one of the saddest things about these recent months has been the way that the politicization of the Guard has undermined some really good efforts.  But I don’t think there’s any way right now that we can expect constituents to separate what we’re seeing from Guards who have been sent in against the will of our limited representatives from Ohio and South Carolina and from West Virginia, and the fact that this is so closely associated … with the raids that are really unconscionable being conducted by ICE…. I think we all underscore our gratitude for our neighbors in uniform but the respect for that uniform has been undermined by the political actions that have been taken by the president in this community and I think we have to recognize that.”