https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/12/los-angeles-national-guard-troops-marines-morale
California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join.

Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being drawn into a domestic policing operation outside their normal field of operations. The groups said they have heard no countervailing opinions.

“The sentiment across the board right now is that deploying military force against our own communities isn’t the kind of national security we signed up for,” said Sarah Streyder of the Secure Families Initiative, which represents the interests of military spouses, children and veterans.

“Families are scared not just for their loved ones’ safety, although that’s a big concern, but also for what their service is being used to justify.”

Chris Purdy of the Chamberlain Network, whose stated mission is to “mobilize and empower veterans to protect democracy”, said he had heard similar things from half a dozen national guard members. “Morale is not great, is the quote I keep hearing,” he said.

The marines and the California national guard did not respond to invitations to comment.

Trump has taken the unusual step of ordering 4,000 national guard members to Los Angeles without the consent of California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, saying that the city risked being “obliterated” by violent protesters without them. Earlier this week, he also activated 700 marines from the Twentynine Palms base two hours’ drive to the east, describing Los Angeles as a “trash heap” that was in danger of burning to the ground.

In reality, the anti-Trump protests – called first in response to aggressive federal roundups of undocumented immigrants, then in anger at the national guard deployment – have been largely peaceful and restricted to just a few blocks around downtown federal buildings. The Los Angeles police has made hundreds of arrests in response to acts of violence and vandalism around the protests, and the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, has instituted a night-time curfew – all with minimal input from the federal authorities.

At the largest demonstration since Trump first intervened, last Sunday, the national guard was hemmed into a staging area by Los Angeles police cruisers and played almost no role in crowd control. Since then, its service members have been deployed to guard buildings and federal law enforcement convoys conducting immigration sweeps. The marines, who arrived on Wednesday, are expected to play a similar function, with no powers of arrest.

Newsom has described the deployment as “a provocation, not just an escalation” and accused the White House of mistreating the service members it was activating. A widely circulated photograph, later confirmed as authentic by the Pentagon, showed national guard members sleeping on a concrete loading dock floor without bedding, and the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the troops arrived with no lodging, insufficient portable toilets and no funds for food or water.

A pair of YouGov polls published on Tuesday show public disapproval of both the national guard and marines deployments, as well as disapproval of Trump’s immigrant deportation policies. A Washington Post poll published on Wednesday came up with similar findings, but with slightly narrower margins.

Active service members are prohibited by law from speaking publicly about their work. But Streyder, of the Secure Families Initiative, said she had heard dozens of complaints indirectly through their families. She had also seen a written comment passed along to her organization from a national guard member who described the assignment as “shitty” – particularly compared with early secondments to help with wildfire relief or, during the Covid pandemic, vaccination outreach.

“Both of those experiences were uncomplicatedly positive, a contribution back to the community,” Streyder described the message as saying. “This is quite the opposite.”

According to Janessa Goldbeck, a Marine Corps veteran who runs the Vet Voice Foundation, the feeling was similar among some of the troops being sent from Twentynine Palms.

“Among all that I spoke with, the feeling was that the marines are being used as political pawns, and it strains the perception that marines are apolitical,” Goldbeck said. “Some were concerned that the Marines were being set up for failure. The overall perception was that the situation was nowhere at the level where marines were necessary.”

The advocates said it was important to draw a distinction between the personal political preferences of service members, many if not most of whom voted for Trump last November, and the higher principle that military personnel should not get involved in politics or politically motivated missions that blur lines of responsibility with civilian agencies.

“We tend to be uniquely apolitical, as an institution and with each other,” Streyder said. “The military is a tool that should be used as a last resort, not a first response… It does not feel that the tool is being calibrated accurately to the situation.”

The discontent may not be limited to California. In Texas, where the governor, Greg Abbott, called out the national guard on Wednesday in San Antonio, Austin and other cities expecting anti-Trump protests, guardsmen have a history of feeling poorly treated in the workplace if not outright misused, Purdy of the Chamberlain Network said.

After Abbott requisitioned the guard in 2021 to help police the Mexican border – a controversial policy codenamed Operation Lone Star – there were bitter complaints among guard members about the length and nature of an assignment that largely duplicated the work of the federal Border Patrol. Several guardsmen took their own lives.

The LA operations are also sparking safety concerns because of complications inherent in pairing military and domestic police officers, advocates say, since they are trained very differently and use different vocabulary to handle emergency situations. In one infamous episode during the 1992 Los Angeles riots – the last time the military were called out to restore order in southern California – a police officer on patrol turned to his marines counterparts and said “cover me”, meaning be ready with your weapon to make sure I stay safe.

To the marines, though, “cover me” meant open fire immediately, which they did, unloading more than 200 M16 rounds into a house where the police had a tip about a possible domestic abuser. By sheer luck, nobody was hurt.

>>1412350 (OP)
I mean yeah. They're literally being forced to sleep on floors because Trump and Hegseth couldn't be fucked to arrange proper housing.

CJ Chivers, a New York Times reporter who was with the marines in Los Angeles in 1992 and witnessed the tail-end of this near-calamity, wrote years later of his mixed feelings about the assignment: “The Marines’ presence in greater Los Angeles… felt unnecessary,” he said. “I’d like to say we understood the context of the role we were given … But domestic crowd control had never been our specialty.”

Streyder and the other advocates concurred. “Domestic law enforcement and the military are entirely separate functions, manned by separate people who have been given separate training, who come from different cultures,” Streyder said. “As military families, we rely implicitly on that separation being honored and remaining clear.”

>>1412356
Soldiers have not been paid likely won't for at least like a week https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/11/guard-soldiers-deployed-trumps-la-crackdown-arent-getting-paid-yet.html

>>1412359
>Be US soldier
>Vote for Trump, ready to Make America Great Again
>Get deployed to California
>Actual riots are only like 2 blocks so spend most of my time sitting around doing fuck all
>Get to watch people who were just trying to get home during curfew get shot in the head by rubber bullets
>Don't even see a rioter
>Have to sleep on the floor of a federal building because they didn't bother setting up any housing for us
>Find out we're not even getting paid for this

>>1412360
>still, it could be worse
>you could be doing the same but in a windowless VA warehouse eating two MRE's a day waiting to sing 'Happy Birthday' to a sundowning retard for no pay

they are protesting because being an undocumented civilian is a civil offense punishable by a fine. It is not a felony. Everyone knows this, or pretends not to know this, or simply doesn't care for w/e reason.

>>1412364
Its because ICE isn't bothering to do anything except raid businesses where they suspect brown people are working, and eventually letting most of the people they detain go.

>We're here to arrest XXXX XXXXX for illegally being in the country
this is fine
>Let us in, and everyone has to show their papers
This is not fine

>>1412370
I genuinely got to wonder how long until ICE tries to raid a gun nut and gets shot. Who'll be legally culpable? The armed, tac-ed out force that refuses to identify themselves, or the guy who technically shot federal law enforcement?

>>1412360
>>1412362
>>1412356
They serve out of a sense of duty, not money, which is more than you leftist can understand. This is what they trained for. Sleeping on floors is like sleeping at a 5 star hotel for these badasses. And they'll do it because they understand that there can be no price when it comes to combating the enemies of this country.

>>1412387
So you don't have a sense of duty?
Or is it your crippling brain problems that disqualify you?

>>1412387
Duty isn't going to pay bills numbnuts. And no one is happy sleeping on the floor for no fucking reason. They aren't in a warzone; they're in downtown LA. There's literally hotels across the street. There's a difference between being trained to be able to handle rough conditions and being put in them because the higher ups wanted to grandstand but didn't bother actually securing actual lodging for you.

How leftists think its going
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqreRufrkxM
How it's actually going
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8ukak8P2vY

>>1412390
>retards conveniently forgetting that these people have been trained for urban warfare

>>1412392
Again, hard difference between having no choice but to do this, and the higher ups deciding to fuck you over. They could've easily put out cots or something, but instead they're literally sleeping on each other with full fucking gear on because there's like 2 blocks of protests most of them aren't even going to see. They're being forced to shit in porta-potties, eat rations, and sleep on the fucking floor not because they're in an active warzone, but because shithead in chief wanted to show off.

You have no idea how morale works. Troops, shockingly, don't like being treated like dirt with 0 comforts and no pay, because they're human beings and not video game characters.

>>1412393
Boot camp is harder than sleeping on a fucking floor, anon. You live a charmed life.

>>1412393
>You have no idea how morale works. Troops, shockingly, don't like being treated like dirt with 0 comforts and no pay, because they're human beings and not video game characters.
So we can sleep on the cold ground in swampy southern states or in 130+ degree rubber tents in Kuwait or on the rocks at an airfield in Iraq. But GOD FORBID we sleep on the floor of a warehouse in Los Angeles!!!!!!!!!!!!

>>1412396
>shill is confused that soldiers will make sacrifices for American Prosperity, but have problems making sacrifices to make some useless asshole look tough

>>1412397
who cares they train for this. the military is about sacrifice something that every soldier understands. this isnt about trump being tough this is about getting the lefts under control and having collecting debts pile up since against the war of yank aggression. and if it was bout trump being tough so waht. when the trump is tough we are trump because the president is the us of americ.

>>1412397
I went to Iraq for American prosperity?

>>1412398
nah, most Americans hate Trump and hate what he's trying to do.
https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3924

>>1412400
Yeah his big beautiful bull is a big ugly turd

>>1412400
Yeah his big beautiful bill is a big ugly turd

>>1412394
Boot camps have bunks you fucking retard. Because shockingly, when your troops aren't in life or death conditions, it's actually a lot better for them to have proper sleeping conditions.

>>1412396
Just because someone can endure something doesn't mean they're happy with it. No one likes being treated like a fucking prop.

>>1412407
>Just because someone can endure something doesn't mean they're happy with it. No one likes being treated like a fucking prop.
And yet that's like 95% of being in the military. You think we do shit that we want to do?

>>1412410
are you pretending to be american and in the military now? you're a faggot

>>1412380
they want this tho. Look at Philly in '86. A group of black nationalists had a loose coalition. Philly PD blew up an entire block to stop it.

>>1412403
I think a lot of them blame the republicans for it, not Trump.

>>1412387
Pretty sure they joined up to fight America's enemies, not Americans.
>muh illegals
Kill yourself

>>1412420
>Pretty sure they joined up to fight America's enemies, not Americans.
I still remember getting out after OIF and OEF, and people would spit on me and tell me that my entire race deserved to be genocided because I am white. To be fair, my life will never matter until all Black lives matter.

>>1412429
lying on the internet again? for what purpose?

>>1412420
>Pretty sure they joined up to fight America's enemies,
Foreign AND domestic.
>not Americans.
Illegals are not Americans.
>>muh illegals
>Kill yourself
You first.

>>1412430
>lying on the internet again? for what purpose?
Interesting.
What part of that do you think is a lie?

>>1412413
Fucking retards. They’ll be the death of us all.

>>1412432
Things you lied about.
1. you served in Iraq.
2. people spit on you for being white. (if they spit on you it's probably because you're an asshole.)
3. you're not white.
4. you're not an American.

>>1412387
lol, if you think that, you don’t know your history at all. Under paying military is the prime way military coups and revolutions have happened ever. The point of state appointed violence is that the loyalty is rewarded handsomely, the minute it isn’t the apparatus falls apart. Always.

>>1412420
Mexicans are not Americans. Not even the legal ones. They are Mexicans. Just like Guatemalans are Guatemalans and El Salvadoreans are El Salvadoreans. These people do not belong here and they need to leave. They're not fighting Americans, they're fighting invading browns and its exactly what they signed up for.

>>1412400
'Most' Americans voted him in for a reason, he's just not the extremist that they actually voted for. People want someone who will risk his life draining the swamp, destroying corrupt institutions and deporting all the browns, not just the illegals. Trump is not that guy, he's the soft sell between democracy and the actual fascists we'll have to vote into power to get what we want, which is the rest of you being gone from our country.

>>1412637
>'Most' Americans voted him in
obvious lie
>our country
we're not talking about Brazil, we're talking about the US

>>1412637
I appreciate that some of you people have stopped pretending you're not just racist fascist freaks. Honesty's the best policy.

>>1412356
marines prefer to sleep on the floor.

>>1412729
Why shouldn't we be honest? Its our fucking country. The intellectual dishonesty is wearying, in truth. I'm just sick of all the lies and gaslighting and bullshit.

Still, browns need to leave. This place isn't big enough for the both of us.

>>1412934
you're not american and should stop being racist to yourself

>>1412350 (OP)
>Los Angeles as a “trash heap” that was in danger of burning to the ground.
Is he for or against burning trash. I dont understand these metaphors.

>>1412387
>They serve out of a sense of duty, not money,
hahaha, have you ever met an ex soldier?
I have heard many talk about the money being good (pension + Job training)
I havent heard any brag about duty.

>>1412949
its sad thats the case in Russia
most Vets I've met in America love their country and hate habitually lying brazilian airsoft fetishists

>>1412359
Are soldiers usually paid immediately?

>>1412956
1st and 15th of each month for active duty.

>>1412387
>This is what they trained for.

Well, you tried. They're trained for international warfare, not domestic. So based on your words they shouldn't be there in the first place as they are not trained for it.

>>1412387
>>1412958
samefagging here, but additionally:

>The Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878, restricts the use of the U.S. military to enforce domestic laws. It generally prohibits the use of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps as a "posse comitatus" (a group to enforce the law) unless specifically authorized by the Constitution or an Act of Congress. This law reflects a historical concern about the military's role in civilian affairs and aims to prevent the military from being used for law enforcement purposes within the United States.

>>1412960
Well you see, anon, they have Mexican flags and some of them are probably illegal, so this is basically identical to a military invasion and it's totally okay.

>>1412961
Supreme court case Brown v. Texas does not allow that.

>>1412958
Not him... I'm trying to not be an asshole here but it's very telling that you're not really familiar with the military and how it works. First off, we're trained to do whatever the hell we're told to do whether it's in our job description or not. Like even if you're not an MP that's trained to handle riots, you can still be an augmentee and get assigned to do police/anti-riot shit despite having fuck-all for training for it. And secondly, not everyone in the military is some GI Joe action figure designed to be high speed and kill shit. We've got cooks, electricians, medics, etc. So as far as being trained for international warfare, not domestic, really what's the difference?

>>1412960
Other news articles have already covered the many times past presidents have used military to enforce laws, the most recent being the Rodney King riots in the early 90s.

>>1412964
>Other news articles have already covered the many times past presidents have used military to enforce laws, the most recent being the Rodney King riots in the early 90s.
Was Congress involved for this?

>>1412964
>we're trained to do whatever the hell we're told to do whether it's in our job description or not.
Specifically what training do the Marines do for controlling domestic protests? Not the reserve, not the army, the Marines.

>>1412966
>Specifically what training do the Marines do for controlling domestic protests? Not the reserve, not the army, the Marines.
https://www.marines.mil/Photos/igphoto/2000804583/

>>1412967
That is training for the Republic of Korea. KEMP is for providing stability in the Korean Peninsula.

Again, what training specifically has the US Marines done for controlling domestic (USA) protests?

>>1412969
>That is training for the Republic of Korea. KEMP is for providing stability in the Korean Peninsula.
>U.S. Marines and Republic of Korea soldiers

>Again, what training specifically has the US Marines done for controlling domestic (USA) protests?
Nigga I just showed you Marines doing "crowd control tactics." Can you give me a valid reason why they can carry riot shields in Korea but can't do the same thing in Los Angeles?

>>1412964
>the most recent being the Rodney King riots in the early 90s.
Oh, great.

>>1412970
>Can you give me a valid reason why they can carry riot shields in Korea but can't do the same thing in Los Angeles?
Good point

>>1412970
>>1412972

It seems you do not understand the words domestic and international.
I state the US Marines are not trained for domestic conflicts and you pivot hard on US marines training for action is another country. It's bizarre.

>>1412973
>Can you give me a valid reason why they can carry riot shields in Korea but can't do the same thing in Los Angeles?

>>1412980
>sealioning

now we're at the point where the conversation gets circular and the goalposts are moved until it becomes derailed or stale.

>>1412983
Back, back to tumblr!

>>1412983
>>sealioning
So now that we've established you can't give a valid reason, you can fuck off back to plebbit where you belong.

>>1412973
>state the US Marines are not trained for domestic conflicts and you pivot hard on US marines training for action is another country. It's bizarre.
What's really bizarre is the idea that training for a situation only applies to the country once was trained in, and as soon as one leaves that country, they become untrained

>>1413012
It's almost as if it's two different situations. You're so close.

>>1413188
So what's the difference between a riot in Korea and a riot in the US? I'm so curious how their training can only be applied in one country but not the other.

>>1412420
democrats, commies, liberals, socialists, antifa and other radical far-left scum are americas biggest enemies. All lefties should get the death penalty

>>1412387
Nothing destroys your sense of duty better than your own country treating you like shit.

> vote for trump to "make America great again"
> trump bans trannies from the army
> trump gets into war with Iran
> trump brings back draft
> now you have to become a femboy to dodge the draft or risk getting blown up by the revolutionary guard...
Americans keep loosing. Kek.

>>1412362
I'd rather get paid then not. If my boss doesn't pay me, Im stealing whatever I can from the office and leaving