The internal document of the Oregon National Guard and an investigative report on doubts and reality

Portland – It is a sentence that is hard to surpass in its absurdity: “It looks like a warzone… Unless they are playing false recordings, this looks like World War II. The place is burning down.” With these words, President Donald Trump described Portland, Oregon – and thus justified the decision to send 200 soldiers of the Oregon National Guard under federal command into the city.

hat sounds like a dramatic threat turns out, upon closer inspection, to be a constructed backdrop: in a deliberately edited broadcast, Fox News mixed current footage of a few dozen demonstrators with archival material from 2020, when tens of thousands took to the streets after the murder of George Floyd. Street battles, tear gas, a man being pepper sprayed in the face at close range by federal agents – scenes long past were sold as “proof” of an ongoing left-wing threat. See our report: The Big Lie of Portland – How Fox News Feeds Trump and Turns a City into an Enemy Image at the link: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/die-grosse-luege-von-portland-wie-fox-news-trump-fuettert-und-eine-stadt-zum-feindbild-macht/ and our article: The Big Lie of Portland II – Trump’s Threat, Fox’s Images and the Truth on the Street at the link: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/die-grosse-luege-von-portland-ii-trumps-drohung-fox-bilder-und-die-wahrheit-auf-der-strasse/

While Trump and his Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered a martial staging in front of hundreds of officers in Quantico, political and military reality elsewhere struggled with the consequences. In Portland itself the decision is causing protests, in Salem the governor is trying legally to stop the deployment through a temporary restraining order. And from within the National Guard itself a document has now been leaked that mercilessly reveals the discrepancy between the boastful speeches in Washington and the mood at the base.

“Yesterday the Department of Defense asked for our support through U.S. Northern Command. The mission is clear: protection of federal buildings and the employees working there.”

The letter comes from Brig. Gen. Alan R. Gronewold, the commander of the Oregon National Guard. In a letter to the 200 mobilized soldiers and airmen, he explains what the mission means – and above all what it is not. “Yesterday the Department of Defense asked for our support through U.S. Northern Command. The mission is clear: protection of federal buildings and the employees working there,” it says matter-of-factly. But Gronewold does not conceal that he knows his troops’ skepticism: “I know some of you have strong feelings about this mission. That is okay. You are citizens first, but also soldiers who have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and to follow the orders of the President and the Governor. That oath does not come with an asterisk that says: ‘Only when I agree.’”

“I want to be honest – I know this is not easy. Some people in Oregon will not understand or will not support this mission. Some might even react with hostility. But we are professionals, we fulfill our duties, regardless of how they are received.”

In another passage he writes: “I want to be honest – I know this is not easy. Some people in Oregon will not understand or will not support this mission. Some might even react with hostility. But we are professionals, we fulfill our duties, regardless of how they are received.” These are words that testify to a sense of responsibility – and at the same time reveal that the general is quite aware of the political misuse of his troops.

The leaked document also contains practical admonitions. Gronewold urges his soldiers to stay away from political disputes: “Be smart on social media. Do not post about movements, deployment details or operations. Do not get involved in political debates while wearing the uniform.” In doing so, he indirectly distances himself from Hegseth, who in Quantico complained that “anonymous social media pages that criticize commanders and undermine morale are cowardice disguised as conscience.” Two worlds collide here: the commander in Oregon, who acknowledges his troops’ dilemma, and the Trump administration, which degrades the National Guard into a stage for a culture war.

Background: Title 10 Federal Authority
When Guardsmen are mobilized under Title 10, they are no longer under the governor of the state, but directly under the President and U.S. Northern Command. That is exactly the case here – Gronewold explicitly points out in the document that his troops no longer obey Oregon’s civilian leadership, but an entirely different chain of command.

Parallels to 2020
Even during the George Floyd protests in 2020, there were similar discussions: National Guard soldiers spoke anonymously of “idiotic” missions and the danger of being misused as domestic police. Gronewold’s tone – sober, admonishing, focused on duty – ties directly to these debates.

Current situation
According to Guard circles, it is expected that the roughly 200 mobilized soldiers will arrive in Portland on Thursday – unless the courts stop the deployment at short notice, as Governor Tina Kotek is attempting with a temporary restraining order.

Gronewold’s letter is more than an internal situation report. It is a window into the soul of a troop that has served the state for over 150 years – from fires to storms to disasters. “We do not serve because it is easy or popular. We serve because it is our duty and because we have sworn an oath,” he writes. That this oath is now to be fulfilled in the streets of Portland to “pacify” an artificially heated situation shows the full absurdity.

While Trump is raving about a “war zone” and Hegseth invokes the “enemies within,” the general’s tone is diametrically opposed: quiet, sober, admonishing. He calls on his troops to carry out the mission “with honor, focused, professional and safe.” Not a word about enemies, not a trace of martial rhetoric – but the recognition that the troops have been pushed into a role they neither sought nor wanted.

The consequences of this deployment could reach far beyond Oregon. It marks not only a dangerous precedent for the militarization of internal conflicts, it also shows how far Washington has moved away from the constitutional tradition that strictly separates military and police. That of all things a leaked letter from a general reminds us that loyalty must not be confused with blind obedience is a bitter lesson.

The truth does not lie in the manipulated television images, but in the sentences of a man who knows what duty and what misuse means. Alan R. Gronewold writes: “We are Oregon’s Guard, and we remain ready to serve our communities. That has not changed, and that will not change.” These are words that sound like a silent protest against a system that turns its citizens into enemy images. And they are words that mark the difference between those who want to protect their country – and those who want to set it on fire.