WASHINGTON — Maj. Gen. William Walker, the commanding basic of the D.C. National Guard overseeing the large army mobilization for Joe Biden’s inauguration within the wake of the fatal Capitol siege, is a former St. Sabina’s altar boy and Leo High School graduate who grew up at 75th and Aberdeen.
By Wednesday, when President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are sworn in at a closely fortified Capitol, there must be between 22,000 and 25,000 guard participants in portions of town, Walker mentioned in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.
While the safety considerations are bizarre and the risk degree prime, it’s regimen for National Guard participants from across the country to come back to Washington to strengthen inauguration safety.
There have been some 8,000 National Guard participants deployed to town for President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration and about 7,000 in 2013 when President Barack Obama was once sworn right into a 2d time period, Walker mentioned. The troops are coming from each state, together with Illinois, which over the weekend had 267 National Guard participants within the town.
There is unheard of safety right here as a result of the Capitol assault by means of a Trump-supporting mob on Jan. 6, leaving 5 lifeless. There are more than one regulation enforcement companies in play — all beneath the Secret Service — and troops in Walker’s command are probably the most visual.
The National Guard’s activity is to fortify U.S. Secret Service, the Capitol Police, the Park Police and the D.C. Police Department. National Guard troops additionally supply safety for participants of Congress and their staffs across the Capitol, the White House and the National Mall.
Meeting this venture and second is Walker, 63, who attended St. Sabina grammar faculty and persisted as an altar boy whilst at Leo, graduating from the varsity at 7901 S. Sangamon St. in 1975.
Walker was once the Leo High School Alumni Association Man of the Year for 2019, with the affiliation calling him “one of the highest ranking and most decorated military leaders in Leo history.”
Walker’s undergraduate years have been on the University of Illinois at Chicago; his grasp’s is from Chicago State University.
Walker’s army carrier began with the Illinois National Guard in 1981, which ran similtaneously together with his time as an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
He was once with the DEA in Chicago for a yr and from there Walker did stints in more than a few towns and in a foreign country. He labored within the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy within the 1990s and after the 9/11 assaults, he spent a yr within the Pentagon.
In all, Walker has been with the National Guard and DEA concurrently for 30 years.
Walker mentioned as a tender boy he sought after to be an Army officer, and observing the “Untouchables” as a formative years “inspired” him to be a DEA agent.
“As a kid growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I always knew I wanted to serve. I had two ambitions, and I’m at the summit of those ambitions,” Walker mentioned.
Through the years, Walker has stayed involved with St. Sabina’s Rev. Michael Pfleger. “I know him, he knows my family.”
Pfleger was once got rid of from St. Sabina previous this month after 40-year-old kid intercourse abuse fees surfaced.
The two have now not talked since then. Said Walker, “I’m praying for him. I believe in him. And we’ll see what happens.”