If you see a bunch of people in military garb in Bloomington on Saturday, it's only a drill: The Illinois Army National Guard is doing a full-uniform training exercise on Constitution Trail on Saturday morning, Nov. 1.
The Friends of the Constitution Trail said on Facebook that they were informed about the "ruck walk" in advance, as did Illinois State University Police. The exercise will start at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the far west end of the trail near Route 9 and 1400 North Road in West Bloomington, heading to Alton Depot Park and then back west. The trail will be open to the public during the walk.
Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, director of public affairs for the Illinois National Guard, said it's a fitness exercise and a routine part of training known as a ruck walk.
“They’ll be in uniform, they’ll put a rucksack on and their equipment, and they’ll march for a few miles,” he said.
A rucksack is a bag strapped on the back with two shoulder straps and used to carry both personal belongings and supplies. They are often used by soldiers and hikers.
“You need to be physically ready to respond to anything that may occur, as well as mentally ready and ready healthwise,” said Leighton. “It’s the health part of it is the reason they’re drilling this weekend. It’s that periodic health assessment, but this is additional training that they’re doing, and we try and get as much good training into our training weekends as we can.”
ISU Police said they were sharing this information "to help alleviate any concerns that may arise from seeing National Guard members in uniform or National Guard vehicles."
"We appreciate the active communication among our community partners. Do your part: help build a trustworthy, informed community by verifying information before posting or passing along," the police department said on Facebook.
Leighton said during public exercises, the Guard believes it is the responsible thing to do to coordinate with local authorities and community organizations to ensure the public is aware and knowledgeable.
“And the Bloomington Police were excellent. They informed some community groups out there that this was going to happen and it’s just taking responsible action,” Leighton said. “We do this in communities across Illinois. For example, sometimes we have explosive training up at our facility in Marseilles that makes a loud boom, and we’ll let the neighbors know ahead of time.”
Leighton said the exercise is far from the first time it has been done and been done near communities. He said there is no reason to be concerned for troops to be called in to duty while in Bloomington-Normal.
“It’s just part of what we do and it’s our protocol if we’re going to be training out in the community that we let people know that we’re going to be out there,” he said. “One of the things you got to realize about the National Guard is we’re actually part of the community. Our soldiers, they’re teachers, they’re doctors, they’re police officers. Whatever occupation you can think of, that’s what they do nine to five during the week.”
Government shutdown's impact
Leighton said the unit in Bloomington is one of about half of the soldiers in the Guard moving on with their monthly drills. He said more than half of the guard’s 9,900 soldiers and nearly 3,000 airmen have had their October training cancelled and will have their November training cancelled because of the government shutdown.
Leighton said he is not receiving a paycheck this week. He said neither are 940 of the Guard’s 2,200 federal employees. They also received a discounted paycheck two weeks ago, which only accounted for the first three days of October.
“Our active Guard reserve, which is essentially our full-time military folks, are getting paid,” he said. “It gets a little confusing with the Guard, because we also have what’s called ‘military technicians’ which are employees that are required to wear the uniform every day but on paper they’re actually civilian employees. So, our military technicians are not getting paid, nor are our Title 5 employees which are basic civilian employees.”
Leighton said the Guard’s civilian employees are furloughed, so they are not working. However, some are called upon to complete exempt activities, so they have done some work without pay.
Regardless of employment status or classification, Leighton said all Guard members need to be thought of.
“A lot of these traditional Guard folks, the ones that work one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer, they rely on that monthly paycheck to make car payments or pay some monthly bills,” he said. “They are very definitely impacted by that. Of course, our federal workforce, all of them are impacted but some are required to work, and some have just been sent home.”
Leighton said he does not know how much of the unit in Bloomington is receiving paychecks.
