JUNE 13, 2025 – Roughly 200 Marines will begin protecting federal property and personnel in Los Angeles today after relieving the California National Guard, which was mobilized amidst a breakout of civil unrest in the city, June 7, 2025, a senior military official said today.
Once the soldiers of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are relieved from protecting the Wilshire Federal Building in L.A.’s Westwood neighborhood by personnel from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, they will transition to protecting federal law enforcement officers in the area, said Army Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, commander of Task Force 51.
Task Force 51 is the Army’s command and control organization for the Title 10 forces supporting federal law enforcement in the greater Los Angeles area.
Sherman emphasized that the soldiers are not participating in law enforcement activities. Instead, they’ll be focused on protecting federal law enforcement personnel.
“Right now, as of today, we have had no soldier or Marine detain anyone,” Sherman said, adding that — in the course of their protection duties — the service members have only been observing federal law enforcement make arrests of agitators.
A total of 700 Marines have now joined approximately 2,000 Guard members and an additional 2,000 personnel assigned to the 49th Military Police Brigade in the city, bringing the total number of military service members providing support to approximately 4,700.
Sherman said the Marines arrived at the Wilshire property yesterday and began conducting “left seat, right seat” leadership familiarization with the Guard on procedures for protecting people and property.
Military personnel have also received training on the use of force from military attorneys, with judge advocate general officers providing a “complete, comprehensive review” of the rules governing the use of force, Sherman said.
“They receive that training before they ever go on mission; it includes de-escalation techniques and the proper use of crowd control,” he added.
Sherman said the National Guard members have only used their civil disturbance equipment to “hold people away as the federal agents are doing their job.”
“That’s been it,” he added.
Sherman stated that the 79th IBCT soldiers have completed a total of 26 missions in support of federal law enforcement since being mobilized, with an average of 800 soldiers performing missions at any given time.
“And that number has steadily increased since operations [began],” he added.
He also noted most of the task force’s contracts for bathrooms, showers, hand-washing stations, food service, full laundry service and other quality-of-life necessities had been filled.
“The Marines and soldiers have adequate shelter, food and water,” Sherman said.
When asked where else in Los Angeles the Marines might be stationed in the coming days, Sherman said it wouldn’t be appropriate to speculate.
“What I will say is the United States Marine Corps, as you know, [are] the ones who guard our embassies worldwide, and they are certainly trained on how to defend a federal building,” Sherman said. “That’s the mission that we really focused on them to do, and that’s what they will be doing here.”
By Matthew Olay, DOD News