The National Guard deployment to Portland has been delayed beyond the guard’s standard timeline as the Oregon Military Department works to prepare the 200 soldiers who have volunteered, at a cost to the federal government of at least $3.8 million.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth moved Sunday to federalize Oregon National Guard troops to deploy to Portland. The process to get all the troops ready to deploy normally takes about 96 hours, but it’s going to take longer in this case, Lt. Col. Stephen Bomar said Tuesday, because of administrative tasks.

“We thought we’d probably be in the ‘walk’ phase now, but we’re still in the ‘crawl’ phase, administratively,” Bomar said.

Bomar previously said troops could be in Portland as soon as Thursday, and has now said that he thinks “we bum

See Full Page