Day-to-day life of National Guard troops inside Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. (KABC) -- ABC7 got an inside look at the day-to-day life of 4,000 California National Guard soldiers in Los Alamitos after being deployed by President Trump during anti-ICE protests in SoCal.

"Our mission is to provide protection for federal facilities and federal personnel, federal employees in the application of their job, their mission,' said Army National Guard Command Sergeant Major Richard Aller, with the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat team. "We're not performing any law enforcement activities. The National Guard isn't performing any law enforcement activities."

Aller's team immediately moved in after receiving their orders. Images of them sleeping on the floor quickly circulated.

"We came down here. We responded very quickly," Aller said. "Soldiers did what soldiers do, and so from there, as the buildup happened, we moved into the tents, we got soldiers cots, we got soldiers tents."

Since then, soldiers from the 49th Military Police Brigade have also arrived. Those not assigned are standing ready or undergoing crowd control and rules of force training.

Once certified, the soldiers mobilize from the base and allowed to perform their duties across SoCal.

"Our soldiers are out there helping those law enforcement agencies by creating those crowd control lines with the shields and protecting those facilities and personnel," Aller said.

The troops do have downtime, which includes two hot meals in the Chow Hall. They also get ample time to rest and recover before going out on their missions.

"They have plenty of time to do physical fitness, personal hygiene, talk to their loved ones, do laundry," Aller said.

The Army said that while it's unknown how long their mission will last, they will continue training every single day to make sure their soldiers are ready to go.