White Hats Sunday morning arrested recently fired federal employees who came to storm-stricken Arkansas hoping to supplement their severance packages, a source in Gen. Eric M. Smith’s office told Real Raw News.
In deluged Sherwood outside of Little Rock, a prior service Marine and White Hat spotted a familiar enemy skulking about the city after an unprecedented tornado-warned storm dropped nearly a foot of rain, toppled trees, downed powerlines, caused a train derailment, sheared off roofs, and resulted in numerous fatalities. The Marine, a resident of Sherwood, reportedly saw eight men wearing FEMA rain slickers and waterproof knee boots casing homes on his block. Although they appeared to be unarmed, they jotted notes on clipboards as they moved from yard to yard, driveway to driveway, pointing at wrecked houses and partly submerged vehicles.
Their actions seemed superficially benign; after all, FEMA’s job, in theory, is to evaluate disaster zones and provide disaster relief. However, the Marine had a hunch the agents had an ulterior agenda. Experience had taught him to never trust FEMA. He had fought the nefarious agency in Maui and in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in 2018.
When the agents reached his driveway, he armed himself and stepped outside to greet them, politely asking that they identify themselves and explain their presence in Sherwood. The agents said President Trump and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders had declared Sherwood a disaster zone and that that acting FEMA Director Cameron Hamilton had sent to Sherwood to survey the damage. They conversed amicably—until the Marine asked to see their credentials. They dropped their façade of docility. One agent pointed at the FEMA logo on his rain jacket and said, “This is our identification.”
“I can buy that on Amazon,” the Marine said.
He knew that all federal government employees, FEMA included, must carry badges and/or identification cards while performing official duties. The agents refused to show ID and told the Marine to return to his domicile and mind his own business, lest he become the next storm casualty.
Though armed, the Marine had no way of knowing whether the supposed agents were carrying concealed weapons or had backup buddies around the corner, so he withdrew rather than try to tackle a numerically superior force singlehandedly. Besides, his wife and child were inside, and he wouldn’t jeopardize their safety. He did, however, make phone calls.
Our source in Gen. Smith’s office said, “So, we get word from our brother in Sherwood that FEMA’s in town apparently up to no good—no surprise, really. I’ve lost count how many times we’ve dealt with their shit. Thing is, we have good relations with [DHS Secretary] Noem and Hamilton, and they’ve told us the bad actors, the ones we haven’t caught, are getting culled. So, it never shocks us that they’re still out there committing atrocities, but, you know, it’d be nice to put that chapter behind us.
General Smith, he added, tried to contact Noem and Hamilton to ascertain whether FEMA agents had been dispatched to Sherwood, but neither of them was available to take his call. Therefore, he unilaterally sent a Marine MARSOC platoon from Camp Lejune, North Carolina, to Arkansas to investigate the situation.
MARSOC, or Marine Forces Special Operations Command, is the Marine Corps’ contribution to the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and comprises the Marine Corps’ special operations forces, focusing on direct action, special reconnaissance, and internal defense.
As time was of the essence, the general chartered a 30-seat Embraer 145 corporate jet to fly the Marines and their gear from Albert J. Ellis Airport to Arkansas, as opposed to relying on sluggish OV-22 Ospreys that would have had to stop and refuel along the way. Their plane landed amid heavy turbulence in Little Rock Saturday evening, and the platoon, traveling in rented vehicles, visited the prior service Marine who reported the FEMA incursion. He told them FEMA was still in town and that he had clandestinely tailed the agents to a hotel a few miles away. The Marine asked to join the platoon, citing his prior combat experience, but that platoon leader beseeched him to stay home to defend his family in case things went south.
The MARSOC platoon arrived at the Best Western Sherwood Inn & Suites shortly thereafter but saw no government vehicles in the parking lot. If FEMA were there, they should’ve been driving cars with clearly identifiable government license plates indicating that the government owns or leases a car or truck.
Hotel Staff, however, confirmed that people claiming to be FEMA employees had rented three rooms. The Marines greased the concierge’s palms, so to speak, to ascertain the names of whoever had booked the rooms; all three had been paid for by one person using a personal credit card.
FEMA routinely commandeers hotels and Airbnbs to house agents responding to disasters, but FEMA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer, not field agents, makes housing arrangements and financial disbursements. That an agent personally paid for accommodations was a red flag the Marines felt obligated to reconcile.
“They gave us the name, and, well, it turned out the guy had been a FEMA agent but got fired in early March as President Trump started downsizing the government. He’d been with FEMA from 2015 until then but got canned. And since he was pretending to be an active agent, we figured the other seven were doing exactly the same thing,” our source said.
At 7:00 a.m. this morning, the Marines confronted the agents in the hotel parking lot before they reached their vehicles, all personally owned SUVs with non-governmental, Maryland license plates.
Told they were being detained under suspicion of impersonating federal agents, the eight men became incensed and said President Trump would “have the Marines’ heads on a platter” for interfering in FEMA’s business. The Marines sensed insincerity, frisked the men, and searched their vehicles. Inside one they found property that certainly wasn’t FEMA’s: a jewelry box filled with gold earrings and necklaces, a collection of rare coins, valuable baseball cards and memorabilia, and $37,192 cash. Moreover, the other seven “agents” were recently terminated agents, as the Marines had intuited.
All eight, our source said, have been arrested, and Gen. Smith has sent Marines to other storm-damaged areas in case the eight are part of a broader operation.
“On the bright side, at least these fuck*** weren’t still employed. I guess that’s a glimmer of hope,” our source said.