critque, respond, and ask a question relating to "Since April 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has submitted 33 requests for assistance (RFA) to the Department of Defense (DOD) for support to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) mission at the southwest border" (GAO, 2021) I hope I'm not getting away from the intent of this discussion post too much, but my experience supporting a US Border Patrol (USBP) Request For Assistance (RFA) from 2022-2023 is what comes to mind when reading this prompt. Before we begin, here is some context. Since 2003, elements of the National Guard have been supporting US Border Patrol on various missions (Inigo, 2010). Contrary to the previous 15 years, the 33 requests from 2018 to 2021 marked a high point in the requests for assistance. In 2020, the DOD sent a contingent of active-duty servicemembers from the US Army's 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, who aided USBP with planning, surveillance, and engineering projects along the border until replaced by an entirely National Guard task force in Fiscal Year 2021. Each year, from 2020-2024, the RFA has changed to serve a different support role for the USBP. Some of the key changes