California National Guard’s 129th Rescue Wing delivered COVID-19 test kits to the Grand Princess Cruise liner off the coast of California on March 5, 2020.
Nebraska Army National Guard Pfc. Nicholas Kutz, a member of the 267th Maintenance Company, (center), helps pack smaller bags of mostly nonperishable items, April 21, 2020, at the National Guard warehouse in Lincoln. The items were distributed to those in need in Southeast Nebraska through the Food Bank of Lincoln. The Nebraska National Guard continues to support food bank operations throughout the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ARLINGTON, Va. – Risks are part of the job description for pararescue jumpers. But, as Chief Master Sgt. Seth Zweben recalled the leap into the unknown to deliver COVID-19 virus test kits to 3,500 mostly positive passengers stranded on a cruise ship last March, which gave some PJs pause.
“Take yourself back a year and just imagine the world before we knew about the details of this virus and how to manage it,” said Zweben, a member of the California Air National Guard’s 129th Rescue Wing, during a March 5 media event. “We had to talk to the team members and make sure they were comfortable taking this risk. Ultimately, we made it through.”
Last week marked the one-year anniversary of that National Guard mission. Since that day, all of the National Guards in the 50 states, 3 territories and the District of Columbia have been battling the COVID-19 pandemic. At its peak, more than 47,000 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen were in their communities handing out food, providing testing, and delivering protective equipment to frontline workers.
Today, National Guard members are administering over 120,000 vaccines a day at nearly 800 vaccination sites. They have also provided over 632 million meals, distributed 562 million essential supplies, administered over 16 million COVID-19 tests, setup alternate care facilities that increased hospital capacities by 20,300 beds, and disinfected 71,000 facilities.
And they’re not done, insisted Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, the chief of the National Guard Bureau.
“Every day, for over a year now, tens-of-thousands of National Guard members, many of whom left their families and civilian jobs, have served at food banks, testing locations, warehouses, and vaccination sites,” he said. “As I speak, over 29,500 Army and Air National Guard members, or about seven percent of our force, are supporting COVID-19 operations around the country.”
The Nebraska National Guard, in partnership with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, played a key role last February when they were asked to house 57 people returning from China at one of this country’s first quarantine sites.
“My relationship with the University of Nebraska goes back to when I was a faculty member,” said Maj. Gen. Daryl L. Bohac, Nebraska’s adjutant general. Due to that relationship, when federal health agencies reached out to the Medical Center’s biocontainment facility to help evacuate U.S. citizens from the Wuhan province, the university reached out to Bohac and the Nebraska National Guard for assistance.
“It’s really just a great story about Guard relationships and community relationships, and how important it is to have those relationships in place before things happen,” said Bohac.
In addition to fighting the pandemic, Hokanson added, the Guard still conducts its regular training and supports its overseas requirements.
“We were able to accomplish all of our missions throughout this process,” he said. “Throughout 2020, we did not miss one of our scheduled overseas deployments.”
The Guard’s commitment to end the pandemic, he insisted, is a strong as it was a year ago.
“We will continue to help vaccinate our fellow Americans,” Hokanson said, “and help defeat COVID-19.”
How the National Guard is helping
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