Human resource specialist Sgt. Niki McCurdy from the 821 Troop Command Battalion, Oregon Army National Guard, assigns Soldiers to specific hospitals at the Anderson Readiness Center in Salem, Oregon, on Jan. 12. The guard member's deployment is the second iteration of non-clinical support for Oregon hospitals by the National Guard, which will grow to over 1200 Soldiers and Airmen by the end of January, filling hospital staffing shortages.
SALEM, Ore. - The surge of COVID-19 cases prompted Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to order an increase of National Guard members assisting at hospitals around the state, boosting the number of Guardsmen on hospital relief missions from 500 to over 1,200 at 40 hospitals.
During this deployment, National Guard members will support understaffed hospitals beginning no later than Jan. 18. Soldiers and Airmen will serve in non-clinical support roles, including COVID testing support. The mission's planning is ongoing, with Guard members placed on orders and assigned to hospitals.
This activation follows a deployment of over 1,500 Oregon National Guardsmen that provided the same non-clinical support roles in Oregon hospitals from August to December.
The more than 8,000 Citizen-Soldiers and Citizen-Airmen of the Oregon National Guard serve the communities they live in and maintain readiness to serve the nation in times of war with the motto, "Always Ready, Always There."
Members of the Oregon National Guard, the largest part-time employer in the state, serve an average of one weekend a month with an additional two-week period a year while maintaining civilian employment.
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