Photo By Maj. Brandin Walker | U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Lewis Harden, a motor sergeant assigned to the 377th Theater...... read more read more
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NAS-JRB NEW ORLEANS, La. - A team of Florida-based Sailors touched down at Alvin Callender Field before heading to their ultimate mission of providing much needed medical support to help stem the tide of COVID-19 in New Orleans. Emergency Medical Facility Mike (EMF-M) out of Jacksonville, Florida came to the Crescent City eager to get to the front line of an ongoing war against the crushing disease, and the downtown area of New Orleans is just that. Before they or any service member deploying to the area can get to work, a crucial phase of the mission happens first.
Soldiers of the 377th Theater Sustainment Command provide their first mission overview once they hit the ground which is part of the Joint Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration (JRSOI) process. This complex and cross-organizational exercise prepares responding service members for the mission ahead in support of the Federal Emergency Management agency and civil authorities fighting the disease. This phase also allows for units serving under United States Army North (USARNORTH), which operates as the Joint Forces Land Component Command for this effort, to redistribute personnel, equipment or both as necessary to support the mission. This is balanced with the need to ensure none of the personnel involved unknowingly transmit the disease by taking temperature measurements of each person and requiring medical questionnaires about their health. With an enemy like the COVID-19, safety becomes the number one priority.
“The last thing that we want to do is as we’re racing toward that fight, is to bring what it is we’re fighting along with us,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Kevin Brown, Commanding Officer of EMF-M. “We’re coming to help the people of Louisiana and New Orleans fight that infectious disease and that pandemic.”
The Sailors who have arrived with EMF-M are a cross-section of the military and the nation as a whole, from all walks of life and from locales across the country. Their one common trait seemed to be an overwhelming desire to contribute and to do so quickly. Ensign Bridget Fitzhugh, a nurse in the Maternal Infant Unit, was overwhelmed at the scale of the mission as she commissioned only months ago. Despite the harrowing pace of the response, her only thoughts were getting to where she was needed to be of help to those in need.
“I’m nervous and excited--nervous because I don’t know what I’m getting in to but excited because of the fast pace,” she said. Trained in the civilian sector as an emergency room technician, she felt well prepared for the task. “My experience in the ER really helped me, I’ve seen a lot of crazy things happen. But I became a nurse because I like to help people.”
For others, the mission took on a more somber tone. Seaman Recruit Rolland Martin, a hospital corpsman in his second year of service, recently lost his aunt due to complications from the coronavirus and was desirous to prevent the same fate for his fellow Americans at risk.
“Knowing what’s going on and knowing that the numbers can increase, knowing that if I’m here that I can help reduce that number, it would be an honor,” Martin said. “Saving lives is the number one emphasis of this mission.”
His unit brings a wide array of capabilities with it, and will serve the vulnerable New Orleans community in a downtown temporary medical station. The Sailors will provide treatment to Louisianans who are considered “persons under investigation,” or who have been tested as a result of demonstrating the disease’s characteristic symptoms but the test results have yet to return. Their presence allow some separation between those awaiting test results and the virus-positive population in the local hospitals.
As of April 9th, Louisiana ranks fifth in the nation with the more than 18,000 people testing positive for COVID-19. Nearly 30% of the cases are in New Orleans and the numbers grow daily. The severity of the situation came as no surprise to the Sailors as they got their first glimpse of the challenge awaiting them during JRSOI.
“We provide every Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine a similar brief that is tailored to that specific unit or that specific service,” said Lt. Col. Joseph Verastegui, Commander, 377th TSC Special Troops Battalion. “Once they’re done with the brief, we take them directly downtown to the Navy Emergency Operations Center which has been pushed forward.”
The process is a dynamic and shifting responsibility, with altering requirements on a near daily basis. As the scope of the collective response increases, the number of expected inbound personnel could increase as well. USARNORTH identified Naval Air Station – Joint Reserve Base New Orleans as a Base Support Installation for the COVID-19 response, which establishes it as a central logistics hub for response operations in the surrounding area. Plans are already being made for additional warehouse space in case it’s needed for large amounts of supplies that could come with more service members joining the fight.
“It’s amazing that the military is able to pull this together so quickly,” Verastegui continued. “When they come to realize the scope of what we’re doing here in New Orleans it will make them even prouder for what they came here to do. I’m happy to be a small blip in their journey to their final destination but it’s huge to us and I’m very proud to do it.”
| Date Taken: | 04.09.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.15.2020 21:19 |
| Story ID: | 367034 |
| Location: | NAVAL AIR STATION JOINT RESERVE BASE NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 45 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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