Photo By Tech. Sgt. Ross Whitley | Pennsylvania Air National Guard Senior Airman Benedict Barnett, a medic with the 193d...... read more read more
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FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – More than 75 Pennsylvania Air National Guard (PAANG) medical personnel provided critical support to 352 COVID-19-related missions since the Pennsylvania National Guard (PNG) kicked off its pandemic response operations in March 2020.
“Pennsylvania Air National Guard medical personnel — alongside Soldiers and Airmen — from many other job specialties -- have participated in a full spectrum of support missions as part of COVID-19 operations across the commonwealth. These activities have included: nursing home support missions, vaccination team support missions, PEMA [Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency] headquarters support and Operation Safe Haven support for sick service members that could not recover and recuperate in their own homes due to the presence of high risk family members,” said Col. Ryan Harris, state Air surgeon for the PAANG. “Regardless of the type of mission request received, our medical personnel from our three wings across the commonwealth stepped up in a major way over the last 14 months and were critical to the Pennsylvania National Guard’s overall response efforts and I could not be prouder.”
The situation in the early phases of the pandemic over a year ago had many unknowns for Air Guard personnel. Airmen in a variety of career fields from the PAANG’s 171st Air Refueling Wing, 193rd Special Operations Wing and 111th Attack Wing suddenly found themselves placed on active duty in anticipation of forthcoming mission assignments.
“A year ago many of us were on federal orders and witnessing the ramp up to see just how challenging things were going to get,” said Harris. “There were a lot of unknowns going through our heads that we were preparing for. Would local hospitals be overrun? Would nursing homes close? These scenarios and many others were things we were preparing for, but there was no certainty on how bad things could get and if those preparations would ultimately be utilized.”
The specialized training and complementary civilian careers of many of the Airmen from the PAANG’s medical career specialties would ultimately prove to be a great benefit to their adaptability to a wide range of pandemic-related mission taskings that were ultimately assigned.
“I think our Air Guard training optimized us for this assist. In the Guard we are taught to be adaptable to just about any situation and having the ability to augment these missions is another example of this,” said Harris. “Additionally, the ability for the medical community to train in their everyday lives outside of the military, in medical and first responder jobs in our local communities, provided valuable reps that provided helpful insight to this real-world medical response.”
With the roll out of vaccine options, the Guard’s mission transitioned from managing crises to helping to prevent them by supporting vaccination efforts. In total, PNG members — both Army and Air — have administered nearly 60,000 vaccines to civilians at 18 sites across the commonwealth according to the PNG’s Joint Emergency Operations Center (JEOC).
“Pennsylvania Guard members rallied to vaccination efforts to help their family, friends and neighbors get shots in arms so that COVID-19 restrictions can be a thing of the past,” said Harris. “The efforts of our Guard members have been a significant part of citizens across the state being able to get vaccines each day. Through these efforts, we see outdoor sporting events opening with modified crowds and there are further plans to open up other impacted activities this summer. So I would say there is a light getting brighter compared to the darkness associated with the unknowns when operations first started.”
| Date Taken: | 05.25.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 05.25.2021 16:03 |
| Story ID: | 397347 |
| Location: | FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 63 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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