Driving a healthy Colorado for 30 years

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Crane | Citizen-Airmen from the Colorado Air National Guard’s 137th Space Warning Squadron picked up medical supplies at the 9 Health Fair building Feb. 24 that will eventually be delivered to numerous locations around the state.  

DENVER, CO, UNITED STATES

02.24.2010

Story by Sgt. Benjamin Crane 

Colorado National Guard

DENVER — Citizen-Airmen from the Colorado Air National Guard’s 137th Space Warning Squadron picked up medical supplies to be delivered to many of the 162 statewide 9Health Fair locations.

For the 30th consecutive year, the Colorado National Guard has provided both trucks and drivers to help 9Health Fair, which promotes health awareness throughout the state.

The project is part of the Department of Defense’s Innovative Readiness Training program. IRTs provide real-world training opportunities for servicemembers and units to prepare them for their wartime missions while also supporting the needs of communities.

Broadcast station KUSA Channel 9, more commonly known as 9News, partnered with Dr. John F. Brensike and the National Health Screening Council for Volunteer Organizations, during the late 1970s to promote health awareness and encourage individuals to assume responsibility for their own health. The television station recognized the effort’s value to the community and agreed to provide both financial and media support to help launch the first health fair in 1980.

The fair is open to anyone who wants to take advantage of the low cost screenings and is the only program like this in the country, said Dave Quintana, manager of operations and logistics for 9Health Fair.

It took several volunteers weeks to organize the supplies to be boxed, packed and readied for pick up by the 137th SWS. The boxes contain items such as blood pressure cuffs, supplies needed to extract blood, examination gloves and other protocols for health screening. Several groups of civilian volunteers begin preparing and packing supplies as early as November, said Margarita Archibeque, director of client services for the 9Health Fair.

The Guard will store and deliver the boxes until the official rollout of the 9Health Fair in April.

Not only will the Guardsmen deliver boxes, the mission will also serve as real-world training for drivers to aid their units’ combat missions.

"We have a lot of tractor-trailers that move our equipment, so I have a lot of folks who need to stay qualified," said Air Force Col. Loren "Skip" Johnson, commander of the 137th SWS. "There is a certain amount of tractor-trailer driving they have to do every quarter. This is all part of it. ... We deliver to the entire state, so we cross the mountains, through towns and rural communities."

For all the packages to get to their destinations, a lot of route planning is involved. That’s the job of COANG Master Sgt. Daniel Martinez, the delivery and pick up coordinator for this mission.

"I have to collect a lot of data from 9Health regarding sites, locations, points of contacts," said Martinez. "Then I have to take all these locations and map them out and divide them up into separate routes that would make the most sense. Then we get guys to volunteer and assign them the different routes and make sure (they’re) matched up properly to make it a good driver training experience."

For the 9Health Fair and for the Guard, this mission is important and exclusive.

"We rely only on the National Guard," said Archibeque. "The Air and Army National Guard (delivers to) the metro areas and the Air does all the statewide sites."
She also says the Guard has the process down to a science. "You guys are great," she said.

More than just training and driving, getting involved with the community is a big part of this mission for the Colorado National Guard, which is, after all, a community-based defense force.

"It’s a wonderful thing. I help out my Guard unit, the people who benefit from the health screenings and the services from 9Health Fair," said Martinez. "It’s very fulfilling to me personally because it’s a strong connection with the community and that’s what the National Guard is all about."

According to Martinez, 22 Airmen will make deliveries throughout the state this year.
The COARNG will provide two additional drivers for local deliveries, said Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Polliard, operations sergeant major for the 169th Fires Brigade.

The supplies to be delivered were provided by vendors and sponsor donations, and other 9Health Fair partners.

The 137th SWS is based in Greely, Colo., and provides immediate, worldwide mobile, missile warning, space launch and nuclear detonation awareness in the event of an attack against the U.S.

• Date Taken: 02.24.2010
• Date Posted: 03.10.2010 17:43
• Story ID: 46482
• Location: DENVER, CO, US