Photo By Master Sgt. David Eichaker | Michigan National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from various units conduct COVID-19...... read more read more
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SELFRIDGE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Mich.— When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Michigan in March, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer activated the Michigan National Guard, many 127th Wing Airmen considered how they could best serve their communities and they weren’t alone. Since then, nearly 70 Citizen-Airmen from Selfridge Air National Guard Base have responded to support fellow Michiganders.
“We have almost a thousand Soldiers and Airmen from the Michigan National Guard who are engaged in the COVID response as we speak,” said Brig. Gen. Rolf E. Mammen, 127th Wing and Selfridge Base commander. “They’re out working in the food banks, at the TCF Center hospital, up in the Upper Peninsula doing testing, they’re working across the state doing some really great work for our communities.”
Leadership of the 127th Wing responded to the crisis by standing up the Emergency Wing Operations Center, a ready group of assigned members who activate in support of times of crises. Col. David Spehar was reassigned from his primary duties as the 127th Maintenance Group commander to serve as the Emergency Operations Center director for the duration of the COVID-19 response mission.
“We’ve raised our hands to help and we are involved in every mission across the State,” Spehar said.
Last month, ten members of the 127th Wing assisted FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers establish a Field Hospital at the TCF Center in Detroit by assembling furniture. Senior Master Sgt. Robin Cleaver, with the 127th Logistics Readiness Squadron here, said the mission was a one way the Airmen could help the community directly.
“With a state activation, we’re actually working side-by-side with our first responder partners and working to take care of the American people,” Cleaver said.
Michigan Guardsmen have also served by working at food banks in Comstock Park, Ann Arbor, Pontiac, Royal Oak and Flint. The Forgotten Harvest Food Bank in Royal Oak was the fifth food distribution site to be supported by the Michigan National Guard, when on April 6, 2020, 127th Wing Airmen responded to the facility to begin packing and preparing food boxes. By mid-April, an average day of work at the site produced more than 3,500 boxes of food.
Responding to a short-notice request, Airmen from the Wing helped stand up a drive-through COVID-19 testing site in Dearborn at the Henry Ford Centennial Library.
In only three days, members of the 127th Civil Engineer Squadron brought in generators and Airmen to provide both round-the-clock electrical infrastructure and manning to assist the patient check-in process.
“We’re here to help and we’re working alongside our community partners, to assist them with the response,” Spehar said. “We live in these communities, this is where we grew up and we’re able to serve now assisting the communities.”
In addition to the three missions already mentioned, there are smaller groups of Airmen augmenting teams at the Michigan National Guard’s Joint Forces Headquarters in Lansing. Members who work in a civilian capacity as medical professionals, continuing to report to work in different hospitals around the state.
Up north in Kincheloe, 127th Wing Airmen augmented Joint Task Force Tiger earlier this month, when they provided COVID-19 testing at the Chippewa Correctional Facility. Serving alongside Army counterparts, the team answered a call from the Michigan State Police and Department of Corrections to assist in testing more than 2,300 prisoners. Doing so helped to ensure the safety of both prisoners and employees. According to Connie Horton, warden of the Chippewa Correctional Facility, working in her first mission with the National Guard helped ease the burden of testing a large population.
“This is a huge undertaking and with the assistance of the National Guard, we were able to accomplish this in just one day,” Horton said. “We worked very well together.”
The common thread of all Wing members serving in COVID-19 relief missions is they’re proud to serve the communities they live in.
“It’s more prideful for me to be serving my community and it means more to me to be able to serve and give back to the community that supports us,” said Staff Sgt. Charles Carlson, a heavy equipment operator, 127th Civil Engineer Squadron.
Carlson and the rest of the team want to continue being able to serve on missions supporting COVID-19 relief, but they can’t if they contract the virus. Their best advice is for people to follow the Governor’s stay home orders.
“If you don’t have a reason to be out of the house, stay home and we’ll keep doing what we do here,” Carlson said. “Stay home, stay safe.”
| Date Taken: | 05.15.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 05.19.2020 13:08 |
| Story ID: | 369162 |
| Location: | SELFRIDGE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, MI, US |
| Web Views: | 54 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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