MHAFB Task Force, Working Group lead fight against COVID-19

Photo By Staff Sgt. Gary Hilton | Members of Mountain Home Air Force Base COVID-19 Task Force congregate outside the 366th Fighter Wing Headquarters’ building, at MHAFB, Idaho, 16 Dec., 2020. Consisting of multiple squadrons, the CTF was developed to understand and synthesize COVID travel and mitigation guidance from various Air Force, DoD and public health authorities. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Gary Hilton)  

MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, ID, UNITED STATES

12.18.2020

Story by Airman Gary Hilton 

366th Fighter Wing

MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho -- “We will get through this together, Gunfighter strong,” said Col. Rick Goodman, 366th Fighter Wing commander.
The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has seemingly evolved from a battle to a war as it continues its offense longer than anticipated.
As defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 is a completely new strand of the coronavirus, making it a difficult adversary.
This fact raises important questions: How does Mountain Home AFB mitigate risk for such a unique outbreak? And how does the base address challenges that arise as part of local, state and federal response guidelines? Enter MHAFB’s COVID-19 Task Force (CTF) and COVID-19 Working Group (CWG), working together in the pandemic fight.
At the direction of the 366th FW commander and consisting of Airmen from multiple squadrons, the CTF has several duties it’s tasked with executing which include, but are not limited to, providing recommendations for wing and squadron leadership consideration based on observation and information analysis, contact tracing efforts, and identifying unknown gaps and risks among the base populous.
To support these duties, the CWG aides the CTF by establishing and implementing focused lines of effort identified by the CTF, boosting the wing’s COVID prevention capabilities.
“The Task Force’s purpose is to identify any trends or blind spots and develop countermeasures,” said Master Sgt. Pearl Alomar, 366th Force Support Squadron Military Personnel Flight superintendent. “We are focusing on these lines of effort to continue to improve Airmen lives and adapt to this new norm.”
The two lines of effort Alomar highlighted are child care, and community and Airmen outreach.
“These were the biggest challenges that we were seeing from the survey results,” Alomar said.
Although connected in cause, each challenge is unique in terms of how the CTF responds. For example, providing child care services required extensive health safety, logistical and multi-agency coordination to ensure children are in a safe learning environment, and parents are comfortable with health safety measures. For this, the CTF depended on the ability of the CWG to figure out the implementation.
“One of the things that the Working Group did was provide an increase in child care services,” Alomar said. “We now have four child care providers. Originally, we had only two.”
Though the CWG continues to discover and provide more resources to aid the child care line of effort, they are also focusing on other important obstacles.
“We wanted to provide more opportunities for Airmen, or Gunfighters residing in Boise, who aren’t able to participate in certain events on base,” Alomar said.
To boost community morale and get solitary Airmen out of the dorms, the CWG created a multitude of community events, including a recent Even Pulse performance stress management training, which garnered more than 70 participants.
“We’ve also teamed up with the 124th Fighter Wing command team at Gowen Field to set up more events for the Boise residents,” she said.
With events planned and resources distributed, the 366th FW’s present existence with COVID -19 has been addressed with maximum effort. However, the CTF and CWG don’t halt their endeavors with just the present. They also look towards the future.
“From the beginning, guidelines have been very confusing, and have changed rapidly,” said Capt. Sean White, 366th FW CTF officer-in-charge. “One of the big things we’ve done is understand and synthesize COVID travel and mitigation guidance from various Air Force, DoD and public health authorities.”
The CTF, in concert with the Public Health emergency officer, can use outbreak observation and investigation data to mitigate similar outbreaks in the future.
“Say a specific squadron experienced an outbreak,” White said. “The MTF can gather the details of who contracted the virus, and the CTF can investigate further as to what could have been prevented.”
White also said that developing a COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan is currently one of the CTF’s highest priorities.
Though the future remains uncertain, members of the CTF ensure confidence and continue to lead the fight against COVID-19.
“Our plan is to continue to improve,” Alomar said. “We want to get things back to normal while combating this pandemic, and helping those who are facing challenges due to COVID-19.”

• Date Taken: 12.18.2020
• Date Posted: 12.18.2020 15:16
• Story ID: 385363
• Location: MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, ID, US