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    Courtesy Photo | A drill sergeant directs a newly arrived trainee towards 3rd Battalion, 13th Infantry...... read more read more

    FORT JACKSON, SC, UNITED STATES

    01.21.2021

    Story by Robert Timmons 

    Fort Jackson Public Affairs Office

    It has been nearly a month since the last time Brig. Gen. Milford H. “Beags” Beagle Jr., Fort Jackson’s commander, spoke to the extended Fort Jackson Family during a virtual town hall.

    On Jan. 14, he and Col. Tara Hall, Moncrief Army Health Clinic commander, spoke to the community for the first time since Dec. 17. At that time, trainees were departing for Victory Block Leave, but they have now returned and are ready to begin training.

    “We had over 4,000 trainees leave to go all over the United States and in some cases (outside the continental United States) … less than 60 came back positive,” Beagle said. “That is kudos to you all. Thank you for keeping your trainees safe and getting them back to us so we can get training.”

    Upon their return, all trainees went through a two-week controlled monitoring phase while they didn’t go out to the ranges, etc., “They are doing local training in their unit footprint; so we can continue to screen out those who are asymptomatic …” Those who are just shipped to Basic Combat Training units will go through the same controlled monitoring, he added.

    “They are training, they are not going out beyond the company or battalion-level footprint, they are doing everything there. They are learning how to wear their uniforms; they are learning values from the Army. A lot of the things they are doing are classroom oriented.”
    After the two-week period and any positives are screened out, they go back to training. Some units have already begun training.

    Brian Perry, superintendent of the Department of Defense Education Activity Americas Southeast District’s SC/Ft. Stewart community, and Leslie Ann Sully from the Fort Jackson Public Affairs Office joined Beagle and Hall remotely.

    At the town hall, Hall spoke about the COVID vaccine to allay any fears there may be of it.

    “We have spent all of our time discussing how to prevent, we’ve been in this prevent defense,” she said. “Now it’s time we finally have a tool in our toolkit that allows us to go on the offense while still playing defense.”

    Beagle spoke of the housing satisfaction survey being extended into February and the upcoming Command Climate Survey Town Hall Jan. 21.

    He asked those living in on-post housing to, “please do that survey. That is your voice; that is our voice to express to those who run our housing for us to let them know what we like, what we don’t like and what we want to see changed.”

    Beagle and Perry spoke about schools reopening Jan. 25 and going to HPCON B. Lifting of the health protection condition will allow the installation to lift some restrictions.

    It will allow students to return to school while the post retains “a lot of the measures we have in place since March 2020,” Beagle said.

    While it may seem odd the post is looking to do these as COVID rates spike across the country, there are reasons why it is able to do so namely, a less than 5% positive rate on the installation since spring 2020.
    Part of the students who attend Fort Jackson schools use the post’s Child, Youth Services.

    “We haven’t had many issues there with spikes in positivity rates with either the providers or the students or the children there at daycare,” Beagle said. “Those kids are going to our (Department of Defense) schools.”

    These have allowed Fort Jackson to take the steps it has.

    “So we can do things a little bit different than anybody else because of where we stand, what we have done, and because of the foundation we have established,” Beagle said.

    To learn more about school’s reopening, the COVID vaccine, or to learn more about Fort Jackson, watch the town hall in its entirety at https://www.facebook.com/fortjackson/videos/773929593519040.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 01.21.2021
    Date Posted: 01.21.2021 11:41
    Story ID: 387302
    Location: FORT JACKSON, SC, US

    Web Views: 74
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN