Photo By Chelsea Smith | U.S. Air Force Col. Matthew French, 125th Fighter Wing commander, briefs about half of...... read more read more
Subscribe
JACKSONVILLE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Fla. – Sixty Airmen from the 125th Fighter Wing activated Feb. 1 to support increased COVID-19 testing and vaccination administration at Regency Mall in Jacksonville.
The Airmen will help to vaccinate eligible residents in support of the Florida Department of Health’s statewide response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we’ve seen since last year, our Airmen are poised and ready to react at a moment’s notice,” said Col. Matthew French, 125th Fighter Wing commander. “We are proud to continue the fight against this virus as the state looks to use all its available resources to distribute vaccines and expand testing capacity.”
Currently, 34 Airmen are activated to support ongoing COVID-19 testing at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. About half of the 60 personnel activating for the Regency Mall mission previously worked other COVID-19 missions in 2020.
“I was previously activated for three months at the Orange County site providing traffic control support,” said U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Jacob Hancock, 125th FW public affairs specialist. “The opportunity to serve our citizens is the very reason that I chose to enlist in the Florida National Guard. I am happy that I have another chance to serve our community by being on the frontlines, fighting against this virus. We are here to help and, as citizen airmen, we want to ensure that our communities stay healthy and guarded against this virus any way that we’re able to.”
Since March 2020, more than 2,300 Florida National Guardsmen have been on duty in support of the state’s COVID-19 response at community based testing sites, assisted living facilities, airports and food banks. They’ve provided a variety of support to include testing, screening, food distribution and traffic control support.
The 125th Fighter Wing executes a diverse mission set with more than 1,600 citizen-Airmen assigned to 25 units, operating across seven geographically-separated locations. In addition to its F-15 air superiority mission, citizen-Airmen provide experienced CV-22 operations and maintenance support to critical Air Force Special Operations Command missions from Hurlburt Field, operate counter-space systems at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, provide joint force-communications from MacDill Air Force Base, and deliver rapid engineer, heavy construction and repair capability, as well as combat weather forecasting, from Camp Blanding Joint Training Center.
| Date Taken: | 02.01.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 02.01.2021 10:19 |
| Story ID: | 388062 |
| Location: | JACKSONVILLE, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 95 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 125th Fighter Wing Airmen to assist with COVID-19 vaccinations, by Chelsea Smith, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT