4 more guardsmen assigned to aid in virus fight

The Arkansas National Guard will provide four more guardsmen to state active duty effective immediately, bringing the number of covid-19-related military personnel assistance to 32, officials said.

The guard will provide “staff planners” to the Arkansas Department of Health and to the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management to support national stockpile personal protective equipment planning and to the Directorate of Military Support to support quarantine planning operations, said Lt. Col. Brian Mason, a guard spokesman.

One guardsman will assist the Health Department with planning operations and another will assist with planning operations at the Directorate of Military Support, Mason said.

A “logistics soldier” has been called upon to track, receive, distribute and plan national stockpile personal protective equipment for emergency management, and an intelligence analyst will help plan the equipment distribution, according to the National Guard.

As of Monday, the number of soldiers and airmen on state active duty was 32. Six are from the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing and 26 are from the Arkansas Army National Guard’s 39th Infantry Brigade

Combat Team, officials said.

The National Guard on Friday announced that it had assigned two medics to assist at the Health Department’s call center, joining 10 guardsmen already assigned there earlier in the week. The mission for all of the guardsmen at the call center has been extended through April 19.

More guardsmen are assigned to the covid-19 screening triage at the University of Arkansas of Medical Sciences campus in Little Rock.