Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

NATIONAL GUARD ON-THE-RECORD ZOOM/TELEPHONIC 

MEDIA ROUNDTABLE

Jan 3, 2022

TOPIC SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS

Media Roundtable – National Guard 

COVID-19 Response Efforts

 Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National 

Guard Bureau

 Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio National 

Guard's Adjutant General

 Army Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York 

National Guard's Director of Joint Staff

 Air Force Col Michael Bruno, Chief of the Joint Staff, 

Joint Force Headquarters, Colorado National Guard

 Army Colonel Will DiProfio, Director of Joint Plans, 

Operations and Military Support, Colorado National 

Guard. 

 Air Force Master Sgt. Robert Stephens, NCO incharge at the testing site at the Ohio State University 

Wexner Medical Center

Background:

The National Guard has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 Pandemic response across the 

nation, providing support to state and local authorities. Currently more than 15,200 National 

Guard soldiers and airmen are activated for COVID-19 response operations in 49 states and 

territories. This includes more than 6,000 Guard men and women providing direct support to 

medical facilities.

Dialogue:

[Name] [QUESTION/RESPONSE]

Nahaku McFadden

[00:04:14] Good afternoon, thank you for joining us. My name 

is Nahaku McFadden, and I'm from the National 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Guard Bureau Public Affairs Office, and I'm going 

to be moderating today's media roundtable on the 

state National Guard support for our National Guard 

COVID 19 response efforts. This is scheduled for 

approximately 45minutes and is on the record 

before we begin. I asked all of you to stay muted 

until I call on you for your questions. When asking 

a questions, please identify yourself, your outlet and

limit to one question and a follow up. If we have 

time, we'll go around the room again. Today we 

have Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the 

National Guard Bureau. Army Major General John 

Harris Jr., Adjutant General, Ohio National Guard. 

We also have Army Brigadier General Isabel 

Rivera, Smith, Director of Joint Staff New York 

National Guard and Air Force Colonel Michael 

Bruno, chief of Staff with the Joint Staff of the 

headquarters at Colorado National Guard, and 

Army Colonel Will DiProfilo, Director of Joint 

Plans, Operations and Military Support, Colorado 

National Guard. And we also have Air Force Master 

Sergeant Robert Stephens of the Ohio National 

Guard, and he's then on commissioned officer in 

charge of the testing site at the Ohio State 

University Wexner Medical Center. Each 

representative will bring provide brief on the record 

comments in the media. We also have in the 

advisory we sent out their bios, but we're also going 

to drop them into the chat so that if you don't have 

that, you can pull that down from there. Following 

their comments, we're going to take your questions. 

With that, I'll turn it over to General Hokanson for 

his comments, sir. Over to you.

Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau

[00:06:07]
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and I appreciate 

the opportunity to discuss how our National Guard

soldiers and airmen are continuing to support their 

communities in the fight against COVID19 as we 

speak, more than fifteen thousand two hundred 

guard members from 49 states and territories are 

contributing to the governor's efforts to fight the 

COVID 19 virus. In 2021, we witnessed our 

soldiers and airmen get over ten point two million 

days responding to COVID 19, civil disturbances, 

hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires, as well as all of 

our overseas deployments. I'm especially proud to 

report the National Guard met every single request 

for assistance, both at home and overseas, or facing 

uncertain and often austere conditions to help our 

communities and our international partners. From 

the beginning of the pandemic, National Guard men 

and women in each of the 50 states,3 territories and

D.C. have been on the front lines, testing and 

screening at community members, running

warehouses and getting personal protective 

equipment where it needed to be. National Guard 

members also administered over 14 million 

vaccinations to their neighbors. It's important to 

note all of these successful homeland response 

missions were made possible because of the 

funding, manning, training and equipping we 

receive as a combat reserve. The Army of the Air 

Force without question, when disaster strike at 

home. The Army National Guard has 73 percent 

who have received at least one dose of the vaccine 

and 92percent of the Air National Guard have 

received at least one dose of the vaccine. These

percentages continue to increase every single day. 

Today, to tell the specific COVID response story, 

I've asked four of our state's senior leaders and one 

of our testing site, noncommissioned officers to 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

offer their boots on the ground perspective of the 

work they're doing. From Ohio, their Adjutant 

General, John Harris Jr. has nearly 2500 guardsmen 

and women mobilized in support of COVID 19 

operations. That's the highest number of guard

members supporting the COVID mission in all of 

our states and territories. Joining General Harris as 

Master Sergeant Robert Stephens is our lead at the 

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center 

testing site. From New York, we have the New 

York director of the Joint Staff, Brigadier General 

Isabelle Rivera Smith. She's here to share with you 

what nearly 1600 new National Guard soldiers and 

airmen are doing to support COVID 19operations 

there. And we're pleased Colonel Mike Bruno, 

Colorado's chief of the Joint Staff. And Colonel 

Will DiProfio, their director of joint plans, 

operations and military support, are able to join us. 

Our members have trained what are called qualified 

certified medical assistance personnel who are 

administering medication to patients at long term 

care facilities. We're the only state with guard 

members currently performing this important

function. As you probably know, for three hundred 

and eighty five years, guard men or women have 

defended our country and protected our 

communities across the 50 states, three territories in 

D.C. and around the globe. Today we get to talk 

about just one of the many missions we do in our 

four hundred and forty five thousand Guardsmen 

are able to do to keep our promise to America of 

being always ready, always there. With that, I'd like 

to hand it over to Major General John Harris from 

the Ohio National Guard.

Army Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio National Guard's Adjutant General

[00:09:46]
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Thank you, General Hokanson and sir, so thank you 

to your entire staff. I can't emphasize the 

importance of the work that's been done being done 

by the National Guard Bureau to make sure that the 

states are properly administered, equipped, 

organized and our personnel are properly supported 

to respond to these missions. It all came together in

December when Governor DeWine called us and 

activated the Ohio National Guard to support the 

hospitals. As you mentioned, almost twenty five 

hundred Ohio National Guard members are 

currently deployed in support of this. Almost 

twenty three hundred of those are directly in 

support of our hospitals right now. That's 60 

different locations. Forty eight of those are 

hospitals, 12 of those are testing sites, and the 

primary function is to ensure that we can help the 

hospitals meet their capacity as they're being 

overrun by the perfect storm, the perfect storm 

being the Delta variant, OMICRON variant in the 

society at the same time, as well as staffing 

challenges as they deal with overly stressed, overly 

taxed staff, as well as their own COVID positives 

within the hospital. So that strain as a result 

primarily of this huge Omicron surge, has caused 

them to have concerns about their ability to deliver

the standards of care that are required to meet their 

patients needs. So we're expanding the capacity in 

those hospitals by adding medical teams, nonmedical teams and running testing sites. Our 

medical teams are going in and working side by 

side with the clinical staff to as they deal with the 

surge primarily in their emergency departments, as 

they have to open additional COVID beds and their 

ICU and other departments within the hospital.

Those are our nurses, our providers and our medic. 

68 whiskeys in our four Novembers in the in the Air 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

National Guard. Our non-clinical people are doing a 

variety of missions inside the hospitals also. Those 

missions range from environmental services, 

helping turn rooms and clean surfaces. They are 

helping with patient transport inside the hospitals, 

moving just moving patients from A to B to take 

that load off the clinical staff. They're doing general

administrative tasks. And they've discovered 

another a number of other tasks that they canhelp 

that that can help the hospital expand their capacity, 

for example, if a person may be aharm to 

themselves, somebody in that hospital is required to 

have eyes on that patient twenty four hours, seven 

days a week. So if a National Guardsman can fulfill 

that role tofree that provider up, to go and do other 

things clinical tasks, it certainly helps extend the

capacity of the hospital to meet this the staffing 

crisis that they have. And also, we continue to seek 

other ways to help if we can help and the pharmacy, 

moving, packaging around the hospital, helping 

stock shelves. We find our guardsmen doing all 

those things. I have to emphasize that the testing is 

probably one of the greatest ways that we've been 

able to help the hospitals extend their capacity. The 

emergency departments are overwhelmed with 

people who are coming and looking for COVID 

testing. They need that to return towork. They may 

need it to take a trip to visit family, or they may 

have symptoms and want to have a test for that, and 

they just can't get their hands on the test kits right 

now. So those people are reporting to the 

emergency department. We're establishing these off 

site near the hospital testing site so that so that those 

people can come through and get that testing done 

on those sites, that some of those are running over a 

thousand people a day through those testing sites. 

That's a thousand people that are not going to the 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

emergency department to get those tests, thereby 

relieving that strain on the emergency departments.

I also have to emphasize that that that the way the 

National Guard is figured, as I mentioned, organize 

has made it almost perfect for this type of response. 

The way the guard is organized in small teams now 

with leaders organic leadership, we can take

intermediate headquarters and overlay those over 

top of our medical regions and establish those 

relationships, but also have regional command and 

control. The way we've organized with Joint Task 

Force has made it perfect structure to get us 

deployed quickly and we can very agile move these 

small teams from hospital, location as we follow the 

demands of the hospitals, as well as tracking as this 

disease changes, we had Cleveland, which was 

probably the second hot spot in the nation for a 

while. But as Cleveland, we see the numbers 

fortunately start to decline in Cleveland. We can 

very quickly lift and shift those teams to other 

places around the state where we may see surges 

and the virus still. So we've been able to move 

quickly. We've been able to be agile. But most 

importantly, it's important that the relationships 

we've had with our Department of Health and our 

hospital association has helped us to ensure that we 

have the right troops in the right places at the right 

time to meet the need.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:14:46]

Thank you, sir. Brigadier General Smith.

Army Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York National Guard's Director of Joint

Staff

[00:14:50]
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Good afternoon. I'm Brigadier General Isabel 

Smith, director of the Joint Staff for the New York 

National Guard. On behalf of the Governor Kathy 

Hochul, I'm pleased to provide the short update on 

the National Guard response to the COVID

pandemic here in New York. Since March 8th of 

2020, nearly two years ago, the New York National 

Guard or State Defense Force and our state's 

defense forces have done many missions that are 

new and innovative in our support to New York's

COVID response efforts across the state. Last 

month, Governor Hochul asked if we could train up 

to 400 members of our National Guard as New 

York's Certified Emergency Medical Technicians, 

with soldiers and airmen who otherwise have no 

medical training in their career field, just like Ohio. 

We to have shortages in the hospital, so that is why 

we were asked to do this mission at our height. We 

were at thirty six hundred service members on duty, 

and we currently almost have six hundred on duty 

today. Our first class for the EMT started on the5th 

of January of this year and we expect them to be 

certified and available for new missions as early as 

February of this year. We have an additional nine 

classes planned across the state starting this month 

and into February. The training is provided by the 

NewYork State Department of Health and one 

certified. The certification is good for three years,

working closely with the governor's office and the 

New York State Division of Homeland Security and 

Emergency Services. We have provided more than 

1.4 million working days supporting COVID 

mitigation missions so far across the state, including 

many missions that we never have expected, 

including close call centers, cell operations to assist 

the Department of Health with contact tracing, 

alternate care facility set up and operation cleaning 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

public buildings transporting COVID supplies and 

protective equipment across the state. Food 

packaging, food packaging and distribution of fifty 

four million meals to communities in need. 

Assembly of six test kits across the state. Medical 

Examiner's support for New York City and 

Westchester counties. Warehouse management for 

medical supplies. Health data collection, with 3 

million arriving travelers at 12 airports across 

NewYork state. Mass vaccination sites for more 

than four million shots, including our own medics 

providing vaccinations. Nursing home support 

currently at 12 sites. And distribution of rapid home 

COVID tests across the state to include many of the 

school districts. Thank you for your time today, and 

if you have any questions, I am available to answer 

that.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:17:36]

Thank you, ma'am. And Colonel Bruno, would you 

please provide some comments?

Air Force Col Michael Bruno, Chief of the Joint Staff, Joint Force Headquarters,Colorado 

National Guard

[00:17:41]

Absolutely. Thank you. Nahaku, good morning 

from Colorado. I am Colonel Mike Bruno, the chief 

of Joint Staff for the Colorado National Guard. 

Joining me today is Colonel Will DiProfio our 

director of Joint Plans, Operations and military 

support on behalf of Governor Jared Polis and 

Brigadier General Laura Clellan, the Adjutant 

General. We are pleased to provide this short update 

on the National Guard's response to the COVID 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

pandemic here in Colorado. Today is operational 

period sixhundred and seventy two for the our 

COVID response for March of 2020 until today, 

we've had numerous task forces in the field 

supporting the state's COVID response mission.

These task forces have provided testing in multiple 

counties across the state, including in long term care 

facilities. They have provided operations, planning 

and logistics support to small county emergency 

operation centers, and they were key in providing 

logistics support to Gov. policies, school mask and 

test kit initiative. We were also the lead agency for

planning for the state of Colorado for vaccine. Most 

recently, we added over 200 servicemembers 

supporting testing at thirty three different locations 

across the state in support of countering the 

Omicron surge. Today, I want to focus on task force 

supporting long term care facilities. The Colorado 

National Guard began supporting long term care 

facilities in November of 2020 with a brief break in 

the summer of 2021, as the COVID cases subsided

with the most recent surge. Our service members 

went back to work in these facilities. Currently, the 

task force has 20 army and nine Air Force Service 

members supporting eight facilities across the state. 

The task force has partnered with the Colorado 

Department of Public Health and Environment to 

provide support to these facilities, hit hard by 

COVID related critical staffing shortages. These 

non-medical National Guard members receive

training to become qualified medication 

administration personnel, also known as Q Map and 

temporary nurse's aides. The online training to 

become a Q map is approximately 16hours, and the 

temporary nurse's aide training is an additional 16 

hours. These servicemembers typically work 12 

hour shifts, administering medication as directed by 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

a physician's written order. They assist patients with 

daily life activities and assist nursing- staff with 

basic patient care tasks. In addition, this mission is 

continuously changing locations and facilities, 

sometimes on short notice. Since October of twenty 

twenty one, we have supported 46 separate 

facilities. This operation supports Colorado's most 

vulnerable population 24-7. Thank you for letting 

me join you today. Are there any questions?

Nahaku McFadden

[00:20:30]

Thank you so much, sir. Okay, so we're going to 

start off with Lolita Baldor Associated Press.

Reporter 1

[00:20:37] 

Thank you very much. I have a question for General 

Hokanson and then a question more broadly for the 

state of the state military leaders. Gen. Hokanson,

can you tell me, are you happy or are you frustrated 

with the pace of vaccinations for the army guard, 

even though their deadline isn't until June? Because 

it is so low right now? And then for the state, folks. 

Can you tell me whether you are requiring vaccines 

for your guard members who are actively 

interacting with patients and with people at testing

facilities? And are you having any staffing 

shortages due to your own guards, guard members 

being ill?

Nahaku McFadden

[00:21:35]
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

I apologize, but General Hokanson had a previous

engagement and had to drop off. We will follow up 

and get you the answers that you just asked of 

General Hokanson. But if we would like to start 

with General Harris, if for the second aspect of her 

question about National Guardsmen and their own 

health and how they're responding in your state?

Army Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio National Guard's Adjutant General

[00:21:58]

Yes. Well, in answer to the question about the 

mission, we are not employing unvaccinated people 

to be in contact with patients, even at our testing 

centers, those people who will be collecting 

samples, every one of them is vaccinated. We do 

have some partially vaccinated people on the 

mission and they are doing administrative tasks,

traffic control those sorts of things, but they're not 

in direct contact with patients.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:22:26]

Thank you, sir. Master Sergeant Stephens, what are 

you seeing there inside of the hospital? You're on 

the ground? Is there anything that you can share and 

provide a little bit more detail?

Master Sergeant Robert Stephens

[00:22:38]

Thanks for asking me here. I'm actually a couple of 

miles away from the hospital. A business businesses 

let us set up in a parking garage with this test site. 

Since I opened up on January 3rd here at this site 

with LSU, we started out testing two hundred and 

ninety one people. And as of yesterday, we tested a
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

thousand and eighty in eight hours. So the numbers 

are going up. The people testing is going up and it's 

all by appointment only at this certain facility so 

that many people with appointments. It's pretty 

serious.

Reporter 1

[00:23:20]

And you all addressed the question about whether 

you're seeing COVID infections affecting your own 

staff level.

Master Sergeant Robert Stephens

[00:23:31]

My staffing levels here at the facility, I have only 

maybe had one member actually come get covered, 

but it was from a contact over the weekend. It 

wasn't from anything here at the test site. We have 

not had any members contact COVID on site at all 

since I've been here.

Air Force Col Michael Bruno, Chief of the Joint Staff, Joint Force Headquarters, Colorado 

National Guard

[00:23:55]

Here in Colorado, in terms of COVID within the 

joint task force, we deal with it like any other 

organization. They have all the appropriate PPE, so 

we don't see very many. I would say that the 

COVID cases that we've seen within our task forces 

have not really affected currently affected our 

meaning. We're there to support the community and 

help them with their staffing shortages that they're 

dealing with the same types of problems.

Nahaku McFadden
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

[00:24:26]

General Smith, is there anything from New York?

Army Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York National Guard's Director of Joint

Staff

[00:24:28]

Yes. There is nobody on any of the missions that 

are not vaccinated. We have individuals that have 

their first shot, but mainly we have folks that are 

vaccinated and they specifically for the class said 

that the Department of Health is hosting for the 

EMT. It is a requirement that those individuals are 

fully vaccinated before they can be part of that or

so. And those that maybe just have the one shot and 

or not booster they wear the proper PPE. But for the 

most part, we are pretty much all vaccinated for any 

type of missions across the state of New York.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:25:07]

Thank you very much. Continuing on, Courtney 

Kube from NBC News, Courtney, are you there?

Reporter 2

[00:25:16]

I'm here thanks, but I don't have any questions. 

Thanks.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:25:18]

Thank you so much. OK. Nancy Youssef from Wall 

Street Journal.

Reporter 3

[00:25:23]

Thank you so much. I also don't have a question.
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Nahaku McFadden

[00:25:26]

Well, thank you for being here. Do we have David 

Martin from CBS News? Nothing heard. He Drew 

Brooks. National Guard magazine.

Reporter 4

[00:25:45]

Yes, I was hoping someone could walk me through 

whatever sort of safety precautions are in place, 

both for guardsmen on the mission and as they 

come off mission and return to their families and 

civilian jobs. Also, I know the length of orders and

whether or not Guardsmen qualified for health care 

was an issue early in the pandemic. I'm wondering 

if that is something that comes up now or are the 

Guardsmen currently working COVID 19 missions? 

Are they also receiving health care coverage during 

that time?

Nahaku McFadden

[00:26:18]

Let's start with Sergeant Stephens, if you could 

explain what's what is the process for members that 

are coming to duty every day? And then if General 

Harris, you would like to follow up with the 

secondary question. 

Sergeant Stevens. Master Sergeant Robert Stephens

[00:26:33]

The safety protocols that we use here. Everybody 

where anyone in contact with a patient, they are 

wearing gowns and 95 masks, face shields, rubber 

gloves, two layers of rubber gloves, actually 

everybody else in the facility is wearing a mask. I 

am off and a little corner right here, so I'm able to 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

do this call without a mask. But the safety protocols 

here are tremendous. Nobody's going to get infected 

from COVID within this facility where we're at.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:27:11]

Thank you for explaining that. General Harris, what 

about how National Guardsmen have insurance or 

not? Could you please explain what's happening in 

the states? 

Army Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio National Guard's Adjutant General

[00:27:21]

The people on this mission are on five or two F 

orders or on a federal orders. So they're covered by 

TRICARE and we protect them as we would with 

that insurance coverage, as we would for our 

soldiers were deployed anywhere else globally 

there. They deserve that. But on the protection piece 

also, I'd like to mention that we go through and I

think most of the states go through a pretty 

aggressive JRSOI - joint reception staging

integration, all work movement process at the front 

side of this on boarding and as a part of that 

process, not only do we do the typical 

administrative things, but we make sure that those 

people we're putting in the hospital are trained for 

it. So if they require HIPA training so that we don't 

violate patients privacy rights, if they require just 

training on movement of patients, and the 

requirements are that unique hospital situation 

demands we put them through workplace violence 

training. We put them through an entire series of 

training before ever putting them in that situation to 

do the prevention on the front end. And also want to 

mention that when it comes to COVID and COVID 

infections, we know that people are going to get 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

infected on this mission. Not all the infections are 

hospital acquired. These many of these people are 

working near their homes of record. They go back 

to their homes, they go to their communities, they 

go to the grocery store, they do all the other things 

that citizens do when they're not on duty. And so 

we for, well, expect COVID infections. But the 

important thing is what we do if the person wants to 

quarantine away from there or isolate away from 

their families as a result infection, we get the 

opportunity to do that if they have a high risk 

member in their home or whatever we're given the

opportunity to isolate away from. From that, we 

ensure that we document that illness. So if 

somewhere down the line there are unforeseen 

situations or circumstances as a result, the elements 

that we haven't documented so. So yes, people get 

sick, they're going to get sick, but not all of its 

hospital or mission acquire. But we still give them 

the same protections we would as if it were.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:29:20]

Thank you, sir. General Smith, is there anything 

you would like to add for how New York is 

managing the processes for their National 

Guardsmen coming on and off of duty?

Army Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York National Guard's Director of Joint

Staff

[00:29:33]

So I can say the same as General Harris. We need to 

have our JRSOI process here in New York, and we 

brief everybody on all the precautions that they 

have to take. Now, of course, everybody is 

vaccinated. That comes on the mission. And also, 

when they do come off the mission, they have 180 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

days of TRICARE after they come off the mission 

that they'll still have. So the health care is still there 

even after they come off the mission. So they also 

do the post deployment health assessment that is 

part of the process for the back end for the JRSOI. 

So we do have all the help health protections in 

place that we would have for anybody else. So 

we're definitely covered down with that piece.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:30:21]

Thank you, ma'am. Moving on, Ellie Coffman from 

CNN. 

Reporter 5

[00:30:26]

I am present. No question. Thank you.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:30:28]

Thank you so much for being here. OK, so how 

about Kristina Wong from Breitbart News? Nothing 

heard Corey Dickinson stars and stripes.

Reporter 6

[00:30:46]

I'm here, thanks. I'm just wondering, you know, you 

guys all obviously have other operations going on 

besides just the COVID focus that has, you know, 

this massive spike in cases impacted y'all's ability to 

respond to anything else you have going on or just, 

you know, your regular training.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:31:14]

Colonel DiProfio, would you like to begin?
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Army Colonel Will DiProfio

[00:31:20]

Sure. You know, it's like anything else, you know,

like every organization in the country where we 

have safety protocols put in place that enable us to 

continue operations even within the pandemic. 

We've been in this thing for two years. So as folks 

are drilling down range or at home station, they're 

following all the same COVID protocols. So we're 

at this point not seeing as much of an impact to 

training or other operations that we did that we did 

before. So we're learning to live with the current 

situation and continuing the mission as best we can.

Colonel Di Profio 

[00:32:04]

If I can add to that. Corey, we recently, 

unfortunately, the citizens of Lewisville in Superior 

Colorado experienced one of the worst fires in the 

history of the state of Colorado now and within the 

timeframe after where we were requested for

support from the governor, we had nearly 100 

service members up there providing traffic control 

points and assisting local law enforcement with the 

recovery efforts did not impact our mission. We got 

them up there as quickly as we could. And just as 

always from all three states, our service members 

just knocked it out of the park and took care of their

fellow citizens. So that would be my response, as it 

has not impacted directly our ability todo our other 

missions.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:32:50]

General Smith, would you like to add anything to 

that
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Army Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York National Guard's Director of Joint

Staff

[00:32:55]

We too in New York, it has not impacted us in any 

way. I mean, we have a lot of training that we have 

to ramp on the army side, specifically individual 

soldiers up for deployments. We have several 

deployments that are coming up. We do have our 

winter storms. We have things that happened here 

in New York and we are not in any way impacted. 

We have a pretty robust soldiers and airmen that 

have volunteered for COVID. But any other 

mission that we may have, they are ready and able 

to move forward with those missions.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:33:31]

Do you also have a follow on question?

Reporter 6

[00:33:36]

No, I'm good, thank you.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:33:38]

Thank you, Corey. And next, Maria Triandos NBC. 

Or DanGallo, either of you here. Nothing heard. 

CBS News Eleanor Watson.

Reporter 7

[00:34:00]

I'm here, thank you. I'm just wondering if in the two 

years responding to COVID, there was ever a break 

or what the lowest amount of support got to before 

the surge.
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Nahaku McFadden

[00:34:12]

Thank you, General Harris. Would you like to 

begin?

Army Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio National Guard's Adjutant General

[00:34:17]

Yeah, I sure would. I wouldn't call it much of a 

break, but we were down to just by comparison. 

We're almost 2500 on orders today. We were down 

to about 180 eighty on orders at one point. So I 

wouldn't call it a break, but it waxes and wanes the 

number of people that we have on orders. And it's a 

reference to last question. I think it ties into this

question also, you know, as we bring people on and 

off orders, what one of the great things about the 

partnerships that we have across the rest of the state 

is how we can meet or manage who we bring on to 

orders and at what time we bring. Here's an 

example we know right now that the crisis is in the 

hospital, so we avoid bringing on too many health 

care professionals that would degrade the capability 

of the hospitals. The crisis is in our correctional 

facilities. We can avoid. We might want to steer 

around bringing on the corrections officers because 

keep in mind, the National Guard is a reflection of 

our community, so the people that we mobilize are 

coming from the community. So the question really 

isn't are we out of capability? Because I get the 

sense that that's what people get concerned about is 

their National Guard out of capability. It would be a 

very, very rare instance that any state's National 

Guard would literally run out of capability. This

COVID puts a unique challenge on us because 

states are have difficulty mutually supporting each 

other, as we would with any other kind of crisis. 

But it's rare day that a National Guard state would 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

just completely run out of people running a 

capability that challenges how much stress do we 

put on other sectors as we continue to mobilize 

larger and larger numbers of people? Do we have to 

get after those first responders or can weleave them 

at work? Those are the sorts of things that we ask 

ourselves as we mobilize additional people 

following that the surges and the declines in the 

disease.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:36:05]

Thank you, sir. General Smith, do you have 

anything to add?

Army Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York National Guard's Director of Joint

Staff

[00:36:08]

Yes. So for New York, we have been up and down 

as well, but I would say at our lowest point, we 

were just under a thousand service members on 

duty. And for example, this EMT training that we're 

currently conducting in partnership with the

Department of Health. These are all volunteers of 

those that are not in the medical lane that wish to 

volunteer for this cause. They would get a three 

year certification, and many are very excited. Our 

adjutant general went to visit them yesterday and 

they're very excited about this course because it will 

give them an additional skill set to be able to use 

outside of the National Guard if they so choose to.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:36:50]

Thank you, ma'am. Continuing on, Gina, come out 

from Army magazine.
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Reporter 8

[00:36:58]

I'm Gina Cavallaro with Army magazine. So we're 

pretty close to wrapping up two years of this 

pandemic, and I know personally I'm a little burned 

out about it. How are you guys keeping tabs on, you 

know, this is a reflection of the community, as you 

said. So you know how it has the motor continuing 

to run morale wise and let's get out there and do this 

wise. How are you all dealing with that, especially 

in New York, where you have been at the epicenter 

of what they've called the two big surges in this 

pandemic? Thank you.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:37:37]

Let's start with Sergeant Stevens, because he's on 

the ground. What is it like for those who are 

working with you on the missions right there? How

good is the field sergeant?

Master Sergeant Robert Stephens

[00:37:51]

We were coming in and just doing it on a daily 

basis. Day by day, I check on everybody. The 

younger guys make sure they're doing OK. There's 

anything I can do to help them. I watch out for 

everybody. There's 20 of us here. I look out for 

everybody as best I can. Make sure mentally they're 

doing fine. Physically, they're doing fine. All in all, 

everybody's in pretty good morale here. For what

we're doing.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:38:23]

Thank you, General Smith.
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Army Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York National Guard's Director of Joint

Staff

[00:38:25]

Yes. So I will tell you that since March of 2020, we 

have had a significant increase in our retention rate 

on both the army and the air side, and we believe 

that it is because of the impact that we have made 

our service members have made during this Covid 

pandemic. So I think that that's says something for 

our service members, for their dedication. A lot of 

them that I've been out there to talk to have said, 

Listen, we join the National Guard to serve our 

community. So it really especially the younger ones 

where it's a little bit where they may as older folks 

might think that they're not, they don't care or but 

they absolutely positively do. And we see that every 

day when we go out there, we have a lot of our

senior leaders that go out there and talk to each of 

our servicemembers. And they have definitely made 

a great impact and we certainly are appreciative of 

that. And with the retention rate that the way that 

it's going, we're really proud of all that we have to 

offer here in New York.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:39:33]

Thank you, ma'am. General Harris, are you finding 

the same thing?

Army Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio National Guard's Adjutant General

[00:39:37]

I am, and I think there are two things that have 

helped us sustain through for this last 2 years. And 

one of those is purpose. Those are our service 

members who are out there. It's very clear what 

you're doing and why you're doing it. There is no 

doubt that the community is appreciative because 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

they're constantly bombarded with that appreciation

rom not only the people that are serving, whether 

it's coming through for a sampling site or the 

patients in the hospitals, but also the people that 

they're coming to help the morale in the hospitals. 

Here in Ohio, just seeing that uniform come through 

the hallways has increased pretty significantly. 

They'll tell you that they just know that helps on the 

way because we've been under so much strain for so 

much for so long. And those intrinsic benefits, I 

think, are fantastic for our service members. And 

the second is team. You know, we deploy and 

teams, whether that's a five person team or a 10 

person team and a society in this kind of 

disconnected, I think our people appreciate having 

that environment to go to work in every day. And 

that team is all about trust, it's all about cohesion, 

all those things that we appreciate so much in the 

military. And I will add one other factor from the 

strategic- level, ensuring that we've got the 

chaplains out there and our behavioral science 

officers that are always sensing the force. And if we 

have if we have areas of concern where we might 

have burnout or we might have mental health issues 

for some of the folks working in the hospital, for 

example, that are in these stressful environments, 

we want to know that we have a responsibility to 

see those indicators, those warnings and ensure that 

we have help for those people who need it. I think 

that's been an important part of building that trust 

and ensuring that the people know that we have 

their backs.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:41:21]

Thank you, sir. Gina, do you have a follow on?
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Reporter 8

[00:41:26]

No, I'm all set. Thanks, everybody.

Army Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York National Guard's Director of Joint

Staff

[00:41:28]

I do have one more thing. This is General Smith, so 

I will piggyback on General Harris's about the 

chaplains in the behavior, how we in New York 

have a decompression workshop that we do here. 

I'm not certain if the term is workshop. But when a 

soldier comes off mission, that is a difficult 

mission, for example, in nursing homes and

hospitals where they may see people who passed 

away or may see some things that other soldiers 

might not see. We do offer a decompression and we 

have behavioral health specialists. We have 

chaplains, and it gives them the opportunity to be 

expressive and talk about their experiences. And if 

they need follow on assistance, we offer that to 

them and make sure that they're connected with the 

right individuals utilizing their health care benefits 

with TRICARE.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:42:18]

Thank you, ma'am. Moving on, Rachel Nostrand 

from ArmyTimes.

Reporter 9

[00:42:24]

Hi, yes, thank you. So my question is directly for 

General Smith, but really for everyone after she 

responds. So you mentioned earlier that you have 

guards people that are not fully vaccinated. They've 

had at least one shot, but they're not fully
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

vaccinated. So do those guardsmen still work in 

COVID response missions? And if so, in what 

capacity are they interacting with other people? And 

that question than I would like answered by 

everyone else as well. Thank you.

Army Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York National Guard's Director of Joint

Staff

[00:42:58]

So, Rachel, so I will tell you that those that are not 

fully vaccinated are not on the COVID mission, I 

apologize if I said that and gave you the impression 

of that. We are talking just National Guard New 

York National Guard. We have some individuals 

that only have one of the vaccinations, but they are 

not on the mission right now. On the airside, we are 

at about ninety nine percent and on the army side 

we are at about eighty three percent right now and 

we have up until the 30th of June on the army side 

to be able to get those vaccinations. But no, we do 

not have anybody that is on mission, specifically

anybody working in direct contact with anybody in 

hospitals or in nursing homes that only have one of 

the shots.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:43:45]

General Harris, would you like that?

Army Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio National Guard's Adjutant General

[00:43:48]

We do we have we have service members with one 

shot partially vaccinated on the COVID mission, 

not in direct contact with patients or with the public. 

They may be doing traffic control or some other 

administrative task, but we don't have them on the

forward facing side of the response. The patient 
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

public facing side of the response and in the 

hospitals or the places where these people are 

working. Keep in mind that those facilities have 

people on their own staffs that are completely 

unvaccinated, so they have protocols in place. And 

when we employ people into these facilities, they're 

following the hospital's protocols. A protocol 

Department of Health take the lead and we have 

complete confidence that the public is completely 

protected and our service members are completely

protected as results of the protocols that are in place 

and those hospitals that are more extreme for their 

completely unvaccinated staff.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:44:40]

Thank you, sir. Col DiProfio?

Army Colonel Will DiProfio

[00:44:45]

Yes, so it's a requirement to join the joint task force

here in Colorado that the service members be 

completely vaccinated in order to protect the public, 

ourselves and our families. And additionally, a 

caveat to General Harris's comments. We follow all 

of the rules and regulations provided to us by public 

health and the long term care facilities that we that 

we go into, and we're confident that folks are

protected.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:45:12]

Thank you, Rachel, do you have a follow up?

Reporter 9

[00:45:15] No, thank you.
Transcript

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

Press Desk (703) 601-6767 

ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil

www.nationalguard.mil

Nahaku McFadden

[00:45:17] Excellent. Spectrum news Austin Landis, are you 

on the line, Austin? We have a few that are on the 

line that have numbers. Is there somebody who 

would like to ask a question that you may not have 

asked? I might not have the information at this time. 

You can just open up and ask. Hey, nothing heard is 

anyone else has or excuse me, I think I missed 

Carrie Williams from Reserve and National Guard

magazine, Carrie.

Reporter 10

[00:45:57] I don't have any questions. Thank you.

Nahaku McFadden

[00:45:59] Thank you. OK. Unless anyone else has. I'm going 

to open it one more time for questions. Just unmute 

yourself. Is there anyone else that has a second third 

question? We're following? Nothing heard. Well, 

this concludes our media roundtable on the National 

Guard's support to covert operations across the 

nation. We appreciate each of your time for being 

here, especially those of our panel. Thank you so

much and we will be having a transcript as soon as 

possible on the National Guard's website. And if 

you have any follow up questions, please reach out 

to the National Guard Bureau Public Affairs Office. 

Thank you so much and have a great day.

For information regarding this transcript, please send an email to the National Guard Bureau 

Media Operations desk at ng.ncr.ngb-arng.mesg.ngb-media-desk-owner@mail.mil.

-30-