April 3, 2020 | BY Katie Lange , DOD News
It's not every day you get to be part of a phone call with
the president and defense secretary, but in these uncertain times, anything is
possible.
Army Spc. Samuel Shepard has been learning that quickly. As
a medic, the 25-year-old is one of 270 soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, deployed
in New York City, the epicenter of America's COVID-19 crisis. He and fellow
soldiers assigned to the 9th Hospital Center, 1st Medical Brigade, are just
some of the troops who arrived in the hard-hit city last week to support the
Army Corps of Engineers, police and other first responders on the front lines
of the pandemic.
Shepard's unit has pulled some 15-hour days to help build a
temporary medical station at the Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center in
Manhattan. DOD remains in close coordination with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, which is the lead federal agency in the response, to
determine how the military could support additional requests for assistance.
Shepard was scouting potential field hospital sites in case
they got such a request when he was told to do something he would never forget:
President Donald J. Trump and Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper were holding
a conference call with service members and their families, and he was asked to
give an update on his unit's mission.
''Seventy-two hours after we left, we were on ground,
helping to build the first 1,000 beds and all the patient care and hygiene
systems and the staff care and hygiene systems, which were our top
priorities,'' Shepard told the president. ''We are ready and willing to do
whatever you ask to win this fight, and we will win. That's just what we do.''
Shepard said it was a pretty cool task, despite the pressure
of knowing about 1,000 people were on the call.
''It was a great experience to get to update the president
on everything that was going on,'' he said. ''When I was in college, I did an
internship with the meteorologist at our local TV station, so I was kind of
used to talking in front of people.''
Shepard joined the Army as a combat medic three years ago
after graduating from college. He was recently selected to attend flight school
to become a helicopter pilot, but he’s not sure if that will get put on hold as
the coronavirus crisis continues.
Two soldiers kneel down while putting together temporary
shelving inside a large room. Others do similar tasks in the background.
For now, he's focused on the mission at hand – helping
reduce pressure on the New York medical system. While the 15-hour days have
slowed down a bit, Shepard knows it's far from over yet. But he and his unit
are prepared for whatever comes their way.
''We have all our people here, so we're able to spread the
load,'' Shepard said. ''We're building our battle rhythm as we go along.''
More than 186,000 people in the United States have been
diagnosed with the virus that has swept the globe. More than 3,600 had died
from COVID-19 as of April 1.
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