Adjutant General discusses Pa. National Guards role in COVID-19 response
The commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard said Friday members of the militia delivered 85,000 meals in the previous 24 hours across the state amid the COVID-19 outbreak. They planned to deliver another 97,000 in the next 24 hours.
“We have transportation units going all across (the state),” said Maj. Gen. Anthony Carrelli. As state adjutant general, Carrelli oversees the 25,000-member Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, including the National Guard. “We did a delivery up to an aging facility up in Erie. We’ve been going to the entire Pittsurgh area, that whole six-county area. We were out in Bucks County, we’ve been doing the Harrisburg area.”
He also said several hundred troops from the state Guard who have been deployed for about a year will probably have their tours overseas extended by two or three months “as the Department of Defense puts a hold on everything.”
Later in a conference call with reporters, he said about 1,200 members of Guard units who are on call and expected to deploy in the next month or two, unless the Department of Defense changes plans for them. He declined to say which units had plans to deploy in the near future or where they were going, citing operational security.
Some other exercises are planned for the summer.
“Those 1,200ish Guardsmen that we have that are preparing for actual overseas deployments, those are still on and they’re still training and preparing to go,” he said.
Also during the crisis caused by the pandemic, Guard personnel brought home 30 Pennsylvania residents who were flown from the Grand Princess cruise ship, which had an outbreak, to Harrisburg International Aiport. They’ve helped transport and distribute food, medical supplies and other needed materials.
Carrelli said he’s concerned about the health of his own personnel, some of whom have contracted the virus themselves.
“We have had members of our National Guard, and we have had state employees as well,” Carrelli said.
Veterans will still receive benefits that are administered by the state.
There have been cases in some of the six veterans homes the department operates in different locations in the state.
“We have positive cases in one of our homes, the Southeast Veterans Center in Spring City (Chester County), and we have positive cases among the staff in I think four of the six veterans homes so far,” Carrelli said.