West Virginia National Guard image.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia National Guard are continuing efforts to aid other across the state and in the county.
With members of the State National Guard returning from deployment in Afghanistan, redeployments are currently underway to help assists West Virginians in various fashions. They are also continuing the deployment of troops abroad with several hundred of the thousands of members of the guard stationed across the globe.
“The governor’s always telling us to be prepared, so that’s what we try to do, it’s just be ready,” said Crane describing the mindset of the Guard. “When people need some help, maybe they need a relief for awhile and so we just try and help when we can,” he said.
In West Virginia, the State National Guard are currently helping local healthcare workers help those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes support in Preston County, where Crane reported that over 150 troops were deployed over to Camp Dawson, to get trained to assists frontline healthcare workers as they assist those affected by the pandemic. This decision was made after health officials warned of a spread COVID cases that hasn’t been seen since the start of the pandemic.
“They gave them some training in CPR, patient safety, transport training,” said Crane on WAJR’s Talk of the Town elaborating on the training taking place. “Some HIPAA law training, just to make sure we don’t do anything to violate anybodies HIPAA rights,” he said.
Abroad, the West Virginia National Guard is continuing efforts to help others and recieve training to assist them during the call of duty. According to Crane, thousands of Guardsmen are deployed across the globe, ranging from Germany, to other parts of the Middle East and in countries near Russia. The troops deployed to these places, are a part of training excercises, or a part of ground and air operations, including those run by the Guard’s 167 Airlift Wing.
“There’s still always going to be requirements overseas,” said Crane. “We do constant rotations, the military does, into the Saudi Arabian Peninsula, we’ll continue to do rotations in the Middle East,” he said.
While the over 4,200 soldiers and 2,150 airmen are deployed all over the world, Crane says the majority of the troops, remain in West Virginia. This is part of the goal to not only serve those abroad, but to help the local populace. Whether it’d be for flood recovery efforts that took place back in 2016, to helping healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Crane says the people serving in the West Virginia National Guard, are ready to serve whenever the time calls for it.
“We have a potential of being deployed, but a lot of times, those deployments are made in the state of West Virginia, serving the citizens in West Virginia,” he said. “I will tell you some of the most incredible experiences I’ve had, helping people return back to a normal life,” he said.