Wisconsin National Guard Comes to Door and Kewaunee Counties

Another day of COVID-19 testing accomplished yesterday.  And it was busy!  I kinda figured that with the event making the evening news cycle and opening it up to the general public would boost traffic.

And I was tasked to managing the ACP - in army parlance Access Control Point.  

Completed testing paperwork is left under the wiper blades, HIPPA Disclosures given directly to testees and the driver of the vehicle directed to approach me.  I direct vehicles into one of two lines.  Vehicles queue-up to enter one of two sally ports in the county garage where Wisconsin National Guard personnel collect the paperwork and match it-up with nasal swabs taken from each subject.

The art and science (yes there is both art and science) to managing the ACP is to not jamb-up the progress of moving vehicles thru the queue.  Imagine if three vehicles with four test subjects each were all sent to lane one - progress slows to a crawl.  Furthermore, lane two requires both a right followed by a left turn to exit the garage - thusly no trailers or over-sized vehicles in lane two.

Having a a rush of customers makes the time pass quickly and eventually I scored a late lunch break (brats on the menu) and was assigned to the shade of the garage to keep a tally of tests by each hour.

Unlike my first day out near the entrance off of County Highway S - yesterday I was in close proximity to the troops and had quite a bit in interaction with the guardsmen.

Some observations:

They're (with few exceptions) exceedingly young.  Of course, I'm old.  Makes sense.

The troops appeared to be evenly split by sex.

The commander - she is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Wisconsin Air National Guard.

The guardsmen are polite.  Over my protestations they address me as 'Sir' even though I remind them I'm a civilian.

Similarly, they're quick to strike-up a conversation when the opportunity allows.

When on break they are glued to their handheld devices.  And like troops the world-over sometimes use that downtime to nap.

They work long hours and remain cheerful.

In conclusion, it is useful to know that this whole, entire COVID pandemic emergency thing has provided Door Count (at least) an opportunity for the County Fire Chiefs and Emergency Management team to build a web-based tool that includes a vast database of citizen volunteers that can be tapped in the eventuality of a future emergency - as there most certainly will.  There is no way to predict when it will come or what form it may take but for sure there will be another emergency requiring the mobilization of citizens to pitch-in to assist their fellow countrymen.  

It's probably safe to say it will not take the form of hurricane recovery.