National Guard members from Texas and Nebraska deployed to the Czech Republic in November to aid that country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a Dec. 7 report published by the U.S. Army, the Guard team of physicians, medical administrators, planners and logisticians helped implement best practices and set up field hospitals in the Czech Republic, anticipating a resurgence of COVID-19.
The Texas and Nebraska National Guards have had a relationship with the Czech Republic under the Guard’s State Partnership Program for the last 27 years but this is the first time they had responded to a call for a real-world, collaborative mission. “The medical part of our partnership had never been a line of effort requested by the Czech Republic, and this mission shows unity with the teamwork of both partnerships from Nebraska and Texas,” said Lt. Col. Amy Johnson, Nebraska Air National Guard 155th Medical Group nurse and medical administrative officer on the team.
Several members of the medical team have been involved in responding to the pandemic in their respective states and so brought that experience with them to the Czech Republic. “It’s been comforting knowing they (Czech Republic) are doing most of what we are doing, even across the ocean, how things are so similar,” said Air Force Capt. Stephanie Evans, a nurse also with the 155th Group. “We are all fighting COVID together.”
