From my perspective, Georgia’s Response to COVID-19 has included the largest National Guard requirement that I have experienced in my 34 years in the Georgia National Guard. While some of the mission sets like supporting food banks, logistics support, and security augmentation, were predictable and consistent with past missions, COVID-19 forced us to develop new capabilities during the response. For example, our largest medical unit is currently deployed to Iraq. We developed Medical Support Teams to deploy to 20 hospitals across the state with little notice. In addition, we developed and deployed more than 70 Infection Control Teams to decontaminate Georgia’s 790 long-term care facilities. Likewise, we built hospital entry control teams to screen arrivals in order to get nurses back into patient care roles. We were tasked directly by the Governor to analyze hospital capacity versus anticipated requirements. This led to an alternate care facility consisting of 200 beds being constructed inside the Georgia World Congress Center. We have just recently been tasked to improve COVID-19 testing. Our ability to plan, prepare, and execute has been a key component of the state’s response. Our JTF Commander, BG Randall Simmons (DDE’13), and his staff work all the “down and in” execution. I primarily focus my efforts on the “up and out”. This ensures that we are fully nested with the Governor and our state’s emergency manager.
MG Thomas M. ‘Tom’ Carden, Jr.
Distance Class of 2009
Adjutant General, Georgia
