COL Tony Fournier is the Commander of the 48th IBCT in the Georgia Army National Guard (GAARNG). The 48th IBCT has 1575 Soldiers engaged in the fight against COVID-19 in a variety of missions. Medics are augmenting hospital staff in emergency rooms, ICUs, and trauma centers. The medics who volunteered to come on orders were not working on the front lines as their civilian occupation. We ensured that we were not pulling Soldiers off ambulances, out of hospitals, or out of police cars. Other Soldiers are on Infection Control Teams. These teams are disinfecting Nursing Homes across the state of Georgia and by doing so, we are protecting the state’s most vulnerable elderly population. By keeping these residents out of hospital beds, we are also helping to prevent the state from exceeding hospital bed capacity. We are operating testing sites across the state to give Georgians greater access to testing and to help the Governor and medical community gain better situational awareness of how prevalent the virus is in Georgia. We are working at food banks, operation centers, isolation facilities, and we are transporting supplies like PPE and test kits all over Georgia. The GAARNG is heavily involved in the COVID fight. Soldiers are motivated to help the community and proud of the work they are doing to save lives.
COL Anthony Fournier
Resident Class of 2017, Seminar 13
Commander, 48th IBCT
Georgia Army National Guard