There are some things that can't be done by Skype or Zoom. Such as providing covering fire for the assault team, lifting and shifting that fire on a signal, and attacking through the bunker complex. That would be a hard one to pull off virtually.
This time of year, civilians start seeing those camouflaged trucks and other vehicles on the interstates as the National Guard starts the majority of its two-week Annual Training exercises. (Contrary to popular belief, not all AT training is held in the summer. But enough of these exercises are scheduled in the hot months that the phrase, "One weekend a month, two weeks in the summer," has caught on.)
Thousands of Arkansas National Guardsmen have reported this weekend for duty. They started checking in on July 4--Independence Day!--this year, which might seem unusual, but nothing is usual in 2020. Besides, with everything the National Guard is called upon to do these days, it might just be fitting that the companies started falling in on the Fourth this year.
This isn't your grandfather's National Guard. Nobody goes into the Guard these days to avoid combat. In fact, it's a pretty good ticket to the front line. Over the years, many units in Arkansas have been called out to serve beside the regulars, from Desert Storm to the War on Terror. Then there are the times when a national disaster hits. And the governor of Arkansas called out the Guard this very year to back up police during unrest, and to provide support for virus tracking.
Ah. The virus.
Families of Guardsmen, and maybe those in uniform themselves, might be wondering how they'll be able to pull off maneuvers during a pandemic. It won't be easy. But who said military service is easy?
"There comes a time when the Guard [has] to come together to do maneuvers and train together as an organization," a spokesman for the Arkansas Guard, Bob Oldham, told the paper. "That's what the annual training helps accomplish."
For the thousands of troops who suit up this morning, and every morning for the first few weeks of July, there will be certain precautions, according to the brass. Soldiers are going to be screened at their armories, issued cotton masks and sanitizers. After training at the different sites, all the equipment will be sanitized before the next group comes through.
We are reminded of having to mouth the words, "Now cleaning the MOPP gear," as we acted out how we'd clean up a gas mask after a chemical scare. Now you can bet there'll be real cleaning going on between classes.
The Guard has real-world experience with the covid-19 virus, and how to react to it. After all, its soldiers have been around the crowds for weeks, and are involved in tracking exposures among civilians.
A lot of these soldiers and airmen are college students, the paper said, so waiting until the fall to pull them out of school for two weeks would be an inconvenience. Not only that, but who knows if the pandemic will be any less of one in the fall? (They've been "pushing the training on the calendar to the right" for as long as they could. But things have to get moving.)
Lt. Col. Brian Mason, another spokesman for the Guard, might have put it best: "The Arkansas National Guard must be able to organize, train and equip its Guardsmen in all conditions, to include a pandemic." Soldiers and airmen need to be able to move, shoot and communicate no matter what the obstacles. This could actually be a good year for training on how to adapt.
These Guardsmen--doctors to truck drivers, infantrymen to pilots, colonels to privates, cooks to nurses--are essential workers.
Fact is, they don't make 'em more essential.
Which brings us to the governor's comments Wednesday.
No, AT has not been canceled, soldier. But the thousands that were supposed to gather at Fort Chaffee are staying home. At their home armories, that is.
More than 4,000 troopers were supposed to report to Fort Chaffee this week, to train for an even larger event next year. This year's massive deployment to Fort Chaffee is not going to happen. But that doesn't prevent the Guardsmen from reporting in the mornings at their hometown stations, running in formation, and practicing attacking through that bunker.
Maybe next year they can fight the Chaffee Chiggers again.