The Sconi

Wisconsin National Guard troops' "intangible efforts" during the still ongoing pandemic, including community testing and manning call centers, saved lives and lead to a day of recognition last month, a guard general said.

Since the health care emergency began in March of last year, state National Guard members supported community testing efforts and collected more than one million COVID test specimens, according to a guard news release. The collections accounted for a third of all testing done in Wisconsin last year, according to the Thursday, Aug. 26 news release.

Guard members in call centers placed 600,000 phone calls to inform state residents of their test results and almost 200,000 COVID vaccines have been administered with the support of soldiers and airmen in mobile vaccination teams.

"It's the intangible efforts behind these numbers that made these missions work – the human spirit of service that drove our collective actions,” Brig. Gen. David May, Wisconsin’s deputy adjutant general for Air, said during a ceremony Aug. 24. "That is the true story of what you’ve accomplished and will continue to accomplish in the future."

The ceremony, which took place at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Madison, was attended by other Wisconsin National Guard senior staff and more than 100 Wisconsin National Guard members from Joint Task Force Domestic Operations and Joint Task Force 64. The guard members attending represented only a portion of the 2,001 soldiers and airmen who have supported the state’s COVID-19 response more than 18 months.

Also attending was Gov. Tony Evers, who took the opportunity to proclaim that day as Wisconsin National Guard COVID-19 Support Recognition Day and to thank the guard members for their continued efforts in the state’s COVID-19 response.

Evers told the guard members that they are "Wisconsinites helping Wisconsinites" in the face of the pandemic.

"The work of the Wisconsin National Guard in this pandemic saved thousands of lives," Evers said.

Residents in the state have become fixtures in local health departments, nursing homes and other healthcare centers, Evers said.

"Your teams worked with local health departments to run COVID testing sites in our smallest towns and our largest cities," Evers said. "If a Wisconsinite wanted a test, the Wisconsin National Guard went out on the front lines and provided them with one."

Evers later took to social media to praise Wisconsin National Guard members.

"For the past year, @WI_Guard has worked tirelessly to support our fight against #COVID19 and serve the people of our state," Evers said in his Friday, Aug. 27 Twitter post. "I was proud to proclaim Tuesday as Wisconsin National Guard COVID-19 Support Recognition Day and was glad to thank these folks on behalf of our state."