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<\/a><\/p>\nFREDERICK, Md. – Army Staff Sgt. Bryant East, a squad leader with the Maryland Army National Guard\u2019s\u00a0Company A, 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, was organizing food items on a table set up in a Frederick, Maryland, parking lot when he felt something was missing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI see rice, but no flour,\u201d said East.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u201cNo flour right now,\u201d said a young woman who was helping East organize items on the table.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo flour? Cancel the mission,\u201d East jokingly said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It was a moment of levity for both the woman and the approximately 30 Maryland Army Guard members who were on hand to help a local food bank distribute food items and toiletries to area residents as part of COVID-19 response efforts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The mission was a relatively new one for the unit\u2019s Soldiers, who have primarily been on duty at COVID-19 testing facilities in Baltimore for the past month.<\/span><\/p>\n Food distribution is a little more complex and involved, East said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is probably the one mission out of all the ones we have done so far that has required the most out of us,\u201d he said, adding that closures because of the COVID-19 outbreak has meant many in the local area have had difficulty getting food and other needed items.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen we first started [working at the food bank], we just weren\u2019t that busy, not that many people needed us,\u201d said East. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have that much to package and we didn\u2019t have that much to hand out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Demand has increased.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYesterday, we were at 700 meals that were needed. Now, it\u2019s a 1000,\u201d said East. \u201cIt\u2019s growing exponentially every single day with the amount of people in the community [who] need this kind of support.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That means more Soldiers have been augmenting food bank volunteers and staff members with distributing those items. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a mission that makes Spc. Hugo Gomez, an infantryman with Company A, feel like he\u2019s come full circle.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up, <\/span>we were less fortunate<\/span>,\u201d he said, adding his family often visited the food bank.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Taking part in this mission, said Gomez, allows him to give back.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s literally giving back to the community and it feels very fulfilling and humbling.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Though he may not be participating in a ruck march or practicing his marksmanship skills on a firing range, Gomez said his military training still comes in handy for a community-based mission.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have that training that is instilled in us: to be disciplined and move with a purpose and to have everything run basically like a well-oiled machine,\u201d\u00a0Gomez said. \u201cRegardless if we\u2019re on an M4 [carbine] or operating out of a soup kitchen, we know the mission and we get it done.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n East had similar thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still the same military process for going about mission planning,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s analysis and execution. All of that doesn\u2019t change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But East said one challenge has been brought about by the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat is unique here – for lack of a better word – is the enemy being the virus,\u201d he said, adding that\u2019s very different from deploying overseas or assisting in response to a hurricane, snowstorm or other large-scale event.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf one person gets sick, potentially the entire company goes down, right?\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To mitigate that, the unit conducts routine checks on each other and ensures everybody is wearing the proper personal protective equipment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using all the PPE and [do] all the medical screening we can to try to make ourselves as safe as possible,\u201d East said.<\/span><\/p>\n Even with such risks, East said, Soldier morale remains high.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t see them getting down or frustrated,\u201d he said, even with last minute changes.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThey have been phenomenal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>And East is thankful for that, and proud of the job they\u2019ve done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs leaders we are nothing without these guys and they have crushed it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Others have said similar things about the Soldiers as well.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey have come in and executed every single task and gotten fantastic feedback from the community,\u201d said East. \u201cThe ones they are helping and the civilian entities they are working with have all been very thankful and very impressed in what they have been able to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For Gomez, who has plans to become a commissioned officer, it\u2019s all part of the job.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s more than just myself,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s my team. It\u2019s my community. It\u2019s my state. It\u2019s my country. I am here actually doing something to help out as best as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Though East said he\u2019s glad for the dedication his Soldiers have, he\u2019s also looking forward to response efforts winding down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI look forward to spending more time with my son and hopefully get[ting] the chance to enjoy some sunny, summer weather,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Article by Tech. Sgt. Erich B. Smith, National Guard Bureau FREDERICK, Md. – Army Staff Sgt. Bryant East, a squad leader with the Maryland Army National Guard\u2019s\u00a0Company A, 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, was organizing food items on a table set up in a Frederick, Maryland, parking lot when he felt something was missing.\u00a0 \u201cI Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":4111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4110"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4113,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions\/4113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}