[Military.com] The Army asked its "soldiers for life" who are trained in medical fields to come back to do battle against the novel coronavirus pandemic. And to date, more than 25,000 have answered the call, officials said.
The service first sent out an appeal in late March to retired officers and enlisted soldiers from a targeted set of specialties, asking for volunteers to re-don the uniform and reinforce Army communities thinned by emergency field hospital and personnel deployments to regions hit hardest by the virus. It would ultimately expand the call for volunteers to recently separated soldiers in the Individual Ready Reserve and to "gray-area" soldiers -- Guardsmen and reservists who have completed 20 years but haven't yet met requirements for retirement.
The field totaled "approximately 800,000," officials said, meaning that more than 3% of all former soldiers contacted by the Army responded to say they could help.
Now, the service is working to process the horde of volunteers, ensuring those it takes are properly qualified and certified, and -- importantly -- not currently working in medical care in a civilian capacity. |