FORT HOOD, Texas — We have seen the videos of the empty streets and busy hospitals in New York City. HHC 11th Field Hospital Company Commander Jillian Guy saw it in real time.
"I got there on the 31st of March and then we got home yesterday," Guy said.
She went out and served on the east coast with roughly 300 others from Fort Hood. Guy said they got a warning order that they were heading to New York and 48 hours later they were off. Guy said they set up the Javits New York Medical Station.
It was the largest inpatient hospital in the entirety of the Department of Defense. Guy said they were able to decompress the strain on New York Hospitals.
"You could physically almost see it even just the regular civilians walking back and forth on the streets. You can tell how thankful they were," Guy said.
Guy said she was in more of a managerial role. She oversaw logistics and fielded new medical equipment to name a few things that fell under her role. Guy said they were training for something like this.
"This one was obviously not planned, so not really having that start date or that end date was different for us. We usually kind of know beginning and end, so not even knowing that it was coming, getting out the door so fast, that was I think the most challenging part is the little bit of the unknown. Even with the disease itself we learned something new every single day," Guy said
She said they stopped seeing patients at the Javits Center May 1. Then took precautions before heading back to Texas. Guy said they started to quarantine in New York and are continuing to do so on Fort Hood. They were briefed and screened when they got back and take their temperature twice a day.
