Missouri National Guard Archives

Missouri National Guard’s current largest effort is supporting state health department

October 19, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

The governor says the Missouri National Guard has played a critical role in the COVID-19 response this year.

Missouri National Guard Adjutant General Levon Cumpton briefs Capitol reporters in Jefferson City on October 15, 2020, as Governor Mike Parson listens (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

Governor Mike Parson invited National Guard Adjutant General Levon Cumpton to Thursday’s media briefing in Jefferson City, to update Capitol reporters on the work the Guard is doing. General Cumpon says the Guard has staffed 14 state workforce screening sites and has screened more than 541,000 personnel.

“We also tested 12,400 Missouri Department of Corrections’ employees, assisted with data entry of more than 80,000 COVID-19 tests, and fielded 72,000 phone calls,” Cumpton says.

General Cumpton says the Guard has also helped food banks and food pantries serve more than 181,000 meals.

He also says the Guard’s largest current effort is in support of the state Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), providing 118 service members to support data entry and call center operations, as well as community-based testing efforts.

“Of these 118 service members, 60 are in fact involved in supporting the community based testing, moving from one location to another across our state at designated areas by Health and Senior Services,” says Cumpton.

He says the Missouri National Guard has also distributed about 288,000 student meals, in partnership with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

Governor Parson praises the Guard for helping to construct and staff an alternate care hospital this spring in Florissant, which is located in north St. Louis County. The governor notes that site was built in 11 days.

The Missouri National Guard is part of the state Department of Public Safety (DPS).

DHSS says Missouri has had 11,170 confirmed COVID cases in the past seven days, out of more than 115,000 tests conducted.

Missouri has had 156,696 COVID cases this year, along with 2,582 deaths, according to the DHSS website.

Getting meals to Missouri students learning online: “Where there’s a will there’s a way”

October 9, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri has consistently ranked as one of the worst states in the nation for people having access to enough food. Many students count on their schools to provide them with a number of basic needs, including nutritious meals.

Getting meals to Missouri students learning online: “Where there’s a will there’s a way”

When Missouri’s schools closed in March to fight the spread of COVID-19, the community sprang into action to help ensure that students did not go hungry. Educators, parents, philanthropists, the Missouri National Guard and others have worked to fill the hearts, bellies and minds of our youth during these uncertain times. Some continued to do so throughout the summer and even today.

Now that the academic year has started again, Missouri schools are taking a variety of approaches to get food to kids learning remotely who also qualify for free or reduced price meals. Phil Murray, president of the Missouri National Education Association, says schools have been creative.

“A lot of places – there’s just multiple delivery spots. I know that in Poplar Bluff, where I’m from, actually they sat through the summer and actually used the schools and other locations as drop-off points for food for families. I think that where there’s a will there’s a way,” says Murray.

Some schools are also using buses to deliver food directly to kids.

“We know how important it is to make sure that our kids are taken care of and I think that’s something that we’re all on the same page on,” he says.

Doug Thaman, executive director of the Missouri Charter Public School Association, says the state’s charter schools, which are in St. Louis and Kansas City, are taking similar measures.

“That was really important as a community to make sure that we were covering all those areas and did not have any families who just were unable to provide nutritious meals to their kids,” he says.

Thaman says some Missouri charter schools are pickup sites for anyone in the community with kids 18 and under to stop by and get meals once or twice a week. Others are running buses to key locations in neighborhoods for families who live further out and might not have transportation.

Governor activates Missouri National Guard in response to civil unrest

September 24, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Gov. Mike Parson signed today an executive order activating the Missouri National Guard as a “precautionary measure” in response to demonstrations continuing across the country. Members will aid in the state’s effort to protect people and property from being harmed.

Governor activates Missouri National Guard in response to civil unrest

On Wednesday, a Kentucky grand jury chose not to charge police officers in the death of Breonna Taylor. The 26-year-old African-American woman was shot to death by three Louisville police officers on March 13. The grand jury instead indicted one of the officers for a lesser charge – triggering unrest in communities.

“We are saddened by recent acts of violence that have occurred in some cities across the nation,” Parson says in a press release. “We fully support the right of citizens to peacefully protest and are committed to protecting that right. At this time, we are taking a proactive approach in the event that assistance is needed to support local law enforcement in protecting Missouri and its people.”

Parson’s order declares that a state of emergency exists in Missouri due to civil unrest and calls on the Adjutant General, or his designee, to immediately call and order into active service members of the National Guard and use whatever equipment is necessary for the job.

Click here to view the order.

Parson extends timeframe of Missouri National Guard help with COVID-19 response

September 16, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Gov. Mike Parson has signed an executive order today to let the Missouri National Guard continue helping the state with COVID-19 response efforts. A press release today from the Governor’s Office says the order will allow soldiers to continue supporting the state in this role through December 30.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson briefs Capitol reporters in Jefferson City on June 11, 2020 (photo courtesy of Governor Parson’s Flickr page)

“The National Guard has played a major role in supporting state and community response efforts, including COVID-19 testing support, supply and equipment transportation, and meal distribution just to name a few,” says Parson. “This Executive Order will allow the Guard to continue assisting the people of Missouri as we move forward.”

The press release says mobilizing the National Guard through December 30 is consistent with the COVID-19 state of emergency declaration and will allow continued flexibility in deploying resources around the state.

Prior to August 21, the federal government covered 100% of the tab for the National Guard’s COVID-19 response help to states. Now, the feds are paying 75% and the states have to pay for the rest of these costs.

According to Col. Anna Friederich-Maggard with the Missouri National Guard, the state currently has 265 soldiers on orders supporting Missouri’s COVID-19 response.

To view Executive Order 20-16, click here.

DHSS: Four have tested positive for COVID during special session testing at Missouri Capitol

August 5, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

State health officials say four people have tested positive for the coronavirus, during recent testing events at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City.

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams briefs Capitol reporters in Jefferson City on August 5, 2020 (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

The testing has taken place during Missouri’s special legislative session on violent crime, a session that continues. Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Kansas City, called on the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) to provide testing to anyone working within the Capitol in conjunction with the special session.

DHSS Director Dr. Randall Williams responded to Senator Rizzo’s call, and there have been several days of testing. Missouri lawmakers, staff members and Capitol reporters have been eligible for the tests.

DHSS says of the 228 total individuals who have been tested at the Capitol, four tested positive. During a Capitol media briefing in Jefferson City today, Dr. Williams told Missourinet that he would brief legislative leaders about the numbers first, then would release them.

His office e-mailed the numbers to Missourinet about two hours later.

Leader Rizzo has praised the community testing events that DHSS has held with the Missouri National Guard, saying that testing events in the Capitol would help ensure the health and safety of those within the building.

Parson meets with Missouri school leaders to discuss reopening plans

July 30, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri school officials have been putting a lot of effort into developing reopening plans designed to help protect staff, students and their families during the COVID-19 era. Gov. Mike Parson is traveling around the state this week to hear from teachers and administrators about their back-to-school plans. He has made stops in Jefferson City, Neosho, Springfield and the St. Louis area. He is traveling today to Kansas City.

Jefferson City roundtable (Photo courtesy of Gov. Parson’s Twitter page)

At a roundtable in Jefferson City, Blair Oaks R-II School District Superintendent Jim Jones says his district is finalizing a plan.

“I think the most important element when we got back to March 18 was, when are students, and parents, and grandparents and patrons going to be 100% confident going back to school? You know, I’m not so sure we’re ever going to have 100% confidence of 100% of the people. But, what we want to do is we want to create every opportunity possible to provide them with the resources that are going to allow them to have the highest comfort level possible,” says Jones.

Many schools are planning to use a variety of efforts, including online classes, plexiglass barriers, different class rotations, providing masks and sanitizer, delaying the start of the school year, among other things.

“Believe it or not, we’ve found out during summer school that if teachers remove a lot of stuff that is not really educational related, you can create a lot of additional space for students in your classroom,” says Jones.

He says Blair Oaks is the seventh lowest-spending school district in Missouri.

“We’ve addressed teacher salaries. We went from 25th to 5th in the same region over time,” says Jones. “We know that the most important resource in our district is our people. But, in this situation right here, it’s more than just people. We’ve got to do all we can to protect all our students, faculty and staff.”

A central Missouri middle school teacher, Jill Verslues, told the governor that many classrooms are not big enough to provide adequate social distance.

“A normal classroom could be 25-30 kids, plus you throw in a co-teacher, some A-plus students, paraprofessional, you know how many people do you have in there? There is no way in those classrooms to social distance if we’re doing all the kids at the same time,” she says.

Verslues says she represents many teachers who have anxiety about going back to school.

“You know, we’re going to do it. We love our students. We’re going to do it because that’s our job, but that anxiety does come and especially for teachers who have children at home with auto immune deficiency syndromes or are taking care of their elderly parents,” she says.

Missouri National Guard soldiers have helping with the state’s response to COVID-19. They have been performing a variety of roles, including help with community testing events, transporting personal protective equipment, entering test results into the state’s reporting system and retrofitting a temporary hospital site in the St. Louis region. An idea was also brought up during the roundtable about the possibility of having guard members get involved in school duties, such as substitute teaching.

Missouri Veterans Commission unanimously selects new leader

July 27, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Veterans Commission has a new executive director. Commissioners have unanimously selected Paul Kirchhoff to replace Grace Link, who retired in May.

Missouri Veterans Commission unanimously selects new leader

Kirchhoff, originally from mid Missouri’s California, worked as special assistant to Link prior to his selection. He is also a former director of the Missouri Emergency Response Commission and served 33 years of combined military service with the U.S. Army and the Missouri Army National Guard.

The commission serves more than 458,000 veterans and 1,700 employees in seven veterans homes, five state veterans cemeteries, and the Veterans Services Program.

Kirchhoff says he is taking stock of the health of the organization for its long-term financial viability. He says he wants to find new ways to provide further benefits to veterans.

“There are other opportunities there to partner with other organizations, with the other executive branches, the legislature, that sort of thing as far as moving us forward and finding new benefits and better ways to serve our veterans,” says Kirchhoff.

The commission has 40 veterans service officers (VSOs) who steer veterans toward filing for a variety of VA benefits and Kirchoff says 40 officers is not enough.

“The cost-to-benefit ratio of what it costs to have a veterans service officer and the amount of money that they bring back into the state from those benefits, that’s definitely something that is an opportunity for us,” he says. “It’s a win win – a win for the state and more importantly it’s a win for those veterans,” he says.

Service officers are also available for any follow-up work necessary with the VA to obtain the maximum amount of earned benefits due any eligible veterans and/or dependents. VSOs are knowledgeable in all areas of veterans benefits, including service-connected compensation, non-service connected disability pension, education and training, vocational rehabilitation, burial, and survivor benefits. They can also assist claimants with health care eligibility, VA Home Loan Guaranty, and other veterans benefits, including those offered by the state.

Kirchhoff says staff vacancies at its veterans homes are lower than what they have been in about two years.

“That has to be analyzed and thought through analytically rather than a ‘We just don’t have enough people,’” says Kirchhoff. “I don’t believe that’s the case. I think we just have to make sure that we have them in the right locations and that we continue to recruit quality staff members.”

Kirchhoff has been passed the baton during the COVID-19 era. Since March, the veterans homes have had five people test positive for the virus. One resident, who lived within the St. Louis area home, died from the coronavirus. The rest of the cases are workers.

To fight COVID-19, the veterans homes stopped allowing indoor visitations in March. Kirchhoff says the restrictions now vary among the homes and some have eased rules to allow outdoor visitations.

A minimal number of admissions have also been allowed at the homes since March. The wait list to get into one of the homes has increased since admissions have been limited.

Missouri health officials working through backlog of COVID-19 tests

July 17, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s health director says there is a four-day backlog of about 7,000 COVID-19 tests waiting to be entered into the reporting system.

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams briefs Capitol reporters in Jefferson City on July 14, 2020 (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

During a Thursday media briefing in Jefferson City, State Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams told Capitol reporters that they’re working as quickly as possible.

“We’ve been using the (Missouri) National Guard, we’ve been using other people, but we are ramping up other people in DHSS to become contact tracers and to do the filing of that information,” Dr. Williams says.

He says that DHSS is training others to do that job. He also emphasizes that the department’s rule is to report positives within an hour. Dr. Williams says he’s insisted on that.

Missouri now has 31,290 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to DHSS. That’s an increase of about 800 from Thursday. It’s also an increase of 3,847 from Monday’s number of 27,443.

DHSS says there have been 1,121 coronavirus deaths in Missouri.

Dr. Williams continues to urge Missourians to practice social distancing and to wear a mask, saying it’s the key to preventing the spread of COVID-19.

He urges people to be creative, and he put on a Mizzou mask while he was speaking to Capitol reporters on Thursday.

Missouri National Guard soldiers responding to protests at nation’s capital

June 3, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Gov. Mike Parson says Missouri is sending National Guard soldiers to Washington, D.C. to help with protests there. At a press conference today, Parson says the troops will be sent out within a day or so.

Missouri National Guard soldiers responding to protests at nation’s capital

“All of our jobs, no matter what state you’re in, no matter who the president is, protecting Washington, D.C., protecting the monuments, protecting our history of who we are, is important and should be important to every citizen,” says Parson. “Politics out the window for aside, we’ve got to maintain that law and order. So, we’re more than willing to help to preserve that.”

Protests have emerged around the country since last week’s death of George Floyd in Minnesota. He died after a white police officer pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck for about eight minutes while the African American man was on the ground in handcuffs.

Other states are also sending troops in response to protests in Washington. About 5,000 troops are reportedly expected to help with security there.

Democratic governors in Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware have turned down requests from Defense Secretary Mark Esper to provide National Guard help in Washington.

More than 1,000 National Guard troops are scattered across Missouri to help keep peaceful protests from turning violent.

Parson to boost Missouri National Guard response to unrest

June 2, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Gov. Mike Parson says more than 1,000 National Guard soldiers will be called up to help crack down on the violent and destructive turmoil going on around Missouri. On Saturday, the governor signed an executive order activating the National Guard to help with ongoing turbulence.

Gov. Mike Parson

Protests have sprung up in several Missouri cities since last week’s police brutality death of George Floyd, an African-American man from Minnesota. A white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for about eight minutes while the man was on the ground face down in handcuffs.

When night falls, the surroundings have become unruly in Kansas City and St. Louis. Four St. Louis police officers were injured during shootings Monday night and a retired officer there was killed by looters. News and police vehicles have been set on fire in both cities. Looters have broken into businesses and damaged property. Officers have been injured by flying objects. People in the crowd have been pepper spray and tear gas has been ignited.

During a press conference today, Parson says he’s not going to tolerate total chaos.

“We’re not going to have police officers, we’re not going to have citizens of Missouri being shot in our streets in this state and we’re going to put an end to it with whatever forces I have as governor of the state of Missouri. Whether that’s every member of the Highway Patrol, whether that’s every member of the National Guard, I will call them all out to stop the violence,” says Parson.

Brig. Gen. Levon Cumpton, the Adjutant General, says the state has more than 10,000 National Guard soldiers.

The governor, a former Polk County sheriff, says there must be law and order in America for people to survive.

“We all need to take a little more accountability,” he says. “I don’t care whether you’re an elected official, whether you’re an everyday citizen, whether you’re a mom, whether you’re a grandma or whoever you might be. You need to start standing up and protecting one another and not engage and not trying to create chaos and commit criminal activities. They’re really trying to change a cause that definitely needs to be changed. Things need to be done different in society. We need to address issues that the African-American community have, but not through violence – not through what we’re seeing out there on the streets.”

Parson thinks the behavior is organized crime that is different from the 2014 Ferguson riots.

“When all the sudden you’ve seen pallets of bricks show up or pallets of blocks that show up, you’re having a strategy where dumpsters are where you pull them out and you set them on fire, they know to try to burn police cars because it gets more of the media coverage, and their main focus is to try to get to the police stations or the law so they can disrupt the services there. So, they have a plan of how they do sweeps, they have a plan of how they attack police officers,” says Parson.

The FBI and its SWAT team, ATF and Missouri Highway Patrol are also helping on the ground in St. Louis.