SAN ANGELO, Texas — Commanders at Goodfellow Air Force Base have had to make major changes to their training schedules and daily routines in recent months to prevent COVID-19 from entering their gates.
"If you come over here, literally 100% of the folks in here will be wearing masks. You will see people, as part of their daily routines, walking at six feet away from each other. It has changed the way that we operate as a wing and it has definitely changed the way we go about our daily routines," said 17th Training Wing Commander Colonel Andres Nazario.
The preventative measures have paid off, according to the data. As of June 5, Goodfellow AFB has only had one positive case of COVID-19.
"At the end of the day, while they may be anxious, our folks recognize that the actions that we have taken, the level of compliance that they have exhibited, have resulted in zero cases (currently) for our base. We sacrifice some of our daily routines, but the gain has been that we didn’t have a spread, the gain has been that we’ve kept our folks safe," Nazario said.
In many ways, COVID-19 has benefited the base, according to Nazario.
"If anything, COVID-19 has forced and given us an opportunity to change the way we conduct training. We’re now conducting the training in a hybrid module way, in ways that we didn’t do before, that actually engages the student even earlier during their time here at Goodfellow, and that is important. We have done that (intelligence training) in buildings - in security compartmented facilities - over the last 70 years. So, the notion that somebody would come in and say, ‘hey, can we do this online? Not only online, but online on a commercial ISP? It is a big win for us," he added.
To prevent COVID-19 from entering the base, Colonel Nazario and other commanders at Goodfellow implemented restrictions such as: only allowing mission essential personnel on the base, requiring masks and social distancing, restricting travel and closing non-essential facilities.
As the base begins to loosen those restrictions, Nazario said he will be basing his decisions on multiple factors.
“I’m looking at the input from Goodfellow internal public health experts. Second, I’m bouncing that off against what’s happening in the city. Third - and just as important - I am making decisions based on our level of compliance. If I don’t have to remind folks in here every day to wear masks, don’t gather in groups of more than 10, etc, that tells me that they’re already behaving in a way that I can trust they would exhibit the same behavior off of the base," he said.
Nazario has recently allowed students to return to church services and the gym. This weekend, he said he plans on increasing their travel limit from 50 miles away from the base to 300 miles away from the base.