About 100 members of the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment out of Utica remain on deployment in the New York City area helping out with the fight against the coronavirus.
Members of the new york army national guard....helping out during this coronavirus pandemic.
News channel two's gary liberatore has more on their continued deloyment tonight.
Gary, good evening.
Boots remain on the ground in new york city.
And it's anyone's guess as to when these men and women of central new york will be back home with their families.
Thousands of national guard troops are helping the fight against teh corona virus pandemic across the country including about 3,000 from new york state....including about 100 from the utica area... tc : 01:38 "most of our soldiers to this point have been deployed to the new york city area to support those missions down there.
We still have a sizable reserve of soldiers in the utica area if anything else happens or any response missions that we need to take take care of up there."
Lt.
Col mathew kilgore...the commander of the 2nd batallion, 108th infantry regiment in utica....says the soldiers that are deployed are doing everything from gathering samples for testing...distributin g food to local food pantries...cleaning public spaces and supporting the army corps of enginers field hospitals like the one at the javitz center in manhattan...and helping the new york city medical examiner's office... tc : 08:08 "right now the medical examiners office is experiencing a larger volume than normal of death and having given day.
Its very hard for them to be able to process those so were helping out as mainly removing remains from private residences, making sure that they are properly remove properly restored so the medical examiner can process them, when they can.
Its a difficult mission but its one that is definitely necessary."
These men and women from our area are putting tehir lives on the line every day...and some have tested positive for corona virus.... tc : 12:25 "very, very small of an amount.
I cant get into specifics we ha a very limited amount but ive tested positive and then we take the recommended precautions, precautionary quarantines thanks for that nature.
It's very limited which is a good thing."
As far as when the soldiers will be back home...lt.
Colonel kilgore says...that's anyone's guess...but his troops will be there until they are nio longer needed.
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