Dan Shaffer has an extended conversation with Colonel Kelsey Smith, the Garrison Commander on Redstone Arsenal.
Topics discussed include social distancing on the Arsenal, coronavirus' impact on the Fox Army Health Center, and if corona will change the future of the Arsenal.
>> dan shaffer: our in-depth look continues with a long-term swriew.
Tonight we're joined by colonel kelsey smith, garrison commander i'd like to started with what the gover in will like lay say.
Arrests arrests would swell to the size of a small city on a daily basis with all the employees coming out there.
What do you hope to hear from her tomorrow?
>> commander smith: well, i'll be honest with you, redstone doesn't necessarily have any specific desires other than certainly concern for the health and well being of our workforce and the community.
So we look forward to her announcement and we certainly look forward to all of us as a community starting to work our way back to whatever the new normal will be.
And i think the guidance that she gives our community tomorrow will help us set the stage and plot how we do that into the future.
>> dan shaffer: thousands of course rely on fox army health center for medications, prescriptions.
This month it was turned into a drive-through only operation.
Give us the latest on fox army health center.
>> commander smith: fox army health center today under the leadership of colonel buddy meador is back up and operational.
Provides acute care and treatment and new pharmacy or prescriptions and then it continues to offer the drive- through pharmacy for those persons or those patrons that already have -- already have prescriptions.
But we are still providing screening and treatment and we're still doing acute care and physicals, albeit on a reduced scale.
>> dan shaffer: what other changes are being made?
Are there nor changes on the horizon going forward?
>> commander smith: well, i certainly think we can expect more changes, whether it's a reduction of precautions or increase of precautions.
I think we'll weigh the changes on the arsenal based on the environment and virus and taking prudent steps to protect the safety and security of our workforce as well as helping the nation and our military get back to performing all of the missions versus our mission essential missions.
>> dan shaffer: let's talk about that military family.
What's been the impact on the troops and their families?
>> commander smith: well, you know, at redstone we're considerably -- a considerably smaller installation as far as our military families.
We have about 350 families.
And i would tell you that i think they're weathering this much like the community at large we are all being conservative.
We're all minimizing our non- essential trips.
And we are probably not gather ing in the way that we normally would.
And we look forward to the summer.
I think everyone, though, is making sure that they remain conservative and we all protect each other.
>> dan shaffer: that's like the 10,000 foot view of it.
Take us down a little closer.
What's life like on a daily bay basis on redstone.
>> commander smith: i you alluded to it earlier.
Typically we're 44,000ish people on the arsenal day to day along with our contractors and support personnel and today we're probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 20% of our population is actually coming to work and physically there.
Meanwhile about 75 to 80% of our workforce is at home teleworking , contributing to the mission, and taking care of their families at the same time.
On the areas nell itself we're quiet.
The roads are relatively empty.
But you still see people receiving services at the commissary and the px.
We still have traffic paroles and fire stations that are all out and working.
And then at each of the critical mission sets you see people at work each and every gay.
>> dan shaffer: and you are practicing social distancing while doing that, for those 20% that are there.
>> commander smith: oh, absolutely.
So you'll notice coming in the gates of the arsenal our guards are wearing protective nitryl gloves and cloth face coverings.
If you were to go into the px or commissary, we've put policies in place where we limit the number of persons allowed into any of those businesses.
And we're instructing them to wear cloth facemasks anytime they enter.
Likewise, you know, you don't see -- we do teleconferences just like this.
And rather than having the large meetings we will teleconference in or video teleconference in any groups greater than six.
We will practice our social distancing and make sure that our seats and desks are six feet apart so that we can all -- we can all work with confidence that each of us is taking care of one another.
>> dan shaffer: have you already made some of those changes to the -- physically to offices in anticipation of reopening?
>> commander smith: well, i'll tell you, we've certainly -- i can speak for the garrison specifically is we have gone around and we've conducted okay occupational health a sesments in all of our arteries where we have to invite the workforce in initial will and in those places we don't have six foot distance we're either putting up physical barriers or working on adjusting how we come to work.
Whether we come to work in different shifts or we spread out our areas.
You'll foe 'tis in our waiting rooms like at the one stop, we've moved chairs around to accommodate a larger distance between people.
Much like you'll see at fox.
We've actually closed -- at fox we closed the gathering grounds eatery in order to create a larger seating area.
And likewise in our dining facilities or our food services, we've eliminated the seating areas and it's takeout only.
While we provide the service, we don't encourage gatherings.
>> dan shaffer: you alluded to this, it's not just -- it's an army post but there are a lot of companies who work out there.
How many?
>> commander smith: absolutely.
>> dan shaffer: how many have you got out there working?
>> commander smith: well, you know, we typically like to say we have about 78 to 80 tenet units.
Whether that's department of justice, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, the f.b.i.
Or nasa and the marshall space marshall space flight center or we have multiple d.o.d.
Entities like the missile defense agency or space and missile defense command.
We have a large number of different organizations and of course you have raytheon and bow ing and a lot of the other defense contractors that contribute to us each and every day.
>> dan shaffer: wow.
Have you had any challenges with the whole teleworking angle of this?
Any pleasant surprises perhaps?
>> commander smith: that's a great question.
Teleworking, specifically for the garrison, as the garrison we are a customer service organization.
So not having those customers right there in front of you each day certainly doesn't -- you know, it makes it a little hard er to know you're doing your job well.
But we have adjusted.
We've gone to appointment only.
We've got to virtual tele conferences or zoom meetings in order to make sure we're still delivering it.
And as a garrison commander i'll tell you, we have -- we have -- i won't say struggled but we've embraced the new challenge of how to become more collaborative digitally.
>> dan shaffer: we're all doing that, that's for sure.
>> commander smith: absolutely.
It's causing us to find new ways to share information.
I think it will be a lot better here in the future as we all get to come back together, we'll get to expand on the collaboration we've done in the past and probably make our processes fast er.
>> dan shaffer: yeah.
Having my kids explain how this whole zoom thing works and talk me through.
Do you think this might last for the long term?
>> commander smith: you know, we o-we certainly know that from the department of defense's perspective and the army, our job is to provide safety and security for that workforce.
So in turn it can work for the nation.
And i'll tell you that we will maintain the precautions necessary to ensure that our workforce is well cared for and safe.
I would love to think that this will be over soon, but i think we will -- i know we will be more conservative in how we assess it, just to make sure that our work workforce is safe, secure, and productive at the same time.
>> dan shaffer: sure.
All right.
Thank you, concern.
We're -- colonel.
When we come back,