Border deployment the latest in National Guardâs âroller coasterâ year
An Arizona National Guardsman direct visitors to the check-in at a COVID-19 testing site in Tonalea on the Navajo Nation in May, early in the pandemic fight. (Photo by Tech. Sgt. Michael Matkin/Air National Guard)
WASHINGTON â When Gov. Doug Ducey sent hundreds of National Guard members to help at the border last week, the move may have been unexpected â but it was not unusual for the troops that have spent a year shuttling from one crisis to another.
From stocking pandemic-depleted grocery shelves to fighting wildfires, from setting up vaccination sites to providing support in cities hit by civil unrest, the nearly 8,300 members of the Arizona National Guard have been constantly pulled in different directions.