KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss.-- Continuing in a course of action despite difficulty or delay in achieving success is the definition of perseverance, which describes what many people found essential since COVID-19 rocked the world.
“Everything changed when COVID-19 hit,” said Airman 1st class Megan Crow- Elmore, 81st Medical Group aerospace medical technician. “Manning was a bit stretched and I was eventually pulled from the student health clinic to join the COVID-19 Task Force. “I went to doing vaccines every day and it got me out of my comfort zone.”
Normal clinical appointments were impacted by the amount of COVID-19 tests being performed for the base population that had expanded with the addition of basic military training trainees. With the constantly changing protocols, Crow-Elmore had to keep herself and her patients safe.
“Keeping myself safe for my husband at home was a challenge,” said Crow-Elmore. “I loved caring for all of the Airmen in isolation by offering them remedies and giving them what they needed, but I had to keep in mind what I could bring back home and make sure I wasn’t cutting corners when it came to personal protective equipment.”’
Crow-Elmore had support from both her family and workplace as she battled the pandemic as a part of the COVID-19 Task Force.
“Both of my chain of commands are so strong and I love them,” said Crow-Elmore. “We worked as a team, came up with solutions very quickly, and it would have been chaos if we didn’t work together and communicate.”