‘I will never forget it’: Wisconsin National Guard reviews support for Afghan refugees

By KSTP

The last Afghan nationals housed at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin depart on Feb. 15, 2022. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Robert P Wormley III, Task Force McCoy Public Affairs/50th Public Affairs Detachment)

A month after the last group of Afghan refugees left Fort McCoy, the Wisconsin National Guard took a look back at its role in supporting the evacuees.

From Aug. 22, 2021, through Feb. 15, more than 12,600 Afghan nationals stayed at Fort McCoy, the National Guard says, including 65 newborn U.S. citizens.

While the refugees stayed at the fort, officials provided shelter, food, clothing, assisted with immigration benefits and resettlement efforts, and also provided medical services, including vaccinations.

The Guard says its COVID-19 teams collected over 42,000 specimens for COVID-19 testing and administered 1,451 COVID-19 vaccines. Medical teams also provided many other vaccinations — including the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, polio and flu vaccines — administering around 87,000 vaccinations, in total.

“In my opinion, being able to perform all of these functions allowed the active duty, governmental and non-governmental partners to provide the attention that these measures would have required toward other important concerns on base,” said Svea Erlandson, a strategic plans and policy officer with the Wisconsin National Guard’s directorate of domestic operations.

Lt. Col. Cory Newmann was at Volk Field for two months, serving as the liaison officer for the Wisconsin National Guard Joint Staff. He also managed a team of Army and Air Force linguists who assisted with translation.

Newmann called the mission “incredibly meaningful” and added, “I will never forget it as long as I live.”

“I have sharp memories of evacuees arriving late at night, walking off our aircraft carrying only a few belongings in plastic bags,” Newmann said. “Some were injured, possibly from the dangerous escape from Afghanistan. As tired as they all appeared to be, they were appreciative as we helped them off the aircraft and onto the bus to Fort McCoy. Children were holding hands and they walked barefoot into their new life in the United States.”

With the Guard’s help, all evacuees were able to leave Fort McCoy and join their new communities.