Missourians are neither strangers to disasters nor to the Missouri National Guard's responses to them, and the Guard's leader said the responses this year to the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest rival some of the biggest years in the Guard's history.
Missouri National Guard Adj. Gen. Levon Cumpton said the Guard's motto is "Always ready. Always there."
It's a fitting description of the Guard's presence around the state this year, after Gov. Mike Parson first activated the Guard on March 26 in response to the pandemic.
Between the 1,100 service members mobilized at one time to respond to the pandemic, 1,400 more mobilized to respond to civil unrest, and approximately 700 members serving federal defense missions this year "rivals the largest number we've ever deployed in size and duration at any one time," Cumpton said.
Approximately 28 percent of the Missouri National Guard's 11,500 member force was mobilized this year. The only years that compare would be 1993 and 2011, Cumpton said.
The Missouri and Mississippi River basins suffered catastrophic flooding in 1993 when the swollen rivers breached hundreds of levees. The May 2011 EF-5 tornado that devastated Joplin was accompanied that year by other tornadoes, a blizzard, and spring and summer flooding, Cumpton said.
The year 2011 had Guard members on orders for more than a year.
"Now, we're at eight months, but (with) a larger number on orders consistently this year than 2011," he said. "I don't think '93 reached eight months but may have gotten to a similar quantity of troops."
The 1,100 Guard members mobilized for pandemic response was the peak number between April and August, Cumpton said. As of Oct. 16, the number mobilized for pandemic response was at 272.
He told the public a day before during a briefing by Gov. Parson that the Guard's activities during pandemic response have focused on expanded testing, food bank support, supporting delivery of school meals, supporting members of the state workforce as they returned to in-person work, and more general support in logistics and transportation of supplies.
The Guard supported testing of 37,000 Missourians at mobile community-based sites, he said.
Such testing - partnerships between the state Department of Health and Senior Service, the Guard and local health departments - was most recently offered in Jefferson City last week and will be held in Jefferson City again Tuesday.
The Guard also tested 12,400 Missouri Department of Corrections employees, assisted with data entry of more than 80,000 tests and fielded 72,000 phone calls, Cumpton said.
He said 118 service members were continuing to provide support to data entry and call center operations, and 60 were involved with supporting community-based testing, moving from one location to another across the state.
As health precautions kept volunteers away from food banks but economic disruptions and unemployment from the pandemic caused demand for food to increase, the Guard helped fill the labor void at food banks and assisted in providing 181,000 Missouri families with meals, Cumpton said.
That mission has been the second largest since September, with 100 service members providing assistance at regional hubs in St. Louis, Springfield, Columbia, St. Joseph and Sikeston, he said.
Though schools' reopenings meant less assistance was needed in providing lunches to school children, Cumpton said the Guard supported the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in providing 288,000 lunches this year.
He noted 541,000 people were medically screened at 14 sites across Missouri as state workers returned to work in person.
The Guard assisted in transporting personal protective equipment, COVID-19 treatment drug remdesivir and other needed supplies. The Guard also worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, State Emergency Management Agency, Office of Administration, and local authorities to construct and staff an alternate care site in Florissant that was put together in 11 days and serves as a future model, should the need arise again for such hospital overflow sites.
Parson has extended the Guard's activation in response to the pandemic through Dec. 30, but the Guard is also prepared to continue to respond to civil unrest.
The May 25 death of George Floyd - a Black man who died as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for several minutes - sparked nationwide protests.
"Outside actors disrupted peaceful protest" at times, Cumpton said, and the Guard was mobilized May 30 to contain civil unrest by assisting law enforcement in protecting lives and property in St. Louis, Kansas City and surrounding areas.
That ultimately included Jefferson City, where Guard members monitored large protests June 1 - which were peaceful, except for some minor property damage that followed in the form of broken windows downtown.
Cumpton said the first activation for civil unrest involved 1,100 Guard members and approximately 300 others who were deployed to Washington, D.C., at the request of the District of Columbia National Guard.
Parson activated the Guard related to civil unrest again Sept. 24 as a precautionary measure, seemingly because protests and some violence in areas of the country followed a Kentucky grand jury's decision not to bring charges against Louisville police officers for the death of Breonna Taylor - a Black woman who died in her home when police executed a no-knock drug warrant connected to a suspect who didn't live there, and Taylor's boyfriend got into an exchange of gunfire with officers.
Cumpton said 23 service members, a platoon-sized force, supported law enforcement and federal authorities in St. Louis after Parson's Sept. 24 executive order.
That order stands until terminated by another executive order, and in the meantime, it would allow the Guard to respond to any further civil unrest.
Kelli Jones, spokeswoman for Parson's office, said last week, after Election Day: "As a precautionary measure, the Missouri National Guard, in coordination with civil authorities, has developed plans to respond to potential civil unrest that could arise after the elections. We want to ensure we are prepared to assist local law enforcement in protecting the citizens of Missouri and their right to protest peacefully."
Cumpton said: "I think we'll see the Guard's involvement actually drop more and more in the coming months, unless there's a significant rebound to the virus."