CHARLESTON, W.Va. –
One year into the COVID-19 pandemic response, the West Virginia National Guard continues to lead through adaptability and teamwork. One exemplary Soldier reflecting these values is Sgt. Millard “Robbie” Stickler. As the Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of Task Force Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Yield Explosive Response Enterprise, Stickler said the ever-changing dynamic of the response effort is exactly the kind of challenge he signed up for.
As a leader in the Guard’s pandemic response, Stickler is currently facilitating organizational efforts at Joint Forces Headquarters and has been on COVID-19 response orders since Mar. 27, 2020. Within the last year he has participated in over 25 decontamination missions, tracked personal data information for over 50,000 COVID tests, input data for 55 testing sites and coordinated nearly all travel tickets submitted by Soldiers and Airmen since the start of the response.
“At the start, I went with the 111th Engineer Brigade team to help teach citizens how to properly sanitize their businesses so they could stay open during the pandemic. We needed to make sure the local economy and essential businesses stayed open so people could still access vital resources like food and medical care,” Stickler said.
He and his team traveled to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to teach Air National Guardsmen how to sanitize areas in the Eastern panhandle region of the state as well. This expansion in force has been crucial to lowering the transmission rate, ultimately saving West Virginia lives.
As the pandemic escalated, Stickler transitioned to the coordination of drive-thru testing lanes.
“It was my job to input the personal data gathered at testing sites by hand so that information could be monitored and analyzed. Ultimately, this helped us adapt to the changes of the virus so that we could protect as many people as possible,” he said.
In June of 2020, Stickler moved into his current position with TF CRE in Charleston. His ongoing responsibilities include keeping tabs on the location of teams deployed stateside on missions, creating distribution lists for the vaccine, updating management systems, inputting personal data, formulating vaccination lists manually and designing briefs based off of analytical data.
Although the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine increased his workload, Stickler finds solace knowing he is saving the lives of people here in his home community. “Once the vaccine was approved, the workload multiplied by five,” he said. “And then by 10 when we began utilizing our statewide messaging system. But it has been for the greater good. That is what being a Soldier is about; even when it’s hard, we push through to help people.”
“The constant transformation in mission focus has forced us Guardsmen and women to become highly flexible. Every day we come in to work willingly knowing we may not have experience in the mission’s demands, but we adapt, learn and prevail in order to keep the people we love safe,” Stickler said. “It’s important for Guard members to be versatile and resilient because we are dealing with a pandemic that has affected the entire world, but our focus has to be zeroed in on our niche community. It’s our job as Soldiers and Airmen to lead and protect our state’s citizens.”