MANG flights deliver citizens home

EGLIN AFB, Fla. - In the early morning hours of April 3 (12:45 a.m.), a Mississippi Air National Guard C-17 Globemaster touched down at Duke Field near Crestview, Fla. On board were Americans flown from Colombia as part of a U.S. State Department’s effort to bring citizens home as foreign borders tighten, along with commercial travel options, against the spread of COVID-19. The April 3 flight was the second time within a week that Eglin AFB, and the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), headquartered at Duke Field, had helped to get Americans home. On March 31, a first MANG C-17 flight, from Panama, touched down in the evening, according to Eglin spokesperson Andy Bourland. In all, 86 people were flown back to the U.S. Passengers included State Department personnel, expatriate Americans and Mormon missionaries, which made up the majority of people out of Colombia, Bourland said. Each flight carried “several” 7th SFG(A) troops. None of the evacuees remained in the immediate area as of late morning April 3, Bourland said. The evacuees were exempt from a 14-day quarantine period, said Bourland. The missionaries were relocated to Pensacola, he continued. The remaining evacuees dispersed to their homes. All of the evacuees had been screened for illnesses on three separate occasions - U.S. embassies, as they boarded flights, and by medical personnel from Eglin’s 96th Medical Group. “None were ill,” Bourland said. (Source: NW Fla. Daily News 04/03/20) https://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/20200403/coronavirus-eglin-7th-sfg-play-roles-in-getting-americans-home-as-foreign-borders-close.