Crookston’s Cody Brekken is being called up for state active duty in the North Dakota Army National Guard to assist with COVID-19 testing sites in the Fargo area. Brekken is the Crookston Community Pool manager and also Crookston High School Boys and Girls tennis coach.
Brekken, who serves as his unit’s commander, is the only Crookston resident in the unit. “I’m the Commander of Charlie Battery out of Fargo, ND,” said Brekken. “We’ve got a number of people who will be joining those mobile test sites. Our unit, specifically in the Fargo area assisting with them during this time. My Fargo unit, I’m one of two Minnesotans in the unit and no other Crookston-ites down in that neck of the woods.”
Brekken, who will have to stay in Fargo during the active duty, said it’s a unique mission. “We’re relieving a military police battalion that is there at this time,” said Brekken. “Thursday, we get our initial briefing. Looking at what the previous battalion has done, it’s a lot of the stuff we’ve seen elsewhere. People that live in Fargo will return to their home, but people over 50 miles from home, like myself, will be staying single occupancy in a hotel. It’s a unique mission. It’s not something we deal with very often since I’ve been in the guard.”
Brekken said his unit would likely remain active for 30-45 days. “It’s kind of up in the air,” said Brekken. “It starts with 30-day orders or something of that length. For us, it will probably be somewhere in that range of 30-45 days, but they’ll rotate separate battalions and batteries into that spot as long as they need our support to conduct some of these tests. Not too sure how long we’ll be there exactly.”
Brekken said some guardsmen have contracted the virus while on active duty, and he said depending on each soldier’s role, they may have some time of isolation or quarantine to complete at the end of the mission. “It’s different for everybody based on what is your job in this scenario,” said Brekken. “I’m sure we’ll all have different types of isolations or quarantines we’ll need, but that depends on what you’re involved in on the mission. I know some 14-day quarantine, some soldiers have gotten COVID and just did their 14-day self-quarantine over there. That’s all dependent on what your place on the front lines is.”
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