Due to an innovative partnership with Lexington Medical Center, airmen with the 169th Fighter Wing, South Carolina Air National Guard, are being rapidly tested for COVID-19 to ensure critical missions can continue uninterrupted.
"It started with an idea. Just sitting down one day and saying 'Hey, why can't we do this?'" said Air Force Master Sgt. James Bosley.
Thanks to Bosley's civilian expertise, he was able to facilitate getting personnel returning from deployment tested and personnel assigned to the Aerospace Control Alert trained unit at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, tested.
Bosley works as a microbiology and molecular supervisor for Lexington Medical Center in Lexington, South Carolina, during the week. On drill weekends, he is the 169th Fighter Wing Drug Demand Reduction program manager with the 169th Medical Group.
When Air Force Col. Akshai Gandhi, 169th Fighter Wing commander, wanted to start testing mission critical personnel on base, 169th Fighter Wing Public Health reached out to Bosley because of his connections with a company that manufactures rapid COVID-19 tests.
"I realized that I could be doing this testing," Bosley said. "I could do it at my hospital. I went to my administration [at Lexington Medical Center] and said 'Here's the deal, we need to do COVID testing for our patients, but we also need to do it for the military.'"
Right now only returning deployers and Aerospace Control Alert assigned airmen are being tested weekly.
Bosley performs testing twice a week along with Army and Air National Guard medical personnel who assist with sample collections. The medical personnel are provided by Air Force Col. (Dr.) Philip Latham's, SCANG state air surgeon, Medical Strike Team. The Medical Strike Team is an Army and Air National Guard medical collaboration that links Army National Guard medics with Air National Guard aerospace medical technicians. The Medical Strike Team has been performing COVID-19 testing across South Carolina at community testing sites, correctional facilities and other locations since May.
Bosley has the testing procedure down to a science.
"I show up, and the people who will be tested are waiting for me," Bosley said. "I [put on] the proper PPE, put the gloves on and then do the nasopharyngeal swab. Then I have a tube of vial transport media, in Hank’s solution that I break the swab into. [Hank's] is a media that supports the growth of viruses and keeps them healthy until I get back to work."
It only takes two hours to get the results back. Bosley said the testing might be ramped up later to include other critical personnel on base.
(Air Force Lt. Col. Jim St. Clair is assigned to the South Carolina National Guard)