AL DHAFRA Air Base, United Arab Emirates -- A small squad of Airmen are playing an outsize role in supporting Al Dhafra personnel who have to spend time in Covid-19 isolation.
“They are rocking it over there. They are taking all the steps needed to make it as comfortable as possible and as safe as possible for everyone,” said Master Sgt. Nicolina Villani, operations superintendent for what’s known as “Camp I” for Isolation or “Camp Q” for Quarantine, depending on the case.
Villani is overseeing a group of five Airmen, all temporarily re-assigned from the 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, who are handling logistical support for the ADAB personnel temporarily in isolation or quarantine.
The five Airmen are Senior Airman Austen Boettcher, a Reservist from Scott Air Force Base; Senior Airman Tyeice Madril, a Reservist from Peterson Space Force Base; and active-duty Airmen Senior Airman Corey Alexander from MacDill Air Force Base; Tech. Sgt. Steven Ittner from Dyess Air Force Base; and Staff Sgt. Brian Stevens from Tyndall Air Force Base. Together, they run a 24-hour operation, ensuring those in the isolation/quarantine area get meals and any other support they need during their stay.
The crew spends their time picking up meals, ensuring everyone has clean bedding and those who enter or depart the camp are properly checked in or out, and looking for little things that can be done to help out those in isolation.
“We do everything but the medical piece,” explained Boettcher. “The doctors and medical team come over and handles that and we do everything else.”
Villani said that “everything else” has even included trying to add a few landscaping touches around the camp’s entrance.
“This group has just come together and really have the well-being of the camp residents as their primary mission,” said Villani, an Air Force Reservist from Peterson.
Ittner said while the camp duty was unanticipated, it brought a bit of an unexpected education with it.
“The logistics aspect of running the camp – it is a breadth of experience I have never been a part of before,” he said. “It has been a new opportunity to have a chance to serve on the base in a little different way.”
ADAB’s Camp I/Camp Q is part of a series of measures put in place by the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing to limit the spread of the omicron variant of Covid-19. Thanks to the local mitigation efforts, the Wing’s flying missions have not been degraded by the omicron outbreak.