WEBVTT

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It's been over a year since the Florida

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National Guard was activated in

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response to the COVID-19 pandemic .

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During that time , over 2900 soldiers

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and airmen responded to the call

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assisting medical professionals , local

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agencies and their communities . The

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four National Guard was able to react

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and deal with the adjustments of

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something we have never experienced

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before and we were able to do it

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swiftly to the best degree . And and

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with success . The National Guard has

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been fantastic in all of this has been

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a huge force multiplier . If you look

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at the number of people that have been

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able to be tested , these sites are not

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easy to do . They've run it and have

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done a great job from the beginning .

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It's been a model Broward Memorial's

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been fantastic with it . Everything you

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see here that we're distributing today .

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They were actually um The boxes were

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put together by the guard back at our

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warehouse . So all the meat boxes were

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packed . All the produce boxes were

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packed by the guard there every day .

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They just do amazing work during its

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activation . The Florida National Guard

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supported 63 testing sites 660 for

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nursing homes , which helped over 5.6

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million citizens get tested . They also

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supported the administration of 1.5

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million vaccinations , whether it was

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operating vaccine sites or supporting

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food banks . The National Guard was

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there . We've been working alongside

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our civilian agencies and partners for ,

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you know , the last year and a half

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almost . And those bonds are probably

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more concrete today than they ever have

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been . You know , when you look back at

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the number of lives we've touched the

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citizens of florida and what we've been

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able to do to the states , every

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florida citizen has seen a guard

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soldier in some form or another . Being

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able to be a part of this means a lot

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to me . It's an honor , honestly to be

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able to come out here and help these

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people give me a sense of pride to

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assist . This is a whole bunch of

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different ways where they're making an

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impact for the state of florida . So I

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think the general for his leadership

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and I thank everybody who's serving in

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the garden . Mm hmm .

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Yeah . Yeah , yeah .