There’s a terrific article in the 8/3/20 edition of the The New Yorker concerning the intrepid actions of the Army Corp of Engineers in response to the pandemic. You will have opinions concerning dams and warfare, but we ought to be unified regarding the quick response actions of the Corps in the construction of mobile emergency structures to address the overload demand for ICU facilities. Todd Semonite is the leader of the Corps . He’s a Vermont guy and a West Point grad in civil engineering. He’s also a leader! The Corps have the ability to create new products on demand. To clarify, if there is a need for a storage facility size ICU unit, the Corps have the capabilities to seek such specifications and very quickly create a product (or have a product created), with the assistance of experienced vendors. We’re really in need of good news; such as “can the federal government get anything right?” type news.
From the New Yorker article, “In a large project at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, The Corps stood up Javits in four days. This was possible , in part because the military sent medical units, nurses, pharmacists and lab techs who could attend to hundreds of patients.”
The top down command approach is not kindly seen as way to attack a national scourge such as the current pandemic. Masks are political fodder. Social distancing is an unnecessary convenience of youthful indiscretions. We’re in a mess that takes the likes of Churchillian or FDR leadership to provide the unity and confidence of each and every American (I’ll take a solid majority). Leadership…now more than ever!
The Corps activities in the pandemic is a needed bulwark against conspiratorial and political mischievous rhetoric permeating the American conversation.