 Good evening, warriors of the mighty 97th. It's Colonel Baker here. I'm joined with our wonderful Command Chief, Chief Master Sergeant Florez, and also with our school liaison officer, Miss Judy Mott. And we are happy to be talking to you today about some things that are going on in the community, things across base. And I want to start by thanking you for all the great work that's getting done out there. We really appreciate what you're doing across the base. Of course, what's on a lot of our mind is the thing that is on my face and our faces at the moment, which is a mask. I want to tell you thanks for being adaptive and responsive to get us to where we are with this extra layer of protection across our base. It's helpful to us. It helps protect the force. And the reason we're here, as you all know, is because the environment around us has changed quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. We know that the COVID-19 Delta variant is on the rise. That said, as a community, we know what to do in this situation. We've done it before, and we've got the mechanisms and protections in place to keep our force healthy, keep our force safe, and make sure that our mission can continue and that we can take care of our families. So I really appreciate that and the adaptability that everybody has shown in working through this. So it's really appreciated. And we are all right here with you in that endeavor. To get you up to speed on what's going on in terms of our policies and procedures that we have on base, as you know, on base in a federal facility, you're required to wear a mask indoors and when you're outside and you can appropriately space, you don't have to wear a mask. We have put some written policy and procedures in place as you've seen across the base. We are in health protection condition bravo. And what that means is that we look at each facility, facility by facility, and we look at each event, event by event, and we make capacity decisions based on the safety and the COVID spacing and the capacity that we can have there and keep it safe through the facility and also for each event. For example, our senior NCO induction ceremony. So we are in health protection condition bravo and we've looked at the facilities where we need to make capacity considerations and reduce those where appropriate. And then where we need to keep our mission going, we've made smart decisions on how we continue to clean, how we continue to space and separate in those facilities and continue our mission moving. For the events where we can, we're trying to make sure that we do those smartly, that we have spacing at tables and seating, that we have our masks on, that we distance where we can, and that we keep our hands clean and washed and keep each other safe. And of course, like we've already said, this mask is part of that. You'll also see that across the installation, our families and our family members, which we highly encourage to wear their masks at any facility across the installation, are doing so in very high numbers, which we appreciate. Our overall vaccination numbers have been going up and up and up, which is another protective layer for our force. And as you're probably aware in the open media, there has been a lot of discussion about vaccines becoming mandatory for our military personnel. And it does appear, and I do expect that those vaccines will become mandatory either by September 15th, of 2021, or when there is full FDA approval for a vaccine, whichever comes first. The good news about that is that we have vaccines on hand and they are ready to go. And our amazing, small but mighty med group is ready to put shots in arms. And so I strongly encourage all of you to continue to add those protection factors in for our personnel and for our mission and go there and get a vaccine, please. I strongly encourage it. Our leadership encourages it from the top of DOD all the way down. We know they're safe. We know that in the open source reporting, about 97% of hospitalizations are amongst the unvaccinated. And while there have been some cases of vaccinated personnel who have caught COVID, it's only in about 3% of the vaccinated personnel. So those numbers tell us that vaccines are very, very safe, very, very protective and offer us a lot in terms of safety and protection for our force. So I strongly encourage you to go out. In terms of the policies that we have, I have also mandated in the most recent policy that folks that are unvaccinated and military uniform and our military members that are unvaccinated and off base will have to continue to wear their mask when out. So that's another layer of protection for you so that we protect you while you're out and about outside the community. And then it also protects our force when you come back inside our gates and interact inside our community. So those policies are out there. I wanted to kind of give you a rundown of where that is. Also reinforce the message that I am really confident in this team and the measures that we have in place and the protection factors that we have available. COVID-19 will try to find those vulnerabilities that we have. And there will be times when we will have to react and respond to cases that we get on base, which the numbers are very, very low comparatively right now across our base and our ability to respond is very, very good. But there will be times when COVID makes its way in and we want to reduce those opportunities as much as possible while still trying to continue some of those wellness activities that are really important for the wellness and well-being of our members across base. So I've really boiled the approach down into three P's. One is we want to preserve the health of our force and our teams and families. The second is we want to preserve mission. It's the purpose why we're here. So we have to keep that mission moving and make sure that we're delivering air power for America. And the third one is we want to preserve wellness. We want to preserve the wellness of our team and their well-being so that we have that resilience and that ability to bounce back. And we do the things that are necessary to be a healthy and mentally stable and strong fighting force. So that's the approach. That's kind of where we are in terms of the summary of the policy and how we're interacting with the community. I will say on the community front, we have very close working relationship with our community. We have Jackson County Memorial Hospital is connected very closely with our medical group. And the emergency planners and city planners are in lockstep with us. And they are paying attention to what we're doing here and we have a great working relationship with them. So we're keeping that firmly in the cross check. So as we make our way to a very exciting week and day starting tomorrow when schools get back in session, I think I will let Miss Judy Mott tell you a little bit about what's going on in the out to school system. So that you can have an understanding of what's going on there. And I'm really excited that the kiddos are getting back to school and going to be learning and immersed in with their friends and students. Thank you for the opportunity for being here, Colonel Chief. Yeah. And I love your three P's because I think that that's what everybody needs. And I think the school districts are on board too. Real focus on social, emotional health and that kind of thing. So just a little bit of background. Here in Oklahoma, Senate Bill 658 prohibits all public schools and private post-secondary education institutions. So private colleges and universities from mandating mask wearing. So it's actually Oklahoma law that these educational institutions cannot mandate mask wearing. They also, due to this law, may not require a vaccine or one of those vaccine passports. However, wearing a mask will be a recommendation by the schools and also by use are correct. That's correct. Yep. I highly encourage all of our students and family members when you're on rivers, you will have to, as a military member, wear your mask when you're in rivers. But I strongly encourage for our family members and our students to wear them. I know my two little girls will be wearing their masks. They're five and eight, kindergarten and third grade. And they've done it before in the UK and they've gotten really good at it. And to them, they just put it on and move on. So yeah, I really highly encourage everybody to do that. And my son goes to the youth center and they've been wearing the masks at the youth center. So it might just be an easy thing. But again, it's just a recommendation. They can't enforce the mask wearing at the school. The federal government to help mitigate the spread and the effects of COVID-19 and also to give education a boost during this unprecedented time has provided schools with funding. And in order to qualify for these funds, each of the school districts has had to create a return to safety plan. And these are required to be posted in public areas and up on the website. And these safety plans include their mitigation efforts. What are they going to do as a district to kind of help COVID not spread? And you will notice that all of their return to safety plans recommend wearing a mask. OK, so parents have seen that goal. My goodness, it's recommended they have to wear a mask. But yes, look at the word recommended, though. But again, it's it's wise. I did hear on the radio this morning, however, that if Oklahoma does declare a state of emergency due to COVID-19 numbers, that could change. At that point, the power to enforce mask wearing would be at the district level. And if that happens, that's something we would let you guys know about right away. But I wanted to talk about two different scenarios at school really fast for the family. So the first one, if there is a student or a staff member who has a positive case of COVID, they've had a test and it's positive. The schools can recommend and encourage close contacts to that person's self quarantine. And but without a health department order, they cannot require it. So if you get a call, pay attention to the words that are being used. It will say encourage and recommend and that kind of thing. And of course, it's up to your family to do what you feel is best for your family and your surrounding neighbors and students and everything. You know, let's let's think of everybody's wellness. Second scenario, if a student is actively showing COVID-19 symptoms, even if they haven't tested positive or been identified as a close contact, the school can exclude that child from attending school and attending school activities at that point. The following symptoms is what they're going to look for a fever of 100 degrees or higher, sore throat, a rash or eruption of the skin, any nasal discharge accompanied by a fever, severe cough or inflammation of the eyes or eyelids. And those are like pretty, pretty straightforward things. If you notice before COVID without ever having COVID, if your child had one of those things, you could have expected a phone call from the school nurse saying, please come get your child. And so it's it's still very much the same. If you're sick, you should not be going to school. So to summarize, at this point, schools are just recommending that masks be worn. Students and staff will be encouraged to practice good hygiene and custodians that all of our schools will be sanitizing and disinfecting disinfecting all areas of the buildings and buses on a regular basis. And I can assure you after attending school board meetings this week that our districts are going to try their very, very best to keep things going and to keep things as normal as possible for the social and emotional well-being of our students, which really made my heart happy, because I think it's so important that these kids get to continue going to school. If you have any specific questions, please relating to schools, please feel free to find me. I'm on the bottom floor, Building 52. We also have a great Facebook page. It is Altus Air Force Base AFB School Liaison and STEM Office. And I encourage you all to reach out to me if you have questions. That's fantastic, Judy. Thank you so much for that update. Great rundown. I saw Chief thinking of a few things when when when you were talking and I was talking. So Chief, what are your thoughts? No, one, I just want to say thank you to all our leaders out there. Almost two weeks ago is when we went from what we thought was the normal life that we knew before 2020 to going back to masks. And we spoke about it at 1700 on a Thursday evening. And the very next day at four o'clock, by normal gym time, there were signs all over the facilities and everybody was masked up. So our folks mobilized right away. They knew what was on the line and they were to execute as required. So that tells me that we can trust you and we appreciate that. But I really want to emphasize to preserve health and to preserve the mission. It takes all of us to just do the right thing. We're not going to be able to police you everywhere. But what we've seen is that we can trust our folks to execute as needed. So we continue as much normalcy as possible. Like he said, sir, we can't really say normalcy when we wear a mask. Hence why we replaced it with wellness and part of that is our events. I'm huge on reducing isolation and uncertainty. So we're going to try to preserve as many things as we can. And the only way we can do that is by keeping the coded case count low and the number of people that go into isolation and quarantine. And the way you can help us with that is by taking care of each other, by leading through it and by helping us reassess all the events as we go forward, sir. So that's kind of the charge that we need. I really emphasize focus on commander's intent and what we're trying to get after and unnecessarily sometimes on some of these little nitpicky rules. And we'll get through this unscathed and all together. So great words, Chief. And again, thanks to Judy for the great information. I have full trust and confidence in this team. It's really a great point to make, Chief, is that, you know, as COVID-19 tries to find these vulnerabilities every now and then, it may make it make its way in. However, the team that we have around us, nobody is alone. Nobody has to figure this out by themselves. We have got an amazing group of people that are absolutely 100 percent committed to working through this. And in the areas where we can preserve that wellness and having our kids thriving in schools is wellness. It's really, really important and special, and we're here to do that together. So nobody should ever feel alone for the folks that are out there and help us helping us and looking at where we can make improvements. Please share that with us. We'd love to hear it and understand that when COVID Canon does rear its ugly head, we will get after that as fast as possible and do it in the safest way as possible, again, to preserve the health of our force, preserve our mission and preserve wellness. So again, thanks to both of y'all. Please send questions our way. And we really, really, truly appreciate what everybody is doing out there. And we will keep fighting through this contested environment, which is COVID-19, but I am resolute in my optimism that over the long term, we will continue to do those three things, those three P's, and take care of our team and move our mission. So really appreciate it. And thanks to both of you for joining us. Any other thoughts? No, let's just all have a great school year. It's going to be fabulous. Great school year. Sounds fantastic. Yeah, don't suffer in silence, please. Anything you have routed up the memos, we can only speak so much in language. Anything that's in the gray area, please rout it up. We're here to remove obstacles, continue to communicate, and provide any words of inspiration that we can answer. Perfect. Okay, well with that then we will sign off from here, but I want to say once again to the warriors of the mighty 97th and Mobility's Hometown, thanks for what you do every day. We're really privileged and excited to be here, and thanks to all of you. And we'll see you at Rivers Elementary or wherever else you may be out sending the kiddos out to school. Thank you. Have a great evening.