FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. — At first glance, it looked like business as usual at Fairchild Air Force Base on Friday.
It mostly was, but KREM got the chance to see what changes are now in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Much like businesses throughout Spokane County, signs in the commissary greet customers with reminders to wear a mask and keep a social distance of six feet.
Colonel Cassius Bentley office said these changes haven't changed their ultimate mission.
"I would not say its changed our mission," Bentley said. "In some way, we learned how to do things better and increased our capabilities. But for the mission itself we haven't stopped. Because as you know we have an important mission here."
Colonel Bentley said over the last few months they have kept on task, much like the rest of us are, virtually.
Some meetings still need to be held in person, but he said the group sizes are much smaller.
"We look at every room, and design it," Bentley said. "Like the office behind you, we limit it to 12 people per staff, when it used to be 30 people in there."
While the mission continues, he said airmen are still being deployed, but they are all tested for COVID before they leave. It's the same process when they return to Fairchild.
"We follow CDC guidance," Bentley said. "Quarantine for 14 days, then once that's gone through, when they're safe to return to work, they can return to work."
Airmen get tested at the base clinic. On Friday, we saw only a few cars in line for the drive-thru testing.
"Just like off base, we're going to have people test positive for COVID and we have had people test positive for COVID," Bentley said. "But our two main things is; one, making sure they get healthy again and they recover. The second thing is to make sure that we prevent the spread of this disease."
Bentley added families of airmen are affected by these changes as well.
He said students living on base are part of the Medical Lake School District. When they went to remote learning, Fairchild opened Michael Anderson elementary on base as an internet café.
"That helped relive some of the pressure on parents that had their kids on a wait list to get our youth signed up," he said.