JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Marines always “adapt and overcome” to every circumstance thrown their way, so when COVID-19 changed the way people live their lives, adapting is exactly what they did.
“For us it’s being able to keep the general population safe,” said Capt. Brenden McDaniel, company commander for Bravo Company, Headquarters and Support Battalion, Marine Corps Installations East, Camp Lejeune.
The Marines on Camp Lejeune have had to find a way to continue working and training every day.
“We understand there’s going to be individuals that get sick, right, and we gotta find ways of being aggressive, identifying them early, and making sure they’re staying at home, staying in their barracks rooms, and not infecting the people that they work with,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel says military parents and families are in a really unique situation right now.
“We got to adapt to our service members, let them take some time to spend home, let them take care of family, kids if they need to, so that when they’re at work, they can be at work 100{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} and get the job done,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel has been flexible with parents in his unit who have kids learning at home.
“We’ve increased our teleworking significantly since COVID started, so we’re using new technology and tools to do the same thing we’ve been doing at work, now we can do it at home or in the office. That keeps us safer, and it increases productivity,” McDaniel said.
While necessary from a leadership standpoint, McDaniel said it has caused some challenges, but the Marine Corps will always make sure they are ready for any challenges in air, on land, and sea.
“We’re all here to fight, and we can’t fail that mission, and when we’re deployed, we got to be there whole mind, body, and soul,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel also mentioned that when both parents are in the military, and they have a child learning from home, they have had to alternate work days in order to make it work.
