148th Fighter Wing Makes Masks

DULUTH, Minn.– Members of the 148th Fighter Wing have a new type of mission right now, making home-made masks to keep service men and women safe during the outbreak.

This comes as the CDC recommends wearing masks when going out in public, even if they are homemade.

As the battle against Coronavirus continues, service members in Minnesota are working to help make more masks.

The 148th Fighter Wing of the Minnesota Air National Guard is working to make cloth masks. This is an effort by the wing to protect their troops and help slow the spread of Coronavirus.

The unit is following the CDC’s recommendation of cloth masks in public settings where social distancing measures can be hard to follow.

Right now, they are able to make around 50 to 60 masks every day.

Lieutenant Colonel Scott Prom says he’s glad everyone at the wing is helping out anyway they can during the pandemic.

“We’ve had a lot of volunteers on base and we’ve actually had a lot of members, family and friends step up and are asking to help out,” he said. “I know we got a couple volunteers already that are going to use their sewing machines at home to help up our production.”

The masks are going to areas where social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. These would be areas like aircraft maintenance or security forces personnel.

The 148th Fighter Wing says when they get to full speed, the wing will be able to make 120 masks a day.