11 “I always wanted to be a doctor but medical degrees are expensive, so, I decided to go a different route to help people,” said U.S. Army Spc. Gregory Vilchez, a healthcare specialist assigned to the 104th Medical Company Area Support, Maryland Army National Guard. “I’m now a member of the Maryland National Guard and have been activated to help distribute COVID-19 vaccines.”
Vilchez serves as a medic with the MDNG mobile vaccination support team. The MVST is designed to provide vaccine clinic support by administering vaccines as well as providing logistical support. Originally from the Dominican Republic, he has been a resident of Maryland since 2008 and a member of the Maryland National Guard since 2014.
National Guard chaplain Jordan Hersh, stationed in Washington since the pro-Trump riot, says protecting Congress is 'like a spiritual experience' for himself and his unit
As Jordan Hersh watched on TV as supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building Jan. 6, he had a thought unique to most American rabbis: It might be time to head to his second job.
Hersh is a chaplain in the Maryland Army National Guard, the only rabbi in the state’s military clergy ranks.
By that evening, Hersh was in uniform and at the Capitol. The next morning, he sent a note to his congregants at Beth Sholom Congregation, the Conservative synagogue in Frederick, Maryland, he has led since 2014.
“My grandfather, Joseph Goldstein z”l, who fled a world where the rule of law often gave way to mobs, and whose yahrzeit is this coming week, fought for this country because he believed deeply in what America stands for. He told me it was always the greatest honor of his life,” Hersh wrote.
January 15, 2021 3:51 pm Rabbi Jordan Hersh has been deployed as part of the Maryland Army National Guard to the U.S. Capitol since a mob of Trump supporters stormed it on Jan. 6, 2021. (Courtesy of Hersh)
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(JTA) As Jordan Hersh watched on TV as supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building Jan. 6, he had a thought unique to most American rabbis: It might be time to head to his second job.
Hersh is a chaplain in the Maryland Army National Guard, the only rabbi in the state’s military clergy ranks.
By that evening, Hersh was in uniform and at the Capitol. The next morning, he sent a note to his congregants at Beth Sholom Congregation, the Conservative synagogue in Frederick, Maryland, he has led since 2014.
Robert Rogers Cassilly Jr., the patriarch of his Harford County family who served in World War II and the Vietnam War, died Jan. 4 of old-age complications at his Bel Air home. He was 95.