COVID-19. Derecho. Deployments. D.C.: Iowa National Guard serving in a variety of ways, leader says Des Moines Register Iowa National Guard soldiers staffed COVID-19 testing sites and call centers, boxed meals for food banks and shuttled test samples to labs in 2020 as they assisted with the state’s response to the pandemic, the Guard’s adjutant general told lawmakers on Thursday. In his annual Condition of the Guard address, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Corell described the array of tasks that Iowa’s soldiers have been called on to help with over the past year. “Not since the historic floods of 2008 has the Iowa National Guard played such a diverse role in coming to the aid of Iowans during their time of need,” Corell said.