TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As the Florida National Guard prepares to intensify its role in setting up mobile COVID-19 vaccination sites around the state, the size of its ranks is becoming a concern.

What You Need To Know

  • Size of Florida National Guard force a concern with COVID, storms looming

  • The state has about 12,000 soldiers, one of the leanest forces in the nation

  • The guard is key to Florida's vaccination strategy

  • Lawmakers could consider an increase for the Guard in budget plans

In a state that is home to about 21 million people, the Florida National Guard is a force of about 12,000 soldiers. That staffing ratio ranks it among the leanest of America’s Guard corps.

For Major General James Eifert, the adjutant general of the Florida Guard, the timing is troubling.

“I'm always concerned about that,” Eifert said. “We want to be ready on Florida's worst day.”

Mobile sites are a key part of Florida’s strategy to administer COVID-19 vaccinations, and the top officer for the Florida Guard is focused on deploying his soldiers to man them. He’s not too concerned about staffing now, but that could change when hurricane season returns starting in June.

“If you look at the worst-case scenario of a Cat Five [category 5 hurricane] crossing the state, through Miami and back up into the Panhandle and all that kind of stuff, you are definitely looking at the possibility that the Guard is overwhelmed,” Eifert said.

For that reason, he is calling on the National Guard bureau to shift more federal money and manpower to Florida.

That could take months, if not years, time that Florida lawmakers say the state does not have.

“This is a sustained state of emergency like we've never seen before in our lifetime, and so, we've needed to grow our Guard, as the general so eloquently mentioned during the committee meeting, and I think now this has highlighted that need in a way that we probably never expected,” Florida Senator Danny Burgess (R-Zephyrhills) said.

The vast majority of the Florida Guard’s funding comes from the federal government, and unlike many other states, it has been fully funded in its COVID-19 response mission.

Some funding does come from the state, though, and lawmakers might look at ways to increase that amount as they put together Florida’s next budget.

Florida Guard leaders also say they are in close contact with their counterparts in neighboring states, where guardsmen could be called upon to deploy to Florida in the event of a major storm.