Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Elisabeth Altamirano-Smith | Community Columnist

Clanton resident Stanley Batchelor was recently awarded the COVID-19 Pandemic Civilian Service Medal by the Department of Human & Health Services for his medical actions and response during the United States pandemic. Batchelor serves as a member of an Incident Management Team (IMT) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR). During the pandemic, the IMT responded to more than 1,800 missions to support across the country that were battling COVID crises.

Medals were awarded to medical professionals that were deployed for 30 consecutive days or 60 cumulative days. Batchelor is one of 90 IMT responders to receive the award nationwide. He qualified as a recipient for the medal under both time requirements; serving 30 days in Texas and also 60 days at various sites across the U.S.

“First, I served a month in San Antonio at Lackland Air Force Base, running a federal quarantine site for U.S. Citizens and their families repatriated from China,” Batchelor said. “Then we had people from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that we brought back from Japan.  Then also had people from the Hawaiian cruise ship that docked at San Francisco.”

Batchelor served as a group supervisor of those medical teams caring for those in quarantine. In January 2021, he served in Washington DC as group supervisor of medical teams who helped cover the Biden Inauguration. Later in 2021, he deployed to Anchorage, Alaska serving as group supervisor for a medical team, helping to decompress a hospital that was overrun with COVID patients.  In the fall, he was deployed to the State of Utah Monoclonal Infusion COVID Treatment Center, followed by helping to decompress the work load of hospital cases in Montana.

“The pandemic strained our country’s healthcare system for almost three years,” said Kevin Horahan, director for ASPR’s Division of Field Operations and Response. “Stanley Batchelor and his IMT colleagues served as a lifeline to many healthcare facilities. This medal reflects his selfless commitment to meeting the public health and medical needs of the American people.”

Batchelor said he enjoyed the opportunity to serve in COVID frontlines and helping the country battle a pandemic.

“I studied Pandemic response for years in my training and never expected to put it into practice,” said Batchelor. “This was a new disease. We started at ground level. It was a real learning experience working with the CDC and the U.S. Public Health Service as they studied the COVID Virus, trying to figure out what it was, how it spread and affected people, how to test for it and how to best contain it to protect American citizens and the citizens of the world.”

Stanley is married to Angela Batchelor. They have two daughters, Zoe and Mia.