Gale takes the wheel in battle against coronavirus

In the most literal sense, because of the Coronavirus, America is again at war. This time the enemy is faceless, but it is a vicious and virulent enemy nonetheless, and it will kill anyone - even children - without mercy.
Instead of armed soldiers, it is our doctors and nurses and healthcare personnel on the front lines trying to protect us from harm, and trying to save those who have already been harmed.
Lee Gale was one of those people on the front lines. He spent a week in New York City - a virus epicenter - shuttling doctors and nurses to a hospital.
Gale, who was born and raised in Concordia, works for Village Travel. The company, based out of Wichita, originally started as a family-owned business with one motor coach. It is now one of the largest charter bus and tour companies in the Midwest, and operates over 100 charter coaches.
Gale has been driving a coach bus for Cloud County Community College for several years. In March, Village Travel was contacted by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and asked to shuttle healthcare workers in New York.
"Much to the chagrin of my wife and daughters, I said I'd go," Gale said. "I just felt that I needed to be there."
Gale left for New York on March 30, driving a bus to the beleaguered city. He arrived on April 1, and was assigned to a hotel housing healthcare workers.
His first shift started at 6 a.m., shuttling doctors and nurses from the hotels where they are kept isolated, to the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. The Jacobi is a municipal hospital with almost 500 beds, located in the Morris Park neighborhood. It is the front line of the New York City's battle against the coronavirus.
Gale's second shift would start at 8 p.m., when he would pick up healthcare personnel at the hospital and return them to their hotel.
"Normally, driving in New York City would be a nightmare," Gale said, "but it's like a ghost town now. Not at all what I was used to."
The eeriness was compounded by what Gale saw when he picked up his passengers at the hospital. "Believe me, it's a war zone there. It's scary. Just plain scary."
Gale didn't go inside the hospital, but he saw the physical and emotional toll it was taking on the doctors and nurses. He saw it on their faces every time they got on his bus after a shift on the front lines.
"I would talk to them a little," he said. "I was wearing a mask, but I always smiled to them. Some of them would smile back. I could hear them talking to each other. It was scary. They were around so much death, day after day. This is very serious. This pandemic is killing people of all ages. No one is immune."
Despite the unrelenting stream of sick patients, despite the rising death toll and the toll it was taking on the healthcare workers, they returned day after day, night after night to do battle again.
"I hope everyone realizes the courage of these people," Gale said. "Every day they go to work knowing it might be the day they become infected, and could die. Those people are the real heroes."
After one week on the front lines, Gale's company brought him home.
The eeriness continued on Gale's return flights home. There were few passengers on the planes. The airports in Newark, New Jersey, and Dallas-Fort Worth were nearly deserted.
Gale arrived back in Concordia on Saturday night, and immediately began an in-house 14-day quarantine. He's feeling fine with no symptoms, and trying to do his best to adjust to isolation.
"I'm glad to be back, but not handling the quarantine well. I'm still trying to process everything. I just want to impress on everyone, please, how real this thing is. I've been there; I've seen it up close, and it's scary."