The California National Guard has come to Long Beach.

The military force approved a city request to provide logistical support during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, officials announced late Thursday, April 9.

To fulfill the request, 50 members of the National Guard 315th Company arrived in Long Beach on Friday, April 10, and they will remain in the city until at least June 30. They will dress in camouflage uniform but will be unarmed while in Long Beach.

The city, meanwhile, is not responsible for funding the National Guard personnel who are deployed here.

Members arrived at Silverado Park, 1545 W. 31st St., and Martin Luther King Jr. Park, 1950 Lemon Ave., Friday afternoon to help operate temporary homeless shelters the city has installed in both locations.

Four guards will be at each spot on a 24/7 basis. They will rotate through three eight-hour shifts per day, according to Elsa Ramos, who is overseeing the effort for the city’s Health and Human Services Department.

National Guard members will help process folks as they enter the shelters, distribute food and supplies, help facilitate access to the sites’ showers, and provide other support as needed, Ramos said.

To this point, Ramos said, city staffers have been putting in extra hours to help manage the temporary shelters. The National Guard personnel will help ease that burden, she said.

“This particular team has experience with humanitarian support, and they have experience working with emergency situations,” she said, “so we are very excited to see the partnership to support this endeavor.”

National Guard members have also been deployed to the Rapid Assessment Clinic that officials launched at Long Beach City College earlier this week.

“This assistance from the National Guard will enable us to further expand our sheltering and healthcare capacity in Long Beach,” Mayor Robert Garcia said in a Thursday evening statement. “The National Guard will be focused on humanitarian aid, and we thank them for the support.”

Lt. Col. Jonathan Shiroma, a spokesman for the California National Guard, said Friday that members who are deployed typically perform a wide range of duties — whatever it takes to help the city or county that has requested the agency’s services.

Whether it’s organizing canned food at a food bank or setting up space in a homeless shelter to provide food to those in need, Shiroma said, the response from National Guard members is always, “OK, roger that. We’ll do it.”

Shiroma said since Gov. Gavin Newsom deployed the National Guard late last month, groups of about 50 members each have been sent to different parts of the state.

So far, members have mostly been sent to Northern California, Shiroma said, but other National Guard troops have also been sent to Indio and to the Los Angeles Convention Center, which has been transformed into a field hospital during the public health crisis.

“The California National Guard has always been here for our citizens in times of need,” Shiroma said. “We’ve been called onto help and, once again, our soldiers are there to help the public, and they’ll do their best to make sure our citizens are taken care of.”