No one invokes the National Guard and Newark in the same sentence without a sense of context and consequences, which weren’t good historically given’s the city’s 1967 troubles and the death toll. But now, in a city of 282,090 with more than 3,872 COVID-19 cases and 231 deaths, the National Guard, played right, could help people in dire need of humanitarian resources, according to veteran state Senator Ronald L. Rice (D-28).

A combat veteran of Vietnam, Rice remembers stepping off the bus after returning home and seeing a city in worse shape than the war torn country he survived. The crisis resulted in 26 peoplee dead and hundreds wounded.

But like Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-35), who this past weekend told InsiderNJ the state needs to deploy the guard to his COVID-19-embattled city, Rice welcomed the Guard activated in the right way.

“Goodwill is the key,” said Rice.  “You don’t want the guard coming in with weapons drawn, but increasingly there are examples in the city of burn out, of people waling off their frontline service jobs. I and others are very concerned about personnel leaving. I am concerned about eessential services workers there on the job in harm’s way.”

He doesn’t want a police action.

But Rice said he wants to see National Guardsmen on a chow line serving people; just as Wimberly envisions in Paterson – equipped personnel able to take testing kits and good to seniors in highrises; and rreplacing overworked nurses and doctors.

“We don’t need tanks and armor,” the senator said. “But the guard would be welcomed in Newark as long as they are here with a humanitrian purpose.”

He said he thinks it needs to happen, as Newark considers the inevitable ensuing harm as a consequence of the virus.

“We have to get in front of this,” he said. “We can’t be nice about it. We are at war with the coronavirus. You don’t ask them to police the area. We need people to feed others. We need medical personnel. We need boots on the ground that are the equivalent of that medical supply ship going into New York, just as the ship I was on, the U.S.S. Boxer, had a ship that tagged along, the U.S.S. Comfort, which contained medical reserves. Look, I was was told directors just quit a nursing home in the city. We need back-up.”

The guard option needs to be on the table right now, the senator added.

“Again, it comes down to how do you use it,” Rice said. “You don;t have snipers coming in. You don’t use nepalm and burn the whole city. This is a different enemy – but it’s still a war.”

In the meantime, the senator said he is hopeful of Governor Phl Murphy siging his bill to better pinpoint COVID-19 cases in urban populations.

“Yes, there are a lot of deaths,” he said. “A lot of people are going to lose jobs, too, and they are going to die from stress. If the governor signs that bill will get data quicker. It’s going to be very important in terms of getting a grip on where exactly we need to focus resources.”