by Kyle Rempfer and Howard Altman New Jersey National Guard Capt. Douglas Linn Hickok died Monday, becoming the first service member to succumb from COVID-19
A New Jersey Army National Guard soldier died on Saturday after contracting coronavirus and being hospitalized on March 21, the Pentagon announced Monday night. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy identified the soldier as Capt. Douglas Linn Hickok, a drilling Guardsman and physician assistant. Hickok is the first service member to die after testing positive for COVID-19. An Army spouse died Thursday of COVID-19 complications, following the March 21 death of a Washington, D.C.-area contractor. Hickok was a Pennsylvania resident at his death and passed away in a Pennsylvania hospital, Murphy told reporters at a press briefing. He was not mobilized in the COVID-19 efforts, according to Kryn Westhoven, a New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs spokeswoman. Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in a Tweet that he was “deeply saddened by the COVID-19-related death of Army Capt. Douglas Linn Hickok, a physician assistant & New Jersey National Guardsman. All of us in the #NationalGuard are grateful for his service to our nation, as a Citizen & as a Soldier.”