Department of Defense officials said Thursday that although the military had seen more than 3,100 COVID-19 infections and 64 hospitalizations among its 1.4 million service members, it is planning for a resumption of operations while the coronavirus contagion persists.
“What we have to do is we have to figure out how to plan for operations in these kind of COVID environments,” said Air Force Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“So this’ll be a new way of doing business that we have to focus in on, and we’re adjusting to that new world as we speak today,” he said at a Thursday morning Pentagon press briefing.
Hyten and Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist began painting a picture for a transition from the current reality of canceled and delayed exercises, extended port calls, and a global stop-move, to a defense posture with adjustments for coronavirus infections middeployment.
“We’re going to have to be able to operate in a COVID environment, which means how do you train? How do you prepare? How do you deploy?” Norquist said.
Norquist added that would mean resuming exercises with adaptations or relying on large platform medical capabilities to care for sickened sailors.
“Our ships have ICU capabilities on carriers and others, so if it had to go, it could,” he said.
Norquist highlighted how 229 of the 416 coronavirus-positive sailors on the USS Roosevelt, sidelined in Guam, are asymptomatic.
“Others have mild flu-like symptoms, the sort of things that our fleet is normally used to dealing with,” he said.
The decision to delay the end of the Guam port call to allow sailors to disembark, test, and quarantine on the island was made “erring on the side of caution right now because of the situation in the world.”
The military is studying the behavior of the virus to understand better how asymptomatic carriers may be spreading it or how those who have recovered and tested positive again could still be in danger of a relapse or spreading the infection further.
The onset of point-of-care coronavirus testing, Hyten said, will also allow the military to resume its normal movements quickly.
One thing was clear from Thursday’s call: Simply waiting out the coronavirus is not under consideration.
“What are the criteria under which we would be able to begin resume movement, and this includes both deployments as well as [permanent change of station] movements,” he said.
In recent weeks, service leaders and training commanders have discussed delays to the onboarding of new recruits.
Last week, after an outbreak on Parris Island, the Marine Corps paused sending new recruits to the East Coast boot camp but is allowing recruits to continue arriving at the West Coast facility in San Diego.
On Monday, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Commanding Gen. Paul Funk II described a two-week period of controlled monitoring before eight weeks of training in what he called a “two-plus-eight training model.”
Before arrival, future soldiers are isolated at home for two weeks and receive phone calls to ask about symptoms and movements. Their temperatures are taken at check-in, arrival at training facilities, and throughout the monitoring period.
No number disruptions have been made to training already in progress.
“Thousands of new people come into the military every week. That’s now cut back,” Hyten said. “For a short period of time, that’s not a big issue. If that continues long, then all of a sudden, our numbers come down, and that will eventually impact readiness if it goes on month after month after month.”
Norquist said the military understands that its defense of the nation and domestic support in the coronavirus response would mean more infections among its healthier population.
“DOD personnel may well have a higher rate of infection,” he said.
Nonetheless, he said the military was experiencing a “low-sloping line,” meaning the rate of infection was slower.
He said “a couple of small pockets” like what was experienced on the Roosevelt have emerged and have been quickly addressed.
Even with the public exposure of the Roosevelt contagion, Norquist said it did not amount to a gap in force protection.
“One carrier, as mighty as that carrier is and as amazing as that carrier is, it’s a small fraction of the combat power that the United States brings,” he said, describing a joint force response that includes long-range strikes and bombers.
Added Norquist: “Our military remains ready and continues to operate around the globe.”
