News

Esper says new virus won't prevent military operations

by LOLITA C. BALDOR

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Associated Press•March 5, 2020

Defense Secretary Mark Esper testifies to the Senate Armed Services Committee about the budget, Wednesday, March 4, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military and its warfighting command centers in the Pentagon are prepared to continue operations even if there is a local outbreak of the new coronavirus, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday, as the department began finalizing its response plans.

Although only one soldier and a handful of family members and Defense Department civilians have so far tested positive for the virus, tens of thousands of troops are in countries and regions that have been hardest hit, including South Korea and portions of Europe.

The nation's more than 2.1 million active duty, Guard and Reserve forces are spread all around the globe. And they are one of the nation's last lines of defense against any outside threats or disasters during an outbreak, as well as a force that could be used as a last-resort to maintain order or enforce quarantines within the U.S. in the case of a pandemic.

“Our national military command center has the capability to go for weeks at a time if they have to be locked down inside the building if we have some type of outbreak,” Esper told reporters during a Pentagon press conference. He said the Pentagon is finalizing plans to prevent the spread of the virus across the force and military installations and also mitigate it in the event of any outbreak.

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Already on Thursday, workers were wiping down doorknobs at the Mark Center, a major Defense Department complex in northern Virginia, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff had set up a 24-hour operations center inside the Pentagon to track the virus and any impact on the military.

Esper said that U.S. Forces Korea, where the solder and his wife and child tested positive, has set up a good model for other military commands to follow.

Army Gen. Robert Abrams, top commander of U.S. forces in Korea, has implemented restrictions on off-base travel — to include non-essential social events and “eat-in seated dining" — and allowed non-essential civilian workers and contractors to stay home. Abrams has also kept up a constant barrage of information to the troops, ranging from simple hygiene procedures to updates and even photos on Twitter of his visits with personnel affected by the virus.