“Ultimately this public health crisis has shown that the military has gaps to fix in areas it would have considered itself an expert: communication, fast response, logistics, and organization,” Moore said, citing how the Navy continued crowded meetings in close quarters on ships and the barbers still are coming on to bases to give Marines buzz cuts.
Testing Limited
Like many states and cities, the military’s ability even to test for the virus is limited. Modly said in an interview Friday with Hugh Hewitt that the Roosevelt can test about 200 sailors per day, meaning it would take more than three weeks to test everyone on board. But he disputed the idea that the ship would be out of action if major hostilities erupted.
“If there was a reason for her to go into action she would just go,” Modly said. “She’s close enough to some trouble spots that she could mobilize and go quickly.”
There have been other missteps. The Army briefly stopped most training exercises only to restart them days later. And the service waited until Thursday to raise its health protection status to “D,” the highest level, for critical rapid-response forces that would be deployed in a national security crisis, in order to keep those troops isolated and ready to fight.
“All the chiefs are wrestling with the same issue or same challenges,” General James McConville, the Army chief of staff, said in a press briefing on Thursday. “They want to protect the force, but at the same time they know they have a mission to protect, and that’s the balance.” He added that “we need to do more to limit exposure, especially for those who are not doing mission essential tasks.”
It wasn’t until March 13 that the Pentagon established a coordination task force to work closely with Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, the military services and other agencies to develop policy documents and provide recommendations to senior leadership, according to a memo signed by Navy Captain Oliver Lewis, the Defense Department’s executive secretary.
Hospital Ships
At the same time, the Pentagon has earned praise for ramping up to help in the national fight against the virus, deploying two hospital ships to hard-hit New York City and Los Angeles and picking up all the costs for National Guard troops deployed to help stem the crisis, instead of requiring cost-sharing from cash-strapped state governments. It also closed recruitment centers.
Before Congress managed to draft an economic stimulus bill to help workers and businesses impacted by the pandemic, the Pentagon moved quickly to accelerate payments to contractors to help ensure they keep production lines open.
Military leaders also have praised General Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, for taking drastic measures to prevent troops from being exposed to the coronavirus by locking down bases in February, as that country’s outbreak exploded.
“Where the threat was most acute, the leadership acted the quickest and most decisively,” said Thomas Spoehr, a retired Army lieutenant general and director of the Center for National Defense at the Heritage Foundation.