‘We’re F*cked’: Aircraft Carrier Outbreak Sends Troops Scrambling
And the fallout isn’t just aboard the USS Roosevelt. In Kuwait, the brigade deployed to deter Iran is now caught in the Pentagon’s 60-day movement freeze.
James LaPorta Spencer Ackerman
Senior Nat’l Security Correspondent
Updated Mar. 26, 2020 5:03PM ET
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps service members in Guam were ordered on Wednesday to break their own quarantine to set up makeshift shelters for U.S. troops coming off a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, where an outbreak of the novel coronavirus is rapidly spreading within the hulls of the ship.
Some of the U.S. troops at Naval Base Guam, located on the western side of the U.S. territory at Apra Harbor, were assembled into 100-man working parties to begin transforming some of the base’s facilities into temporary quarantine shelters for some of the 5,000 service members arriving from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, a naval vessel where COVID-19 is spreading.
“We found several more cases aboard the ship, we are in the process now of testing 100 percent of the crew of that ship to ensure that we are able to contain whatever spread that might have occurred there... but I also want to emphasize that the ship is operationally capable and can do its mission if required,” said Acting Navy Secretary Thomas B. Modly at the Pentagon on Thursday.
U.S. Navy officials told The Daily Beast that 23 sailors onboard the Roosevelt tested positive for COVID-19 and that testing capabilities for the coronavirus are limited. The Wall Street Journal first reported the latest figures on Thursday. In total, the Navy has 133 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 104 of which are active-duty.
One U.S. service member assigned to the working parties in Guam, who asked not to be named, told The Daily Beast that some troops are afraid they will contract the coronavirus from crew members arriving from the Roosevelt.
The service member added, “We’re f*cked.”
At a virtual town hall held from the Pentagon on Tuesday and streamed to Facebook live, Defense Secretary Mark Esper cautioned troops from holding mass troop formations and urged both service members and commanders to follow the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/coronavirus-outbreak-on-aircraft-carrier-sends-troops-scrambling?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon
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