Thanks, Mariner.
I have my doubts whether a boots-on-the-ground intervention in an ebola contamination zone is an acceptable solution. Neighboring countries seem (so far) to be having success with strict quarantine. Outbreaks in the past often have been stopped primarily by the communities of those infected changing behaviors or processes that were detrimental.
The Army is already talking about how it will process its troops who become infected? Why is that when they seem to be reassuring everyone that the troops won’t be in contact with patients?
Answer: because they’ll be in contact with the population, and in the population are many who are at various stages of ebola who don’t yet know it, and there are even those with ebola who simply can’t find a hospital bed.
And how easy would it be for an anti-American usurper in chief to hand pick newly infected U.S. troops in Liberia and order them home to spread ebola on the military bases?
I know something about Army CBR protocols since I was the battalion CBR NCO even though my rank at the time was E4 which was 3 graded below the allotted slot. The reason for that was the battalion had never gotten a satisfactory grade in CBR on any field exercise until they sent me to school for 6 months.
The most important thing I can tell you is you can not turn an 11B into a 54E with a couple of hours of training a month. If you think you can you are inviting disaster.
Now this was near 40 years ago but I do not imagine things have changed much. We can send grunts for securing a perimeter while engineers do their thing for the medical corps but the only interface with locals should be the mission of the Chemical Corps. The author has the protocols down pretty good. Isolate and decontaminate. That’s doctrine. No visas. No mixing of elements that have exposure with those that don’t. Plenty of water, bleach and fuel for burning.
But 11b’s have no business interacting with the local population. None, Nada, zippo.