[Billthedrill]

Perhaps I'm out of touch, but I'd love to know what sort of medical disaster training "the military", meaning the people who actually will be sent, have undergone. It isn't exactly taught in Boot Camp. Nor is is something that you'd expect the 101st Airborne to have received in Jump School. So who has taught these men and women what, and when?

I did a couple years training and some time in a pathology lab in my college days and I'd be scared spitless to have to trade on that to survive in the Hot Zone. It isn't a place for amateurs, however courageous. And it isn't a place for political posturing, either. If 0bama wants "optics" in the field he should suit up and go there himself.

[ansel12]

The 700 people from the 101st are going there as the headquarters element, just like all of the military, they will be doing the jobs that they are trained to do.

The 101st will supply 700 soldiers to what will be 3 to 4 thousand, they are half of the first 1400, (the other 700 being mostly engineers).

“About 300 of the troops from the 101st Airborne will come from the division headquarters, and they will serve as the Joint Force Command for the mission.”

“A 101st Airborne press release issued Tuesday evening stated the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Headquarters, Fort Campbell, will deploy as the Joint Force Command for Operation United Assistance in Monrovia, Liberia.
“Operation United Assistance is a critical mission,” said Maj. Gen. Gary J. Volesky, commander of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). “We will coordinate all of the Department of Defense resources in Liberia to support USAID and the government of Liberia to contain the Ebola virus and ultimately save lives.”

[Caipirabob]

The training they are getting in Africa is so they can perform the same mission here.