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US military prepping for coronavirus pandemic

Tangmo

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U.S. Northern Command at Peterson AFB in Colorado and Ft. Carson also in CO is responsible for the defense of North America, ie, the USA, Canada, Mexico. Its principal commands are the 5th Army and the 1st Air Force to include the Joint Force National Capital Region Command GHQ at Ft. McNair in Washington DC.

Commander of USNORTHCOM is the 4-star General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, USAF and according to its website its mission is: "USNORTHCOM partners to conduct Homeland Defense and Civil Support operations within the assigned area of responsibility to defend, protect, and secure the United States and its interests." The 5000 troops at the southern border since fall 2018 are elements of the NORTHCOM 5th Army that is distributed throughout the continental United States CONUS.

From the Military Times:


US military prepping for coronavirus pandemic

2.7.2020



Apparently there aren't many cases of Convid-19 among the armed forces although the MT article does reference USFK "confining troops who had traveled to China for 14 days."

While some governors and other officials have been calling for Trump to deploy the active duty armed forces to assist and support civilian efforts there haven't been any such deployments nor have any plans been announced or suggested to take any such action. Pentagon said the past week the National Guard in 22 states is supporting civilian efforts to combat the virus, mainly in a law enforcement capacity, the NG being exempt of the Posse Comitatus Laws.

There are some reports -- in Rightwing media mostly -- Trump may or will declare what they call Medical Martial Law to deal with the increasing cases of the virus, prevention, treatment, control of information about it and so on.
 
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Hospital ships, we have 2 big ones, and the big mobile hospitals might come in handy.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a sinister take over by the deep state, tinfoil hat kind of thing.
 
swing_voter said:
Hospital ships, we have 2 big ones, and the big mobile hospitals might come in handy.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a sinister take over by the deep state, tinfoil hat kind of thing.
Click to expand...

I get the impression Pentagon doesn't want to go near the Convid-19 in the civilian general population given the vulnerability to viruses of grouped and clustered military forces such as occurred in the high visibility Spanish Flu that impacted US troops of WW I and also placed them into the global chain of contagion.

Indeed, Beijing kept PLA walled inside its garrison in Wuhan and inside garrisons elsewhere during all the coronavirus commotion that happened during the peak 8 week period...and even presently. Anybody's armed forces could be flattened in significant numbers were the contagion to spread among 'em. Here's what a retired British general had to say....



Coronavirus: What Are The Risks Of Using Military To Support COVID-19 Response?




Military medical personnel and equipment yes, regular soldiers, sailors, marines, air force, no. While orders are orders and the military will do whatever, the military brass are very likely resistant to using regular active duty troops of the regular armed forces of any country. In Italy a limited number of regular active duty troops are focused at checkpoints where there are barriers and slide drawers under windows and the like.

The British general retired raised the question of what if a battalion goes down yet that leads to the question of what if a brigade goes down with the virus...and so on.
 
If the US Military really wants to help deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, then it should be training tens of thousands of its most capable members to be respiratory technicians and respiratory support gear technicians in order to work in hospitals under the supervision of fully trained nurses and doctors. At the same time the US Government should cut military spending by a small fraction and use that money to buy respiratory support gear like ventilators and lung-stackers while also building temporary overflow medical facilities in or near all major American cities of 250,000 or more souls.

Doctors and nurses are going to be overwhelmed if the epidemic passes a tipping point and as they over-work they themselves will become more vulnerable to the disease. Therefore the US should plan on being able to support and eventually replace these frontline medical personnel with well trained military service members who are fully trained to support the civillian medical profession.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.
 
It's unfortunate yet no surprise the China Virus is ahead of the game in the USA. Materials as reported here do help but getting organized under an effective and unified national leadership remains absent.


The Pentagon is making up to 5 million masks available for the coronavirus fight





Retired Lt.Gen. Russell Honere who straightened out the federal disaster in the Katrina disaster and who said Trump is having his "amateur hour" had suggestions for the Convid-19 catastrophe. Graduate now nurses and doctors that will graduate in May and send 'em in tomorrow. And put the Defense Logistics Agency to work to identify needs and capacity, match 'em up and produce what's needed, then get personnel, equipment and supplies where they're needed by priority. Honere' said the administration needs to match up the audio with the visual.

Amen.
 

Two months late, but the Brain Trust eventually makes it.






BARF
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Two months late, but the Brain Trust eventually makes it.






BARF
Click to expand...

Sad to see you're ill again. Let's hope it's not an underlying problem.

Perhaps you should avoid the news but that's just a thought.

Cause this time it's the Trump Brain Bust.
 
Tangmo said:
Sad to see you're ill again. Let's hope it's not an underlying problem.

Perhaps you should avoid the news but that's just a thought.

Cause this time it's the Trump Brain Bust.
Click to expand...

You are not sad to see me ill....stop lying....its bad for your reputation.
 
swing_voter said:
Hospital ships, we have 2 big ones, and the big mobile hospitals might come in handy.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a sinister take over by the deep state, tinfoil hat kind of thing.
Click to expand...

They are totally useless. One in fact is in dock for repairs and they are neither staffed nor set up for a virus of this type. They are designed for battle field wounded.

It would be nothing but a feel good gesture and I hope Trump doesn't fall for it. You'd be far better off using/putting together facilities on land. Using Navy Hospital Ships To Help With Coronavirus Is A Dangerously Bad Idea
 
Hawkeye10 said:
You are not sad to see me ill....stop lying....its bad for your reputation.
Click to expand...

Au contraire it is sad you suffer from chronic barfing.

So I was thinking of your health and wellness from head to stubbed toe.

And how you may see things...or not. You take care now y'hear.
 
usaf77 said:
They are totally useless. One in fact is in dock for repairs and they are neither staffed nor set up for a virus of this type.
Click to expand...

They won't be used for virus patients. They'll be used to make up for the loss of hospital beds due to the virus.
 

I consider it safe to say one of the few items of general knowledge Trump has is the existence of USN hospital ships. It's sort of like almost everyone knows about the CARE package or the Peace Corps -- even Trump the "****ing moron."

It's Trump who is hoping WE fall for it.

That WE fall for the line the two USN hospital ships will turn the tide in the war against Convid-19, one located at each opposite coast. Yet given you're not falling for it we can also safely say nobody will. Still and as noted in scrolling immediately above the two ships will not be out flanking and defeating the Convid-19 given they are not built or staffed with that mission in mind or as their purpose. Their task is to treat trauma injuries.
 
swing_voter said:
Hospital ships, we have 2 big ones, and the big mobile hospitals might come in handy.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a sinister take over by the deep state, tinfoil hat kind of thing.
Click to expand...

Actually, those field hospitals will be of minimal help. And trust me, for over 5 years I was assigned to a CASH (the modern version of a MASH).

They are essentially small trauma centers. Around 100 beds in total, designed for handling surgical and immediate recovery requirements until the patient is stable enough to transfer to a regular hospital. They are not set up to handle large numbers of infectious disease patients. They can not even handle a large number of patients. Essentially they are surgery centers and ICUs. Only holding the patient until they are off of the "critical list" and stable enough for transport.

And the larger "mobile hospitals" are the same way. They scale up, but they still only provide trauma care. And where are you going to set them up? Even a "small CASH" that can handle around 100 people has a footprint of around a square mile. And has a huge demand for support. As in tons of supplies per day for the hospital, the 600 or so staff that run it, and all their essential requirements (food, fuel, etc) not including the medical supplies themselves.

And here is the other side of the coin. Most of these units do not even have their own equipment. Because of decades of defense cuts there are maybe enough actual "hospitals" to supply maybe half of the CASH units with their own equipment. During every field exercise I went on with mine, we would pick it up at a supply depot after another unit finished with it, and when we turned it in another unit used it after us. And that was all "training equipment", not "real world" medical equipment.
 
Lt.Gen. Russel Honoré retired who led military relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 discusses how the Trump people have responded to COVID-19 and the importance of coordinating local and federal resources. March 22, 2020.


Lt. Gen. Honoré: 'If we don’t discipline we’ll have a mess on our hands.'

[video]https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/lt-gen-honore-if-we-don-t-discipline-we-ll-have-a-mess-on-our-hands-81070149512[/video]



As I noted in scrolling, the retired Lt.Gen. Russell Honore -- who straightened out the federal disaster of the Katrina disaster and who said Trump in Puerto Rico was having his "amateur hour" -- has orders to issue for the Convid-19 catastrophe: To graduate now the nurses and doctors that will graduate in May and send 'em in tomorrow.

And to put the Pentagon Defense Logistics Agency to the Convid-19 national emergency to identify needs and capacity, match 'em up by getting what's needed produced, then getting personnel, equipment and supplies where they're needed by priority.

The retired 3-star Honore' said the administration needs to match up its visuals with its audibles. It needs someone of specialized authority in charge of delivering the goods and to coordinate that efficiently and effectively.
 
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