A roundup of how COVID-19 is affecting service members and military operations.
 | | Army National Guardsmen packs pantry bags for food distribution in New Rochelle, N.Y., which has been hit hard by the coronavirus.Andrew Kelly/Reuters |
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Not going anywhere for a while? If you are reading this on your computer or phone at home because of the coronavirus, you’re not alone. Here at At War, we’re all hunkered down in our respective homes, from Rhode Island to Northern Virginia, doing our best to keep tabs on what is happening in the world around us. Here’s a roundup from the past week of how COVID-19 is affecting service members and military operations. |
On March 13, the Pentagon issued new domestic and international travel restrictions for service members, their families and civilians employed by the Department of Defense stationed around the world. The order effectively puts a halt to most permanent change of station moves and temporary duty from March 16 through May 11, 2020, meaning no troop movements anytime soon. The Pentagon issued a “stop movement order” on household goods pickups, though deliveries should continue. Service members can take time off, but they can only travel locally. |
On Monday, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Huffman told reporters that though the military does have deployable field hospitals, as well as two Navy hospital ships, they are geared toward treating trauma like gunshot and shrapnel wounds, and less so for patients suffering from an infectious disease — who typically require segregated spaces. |
[How is the coronavirus affecting you and your family? Let us know at atwar@nytimes.com.] |
Inside the Pentagon, employees were practicing “social distancing,” Secretary Mark T. Esper told reporters on Tuesday. Meetings are being held virtually wherever possible, and anyone feeling sick has been directed to seek medical help and then recuperate at home. Esper also announced that the Defense Department would make up to 5 million N95 masks and 2,000 ventilators available from its strategic reserves to the Department of Health and Human Services. More than a dozen military medical laboratories will be running COVID-19 tests for civilians as well if need be. |
On Wednesday, President Trump announced the deployment of both hospital ships. The U.S.N.S. Comfort will head to New York City soon, although the ship is currently being repaired and will be unable to sail for a number of weeks. The U.S.N.S. Mercy will be dispatched along the West Coast, but a specific location is undecided. Each ship is equipped with 1,000 hospital beds, but how those ships will be staffed is unclear. Esper explained that activating or mobilizing medical personnel from the National Guard or the reserves may not be the best course of action if doing so would remove those men and women from medical jobs in their communities. |
In other updates, the Pentagon announced that U.S. Africa Command has canceled a number of exercises, and National Guard soldiers in 27 states are currently supporting civil authorities. U.S. Northern Command is housing more than 1,400 people in quarantine on military bases in California, Texas and Georgia. And there are now 81 reported cases of COVID-19 among active duty service members, D.O.D civilian employees, contractors and dependents. An Air Force C-17 cargo plane arrived in the United States with 500,000 COVID-19 test kits, and the Navy announced it was relaxing its grooming standards in order to help with social distancing. |
On Thursday morning, Air Force Gen. Joseph L. Lengyel, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, announced that 2,050 Guard soldiers and airmen have been activated for COVID-19 response so far. “We anticipate that number going up relatively quickly,” General Lengyel said. “In fact, doubling by this weekend.” |
We’ll continue to share updates as we learn more. If the coronavirus is affecting you and your family in unexpected ways, email atwar@nytimes.com with your story. |
John Ismay is a staff writer who covers armed conflict for The New York Times Magazine. He is based in Washington. |
The Afghan War Casualty Report: March 2020 |
 | | Smoke rises from the site of an attack on an event to mark the 25th anniversary of death of a Shiite leader in Kabul on March 6, 2020.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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At least 176 pro-government forces and 31 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan so far this month. Read the report. |
Beyond the World War II We Know |
 | | Stasha in Table Mountain, South Africa, in 1941. Her family passed through the country after being evacuated from Yugoslavia by the British.From Stasha Seaton |
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Before the Axis powers invaded and divided up the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941, Stasha Seaton and her family were evacuated by the British government, and they eventually made their way to the United States. There, Stasha enrolled at Barnard College in New York, as her father aided the Allied war effort while working between the United States and London for the BBC. Twenty-year-old Stasha returned to Yugoslavia in 1944 to join the National Liberation struggle, a resistance campaign made up of a variety of anti-fascist left-wing groups, including smaller movements and Josep Tito’s Communist National Liberation Army. Read her as-told-to account here. |
Here are four articles from The Times that you might have missed. |
 | | Testing temperatures in passengers arriving from New Delhi at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday.Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times |
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“Nobody has asked for our help at this point.” The sprawling Department of Veterans Affairs is legally designated as the nation’s backup health system and could prove vital in the pandemic. [Read the article.] |
“The first thing on my mind was to not leave Indian territory, using any means possible.” Twenty years ago, India let Masood Azhar go. Now he and his jihadist group may be one of the greatest obstacles to resolving the crisis in Kashmir. [Read the article.] |
“They are free to move about most of the day.” At Guantánamo Bay’s Camp 7, the military holds prisoners who were previously held and interrogated by the C.I.A. But in recent years, conditions have eased up a bit. [Read the article.] |
“Politicians and even some parts of the government don’t feel how grave the danger is.” Neighboring Iran, badly hit by the virus, continues to allow thousands of people to cross into Afghanistan daily despite requests to close the border. [Read the article.] |
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