Its amazing.
A meme is going to bite the USMC in the ass.
What the fuck am I talking about? This "crisis response force" thing. When you have ineffective civilian federal agencies and then the military comes along and says that we can fix any problem, just give us the word, then you have the elements of a disaster in the making. Check this out from the War is Boring blog...
“If somebody does contract Ebola and becomes symptomatic, they will be handled … just like you’ve seen on the recent ones who came back on an aircraft that was specially designed to bring them back [to the United States],” Gen. David Rodriguez, the head of the Pentagon’s Africa Command, told reporters recently.So you're going to shove a sick and infected troop into the back of an MV-22 and transport him to the airport so he can be evacuated.
“[An infected service member would] go back to one of the centers that is specially designed to handle the Ebola patients right now,” Rodriguez said.
The Ospreys might be one of the few options to rapidly move sickened Americans between hard-to-reach locales and Monrovia’s airport. Phoenix Air’s special air ambulances—which have already flown private citizens back home for treatment—need an actual runway. V-22s don’t.
Sounds solid....until you take a look at the facts of life for Marines and Soldier on deployment or in the field.
First! The culture. You deal with aches and pains. You have your own personal stash of Tylenol or Asprin to keep you going when your body hurts. Do that shit in Africa and you're making the early symptoms of Ebola go away...for a little while at least. Additionally you've always felt achy, had slight fevers etc during any tough field op. You wouldn't even recognize it for what it is until its too late.
Second! You're taught rush to the fallen. Its ingrained into the Marine or Soldier to aid the wounded. What happens when a squad member goes down? His buddy move to help. DO that in Africa and you're exposing yourself.
Third! How are you going to decontaminate an airplane that has this disease infesting it? You go from being an angel to being a vector to further spread the disease!
And then last. Once this short duration mission is over, if you're doing things the right way, then you've just rendered a USMC combat unit ineffective for 21 days once they leave the hot zone.
If you don't then you could see outbreaks at Lejeune or Pendleton or at bases in Spain, or where ever this SPMAGTF-CR is coming from.
Someone is so busy to please the boss that they aren't thinking.
I'm going from worried to full bore 100% alarmed.
You know it, man.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly how it'll go down.
And then they're going to treat it on an LHA/LPD?
Because they won't know whether it was Ebola or not??
Entire ship taken out of action without a single shot.
Or instead just leave the victim(s) ashore until they can air-evac direct?
To one of those magic 23 beds, total, stateside?
Sh'yeah, perfect.
This is a fool's errand, and our troops - Marines & sailors, Seabees, and the 101st AB - are the chips.
I've seen the common non fatal flu knock down the effectiveness of a military unit so far it became nothing more than a skeleton crew of recovering weakness. Unable to even handle day to day normal ops such as formations and training.
DeleteIt can sweep through a Carrier like a plague literally and with Ebola ya have a plague ship or better described as a lucrative target..
Another scary vision, "Formation call, Men, Sgt Schmuctaelli here is infected so stay clear of him, do you hear that Sgt? Step out of ranks and head to sick bay ASAP."
DeleteSgt Schmucatelli," Aw Gunny I ain't that sick I can hack it", sneaks off to go to the PX, or be back on the job with his buddies.
Nightmare.
Broken arrow rules, if the arrow is broken nothing goes in or out of the site, nothing.
ReplyDeleteOnce things settle down then and only then is egress through rigid DeCon allowed.
Chemical attack rules, every wounded is considered contaminated and the Corpsmen are dressed in full MOPP until Decon is utilized.
THIS IS BIOLOGICAL WARFARE writ large.
The same procedures for Bio Weapons attack should be used.
Troops thought to be exposed or infected should remain in a quarantined field hospital set up for Ebola in an area ashore.
The best thing that could be done is to ship the Commandant and the Joint Chief of Staff to the Hot Zone for a first hand look at what they have sent our Marines into.
I bet the Mission Co is safe aboard some command ship 300 miles off shore suckin' up REMF goodies and making plans.
The entire approach is flawed. This isn't a hurricane or earthquake relief.
ReplyDeleteWe should be taking a lesson from Doctors without Borders. they've done this for 40 years and have a good track record, but they need the logistics support.
As far as I am concerned, we should only be doing logistics. Need a thousand gallons of bleach? Some tents and a generator? Potable water and a couple of water buffaloes? Lab equipment?
Too much common sense there, Paralus.
DeleteThat's crazy talk in the administration of President Obola.
Helping your contaminated buddy is fine as long as you have proper protective gear yourself and decontaminating a whole plane will take some time but the principles as in decontaminating say a truck or train apply. Man-portable Mako showers* and enough bleach will do.
ReplyDeleteI just hope you guys are sending in a unit prepared to deal with this scenario and not some combat oriented unit with a few weeks CBRN training.
*(not sure about translation)
CBRN units are NOT organic to SPMAGTF-CRs...they barely make it aboard MEUs. are you sure its as easy as you say? i've been digging into the US military's books on dealing with biological agents and its all the same.
Deletenothing that occurs naturally its all oriented toward weaponized germs/viruses/toxins etc...Anthrax? done. you're dealing with known delivery agents and its easily recognized. but ebola? this is a brand new issue that the US military has never had to deal with before.
Firstly the AC should be prepared in advance and all surfaces difficult to clean should be removed or covered with removable plastic that will be burned later.
DeleteSecondly a decontamination spot for the plane should be prepared in advance with a burning pit, drains and other related material. It does not have to be close to the human decontamination line as long as the AC can taxi to it.
Thirdly you assume that the entire AC interior or what humans could have been in contact with is contaminated and decontaminate it systematically from bottom to top. If necessary airport fire vehicles can additionally assist by having the foam liquid replaced with emulsion. However in this case you have to clean the pumps with water to avoid damage from corrosion as they are not designed for such use.
The biggest issue might be avoiding damage to the AC like the cockpit should be cleaned carefully.
Not easy but its not rocket science either.