Col. Peter Kubas, left, of the 30th Medical Brigade and Col. Shawn Wells Jr.,right, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, brief Maj. Gen. John R. O'Connor, commanding general of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, during a ''walk-through'' on Nov. 7, 2014, of the controlled monitoring area established at Smith Barracks in Baumholder. Some servicemembers coming from Ebola outbreak areas in West Africa in support of Operation United Assistance will spend three weeks at the facility, a procedure implemented out of an abundance of caution to preclude any possibility of transmitting Ebola, officials say. (Daniel Wyatt/Courtesy of U.S. Army)
Col. Peter Kubas, left, of the 30th Medical Brigade and Col. Shawn Wells Jr.,right, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, brief Maj. Gen. John R. O'Connor, commanding general of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, during a ''walk-through'' on Nov. 7, 2014, of the controlled monitoring area established at Smith Barracks in Baumholder. Some servicemembers coming from Ebola outbreak areas in West Africa in support of Operation United Assistance will spend three weeks at the facility, a procedure implemented out of an abundance of caution to preclude any possibility of transmitting Ebola, officials say. (Daniel Wyatt/Courtesy of U.S. Army)
The controlled monitoring area established at Smith Barracks in Baumholder, Germany, will temporarily house servicemembers coming from Ebola outbreak areas in West Africa in support of Operation United Assistance. The service members will spend three weeks at the facility, a procedure implemented out of an abundance of caution to preclude any possibility of transmitting Ebola. (Henry Chan/Courtesy of U.S. Army)
The barracks that are part of the controlled monitoring area at Baumholder's Smith Barracks in Germany have been outfitted with fitness equipment, among other amenities. Germany-based soldiers returning from missions in countries fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa will stay in the secured area for three weeks, the maximum incubation period of the virus. (Warren Wright/Courtesy of U.S. Army)
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — The first group of U.S. troops scheduled to be isolated in Army barracks at Baumholder on returning from an Ebola-related mission in West Africa could arrive this weekend, Army officials said Friday.
Maj. Gen. John R. O’Connor, commander of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, the unit heading the monitoring mission in Germany, said he’s been in contact with local community leaders about the plan.
Those quarantined at Baumholder will spend 21 days living in a tightly controlled environment among a complex of buildings, surrounded by a fence, on the edge of Baumholder’s Smith Barracks. Twice-daily temperature checks are required to ensure soldiers remain symptom-free.
The quarantine barracks have been equipped with pool and foosball tables, fitness equipment, game consoles, flat-screen TVs, laptops with webcams, and books and magazine kits from the Army library system in Europe.
Military officials held a town hall Thursday at Smith Barracks to ease concerns and answer questions.
Soldiers being quarantined “are all determined to be low-risk,” Col. Shawn Wells, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, told hundreds of soldiers and civilians. “That means that they’ve been setting up tents, they’ve been working in these labs, not making any contact” with Ebola patients.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last month ordered the quarantine for troops who spend time on the ground supporting U.S. humanitarian aid efforts in three hard-hit countries in West Africa, where the Ebola virus has killed more than 5,000 people.
The policy goes beyond guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has rejected a mandatory Ebola quarantine — recommending only voluntary isolation for those potentially exposed.
Baumholder is one of two U.S. military bases in Europe the Pentagon has designated as “controlled monitoring” sites for servicemembers returning from the West Africa mission. The other is Vicenza, Italy. Five stateside bases have also been designated as monitoring sites.
Those staying at Baumholder would be troops assigned only to Germany, O’Connor said.
Baumholder was chosen because of its proximity “to rapid transit, in this case an autobahn, and a medical facility,” O’Connor said, referring to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. “The same in Vicenza.”
The first contingent tentatively penciled in for Baumholder comprises about 30 to 40 soldiers with the 15th Engineer Battalion based in Grafenwöhr. O’Connor said the soldiers were deployed for about a month to Liberia, where they built just over a dozen Ebola treatment facilities.
While there, they lived in secure quarters and were not exposed to Ebola patients, he said.
“We’re really looking forward to our soldiers coming home,” he said. “They’re excited to get back and be with their families. We set the conditions for them to do that as quick as we can to ensure that they’re safe, their families are safe and the communities are safe.”
Family members will have to wait to hug their returning soldiers, however. They won’t be allowed inside the monitoring area, but they may be able to speak to a loved one through the fence and they’ll be able to drop off items for the center to hand off, officials said. All rooms have Internet access to enable soldiers to stay in touch with friends and family.
O’Connor said planning for the controlled monitoring area involved a range of organizations, including, the 21st TSC, the Air Force, garrisons, Installation Management Command, USO, volunteers and family readiness groups. The USO, for instance, donated a DVD library, coffee, playing cards and board games, among other items.
Six previously empty buildings on Smith Barracks make up the monitoring area: four will house the soldiers; one will serve as the operations center and one as a medical clinic.
Soldiers showing any symptoms associated with Ebola would immediately be taken to Landstuhl, officials said, where they would be tested — a procedure that takes from four to eight hours to get results, said Lt. Col. Luke Wiest, 21st TSC command surgeon. A patient testing positive would be evacuated to the United States for care, he said.
Soldiers in each of the four living areas will be sequestered by group to avoid possible cross-contamination, officials said. They’ll spend time outdoors with their group, and eat together in a tent facility inside the compound using disposable tableware.
Trash will be separated into four receptacles and not disposed of for at least 72 hours, the theoretical life span of the Ebola virus, Wiest said.
“There’s a strict audit trail for every soldier,” O’Connor said.
The fence is as much to keep people from wandering in as wandering out, said Col. Jeffrey Murray, commander of the 16th Sustainment Brigade, which is running the operation.
“A lot of people have asked that — is this prison?” Murray said at the town hall.
“Anyone who has signs or symptoms, their room is quarantined” until tests confirm whether the soldier has Ebola or some other illness, such as malaria, which is common in West Africa, or the flu, Col. Peter Kubas of the 30th Medical Brigade said at the town hall.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health of Rhineland Palatinate told Stars and Stripes that U.S. military officials contacted German health officials in early November and said they would work together to ensure the safety of the Americans and the citizens of Baumholder.
O’Connor said his team is “anxious to get these soldiers home in time for the holidays and get them processed through before Christmas.
“We’re very confident that we’ve done everything that we’ve been asked to do. We’re prepared to respond and agile enough to respond to any changes that come at us.”
At least one outside expert seems to agree.
“A World Health Organization doctor was in the area last week,” Kubas said at the town hall. “We were speaking with him, and he looked at us and he said, ‘What you guys are doing here is absolutely overkill.’ ”
Stars and Stripes reporter Marcus Klöckner contributed to this report.
