Lt. Col. John Motszko, commander of the 16th Sustainment Brigade's Special Troops Battalion, takes reporters on a tour of the U.S. Army's ''controlled monitoring facility'' in Baumholder, Germany, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014. The facility, if approved by German authorities, will be used to monitor personnel returning from Ebola response efforts for 21 days. Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)
BAUMHOLDER, Germany — The U.S. Army’s monitoring facility in Germany is ready to receive personnel returning from the Pentagon’s Ebola mission in Africa, but it’s not clear when — or if — the complex will open for business.
The Army is “still awaiting approval from the German government,” Col. Scott Murray, commander of the unit running the facility, said at a press event Friday. “So no decision has been made to bring our servicemembers here.”
The Army showed the facility in Baumholder to about a dozen reporters Friday, most representing German media. Army officials said the complex, which will be used to house and monitor soldiers for signs of Ebola, would host only the lowest-risk personnel for 21 days — the maximum incubation period for the disease.
Those who come here will have had no known exposure to Ebola and no symptoms of the disease, officials said. Most personnel expected to come here work in logistics and administrative jobs that have them setting up tents and laboratories that will be used to treat Ebola patients. None would have had any direct contact with Ebola patients, officials said.
Any servicemember who develops suspected Ebola symptoms while at Baumholder will be evacuated immediately to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for testing.
The U.S. Defense Department’s monitoring effort is being undertaken out of an abundance of caution “to give confidence to the community and the families that we’re doing everything we can to take care of their health,” Murray said.
Whether German authorities allow the Army to go ahead with its plan is up in the air.
Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Defense Department spokesman, named Baumholder as a monitoring site on Nov. 7, though military officials said at the time that was dependent on host nation approval. Workers at Baumholder began work at the site about Nov. 1, an Army official said.
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman, reached Friday, declined to comment on the Germans’ stand on approving the Americans’ plans.
Some U.S. troops returning from West Africa have already gone through the three-week monitoring in seclusion at Caserme Del Din in Vicenza, Italy.
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