WASHINGTON — The number of troops needed to support U.S. military efforts to help contain the Ebola epidemic in West Africa will be less than first estimated, about 3,000 service members instead of the initial 4,000, Defense Department officials said Wednesday.
Speaking with Pentagon reporters via Skype from the Liberian capital of Monrovia, Army Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, 101st Airborne Division commander, said U.S. responders initially underestimated the resources already in Liberia and personnel with the U.S. Agency for International Development also had made more progress in the response than expected.
"Our target is 3,000," Volesky said.
About 2,200 service members are now in Liberia and Senegal participating in Operation United Assistance, he said.
Those troops have established a port operations and logistics center in Dakar, Senegal, built a hospital to treat health care workers in Monrovia and have stood up a joint Ebola treatment facility, with "three or four" more to come in the next few weeks, Volesky said.
He expects all 17 planned Ebola treatment facilities to be completed in December.
The number of Ebola cases has dropped in Liberia but the disease remains a threat, with cases increasing elsewhere in the region, Volesky said.
In related news, 26 sailors, including 15 Seabees with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133, are expected to arrive back from a West Africa deployment at Joint Base Langely-Eustis, Va., on Thursday afternoon.
There, they will undergo a 21 day-quarantine, according to Navy spokesman Lt. Timothy Hawkins.
The Seabees arrived in Africa between Sept. 23 and Oct. 8 and participated in conducting site surveys for hospitals, building storage units, training facilities for healthcare workers and other engineering work.
The other sailors are medical personnel serving with Marines who provided logistical and transport support, and one Navy medical center research technician.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Oct. 29 ordered all U.S. military service members returning from the Ebola response mission to undergo "controlled monitoring" for 21 days.
The order resulted from a recommendation by the Joint Chiefs that all deploying troops be quarantined when they return home, although that protocol is far more restrictive than Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for travelers from West Africa and health care workers who treated Ebola patients.
Still, defense officials describe the move as prudent, given the "scope and scale" of the mission.
"We have the youngest and largest population of personnel deploying to this crisis," Marine Corps Maj. Gen. James Lariviere told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday. "We decided to take this conservative approach. It's not that we know something everyone else does not."
According to the Pentagon, service members in isolation will be monitored for symptoms of Ebola, including fever, for 21 days. They will be sequestered at Fort Hood or Fort Bliss in Texas; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; or Joint Base Langley-Eustis.
Contributing: Army Times reporter Lance Bacon
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