Pentagon weighs 2 options for lifting troop travel restrictions

Senior Pentagon leaders are weighing two main options for how and when to lift Defense Secretary Mark Esper's freeze on troop movements due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to two defense officials and one former administration official who described the internal deliberations.

Esper wants a department-wide agreement on the conditions required for lifting the freeze before allowing the 2.9 million Defense Department employees, including 1.3 million active-duty troops, to get back to business as usual, according to two defense officials. Conditions could include a change in new Covid-19 cases in a state or country, or the availability of medical facilities to treat anyone who becomes ill.

But the armed services and four-star regional commanders are pushing for more flexibility to lift travel restrictions on their own timelines, according to one of the defense officials and the former administration official. Under this option, the department would provide guidance on conditions appropriate for lifting the freeze, but execution and decision-making authority would be delegated to the services, said the defense official.

The regional commanders want to be the ones to make decisions on travel within their respective regions "and not have to ask the SecDef for everything," said the former official.

The stop-movement that Esper ordered in March is set to expire June 30. Officials say it's possible the order could be lifted before then, but no final decision has been made.

Esper has been criticized for the Pentagon's initial response to the pandemic, and even some Republican lawmakers acknowledged that the department has been left "playing catch-up."

In particular, Esper came under fire for delegating choices over how to slow the virus to local commanders. Several military officials expressed frustration with a lack of top-down guidance on decisions from buying equipment to social distancing.

But in restarting troop movements, Esper wants a "centralized" decision, said the first defense official.

Esper "wants to maintain as much authority and control as possible when deciding who moves and when," said the official, criticizing the approach as "overkill." "He's being highly prescriptive in dictating when people can start moving."

The other defense official denied that there is dissent among the senior leaders over lifting the freeze on troop movement, and pointed out that "some level of agreement" is necessary to move troops between different geographical areas.

"The reality is that when you move someone, the losing and gaining commands have to be on the same page," the official said. "You can’t send someone from [Central Command] to [European Command] if [European Command] is not able to receive them due to local restrictions, and [Central Command] won’t want to send that person if their replacement is not able to deploy.

"There has to be some level of agreement or else people end up in limbo and the pipeline backs up," the official continued. "Everyone inside DoD understands that."

Some commands are already easing certain restrictions. U.S. Forces Korea on Monday decided to change its health protection condition from "Charlie" to "Bravo" effective Wednesday for most areas. This change allows department personnel to dine in restaurants, go shopping and participate in outdoor activities "while maintaining social awareness and wearing a mask when 1-2 meters separation cannot be achieved," according to a statement.

“ROK officials have done an exceptional job in effectively suppressing the spread of COVID-19,” said USFK commander Gen. Robert Abrams. “I have complete confidence that the recent outbreak will be quickly contained and suppressed due to their proactive and aggressive measures taken so far. Our combined efforts to effectively combat this virus have been outstanding and the time is right to lower our HPCON level.”