COVID-19: Air Mobility Ready For Mission Surge, Says Lt. Gen. Thomas

WASHINGTON: Air Mobility Command (AMC) remains ready for increased operational tempo to support COVID-19-related missions, says Deputy Commander Lt.  Gen. Jon Thomas.

“We are postured to support any requirements that come from FEMA through the Department of Defense,” he told reporters in a press briefing this morning.

Up to now, he said, AMC has transported 3.5 million testing swabs in seven air missions, with two more now scheduled through next week, he said.

While most flights to bring Americans home from foreign lands are being contracted by the State Department to commercial aircraft, AMC also is supporting the effort with its military transport fleet, he said. For example, he said, AMC recently brought 86 US citizens back from Colombia and Panama. AMC has repatriated a total of 350 citizens by “gray tail” aircraft since March 19, he added.

Transportation Command’s first mission using civil aircraft to repatriate passengers was slated for yesterday, carrying passengers from Nigeria to Washington Dulles Airport in Virginia. Gen. Stephen Lyons, TRANSCOM chief told reporters on Tuesday that  “another half a dozen efforts” currently are scheduled.

Earlier that day the State Department issued a warning to Americans abroad to act rapidly to make arrangements if they wished to evacuate due to the possibility that commercial airlines may cease operating and the US ability to charter flights might become overwhelmed.

TRANSCOM was given the order last Friday by Defense Secretary Mark Esper to support the State Department’s Repatriation Task Force in contracting commercial airliners and managing traffic flow for evacuations. TRANSCOM oversees commercial carriers participating in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) who can be called on for emergencies.

Thomas said that, in addition to airlifting COVID-19 test swabs, AMC C-130s have flown nine missions carrying equipment and people to Army field hospitals set up in New York City and Washington state.

The command is further readying several of its own bases for possible use as incident support sites for FEMA and for DoD support to civil authorities.

At the request of FEMA, DoD announced today in an email to reporters that, it “will expand its medical support to include COVID-19 positive patients at the Javits Federal Medical Station (FMS) in New York City, the Morial FMS in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Kay Bailey Hutchinson FMS in Dallas, Texas.

“These three DoD-supported locations will now provide support to COVID-19 positive patients in convalescent care, as well as low-acuity patients. These patients, who require a lower level of medical care, must first be screened at a local hospital,” the announcement said.

While Thomas said that AMC has not yet received any requests to use its Transport Isolation System, developed in 2014 during the Ebola outbreak, to carry sick and/or contagious passengers. While air medical evacuation is one of AMC’s core mission, he said that the command could well be challenged if tasked to carry a large number of highly infectious patients both from abroad and across the United States while keeping flight crews safe — especially as so much is unknown about how the virus is transmitted.

Indeed, researchers from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine on April 1 warned the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy that the virus may be airborne, which might explain why it is so contagious. Until this week, global health organizations — including the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization — had believed that the novel strain of coronavirus could only be carried by droplets — that is, from an infected person coughing or sneezing on another person or surface. (The measles are an example of an airborne virus. Simply entering a room where someone with measles sits  can be enough to catch the disease. It is incredibly infectious — up to 90 percent of people exposed become sick unless they have been vaccinated or had the disease before.)

Meanwhile, Thomas said, AMC is working to maintain its readiness for “mission essential” activities, although he wouldn’t go into specifics.

Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein on Wednesday, in a video conference hosted by the Mitchell Institute, said yesterday he has asked all MAJCOM leaders to report on what tasks they considered “mission essential” and which could be curtailed to protect personnel.

While Thomas was light on details, he did say that “there are some pretty clear things” important to AMC, including its role in support of nuclear deterrence and of NORAD in its mission to “maintain sovereign skies over America.”