Wonder if its because of this report today.....
A woman who had visited a store at a U.S. military base in South Korea has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, prompting U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to raise its risk level to high.
The diagnosis announced Monday marks the first case of coronavirus related to USFK amid an outbreak in South Korea that has infected more than 800 people and prompted President Moon Jae-in to put his country on its
highest possible threat alert level.
“South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention informed United States Forces Korea today that a USFK dependent living in Daegu tested positive for COVID-19, making this the first time a USFK-related individual has tested positive for the virus,” a USFK
news release said Monday.
In the release, USFK said the patient is a 61-year-old woman who visited Camp Walker’s Post Exchange on Feb. 12 and 15.
Camp Walker is in the southeast city of Daegu, which has been the epicenter of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak.
Gen. Robert Abrams, the commander of USFK, added that the woman is the widow of a retired soldier.
US military dependent in South Korea tests positive for coronavirus
This is not an unusual situation at all, that a spouse of a deceased member would be using on base facilities, while living out on the economy. And it presents a huge problem for managing contagion at military bases overseas. (I'll explain-- longish, so roll and scroll if not interested!)
One of the issues that I worry about with the South Korea outbreak is the rather large number of girlfriends and spouses of US service members who are living in SK illegally. (Yes, you read that right-- it's a problem that is seldom discussed openly.)
In the 90s I was a USAF flight nurse, stationed in Japan. Many locations in Korea are "unaccompanied" for lower ranking enlisted personnel (meaning, their spouse and minor children cannot accompany them during that tour). Despite this, many girlfriends and spouses came over anyway (as "tourists", but intending to stay a long time to be with their servicemen BFs and spouses), and ended up living in really appalling conditions off base. There are entire forums now devoted to how to bring your spouse/ GF illegally on an unaccompanied tour-- see Reddit, as an example.
Unaccompanied tour to Korea. Wife wants to come. Got any clues? Need Visa help. : army
Anyway, these women weren't eligible for any kind of on base or off base housing, because they were in the country illegally, and the servicemen couldn't legally rent off base housing for them because they were required to live in enlisted onbase housing (and a big chunk of their pay-- called BAQ-- is taken back for housing if they're on base.)
Most of the housing the women ended up using had no electricity, no running water, and no toilets. Not exactly great conditions, when you think about cleanliness and disease. Some got quite sick (hepatitis, pneumonias, GI infections, other infections, etc), ended up in local hospitals. Their servicemen BFs/ hubbies were distraught asking for military help, and then eventually we would work out the diplomatic details to move the american citizen on a medevac back to the states. Sometimes in revealing the hospitalization, the enlisted member was seriously disciplined for having a GF or spouse illegally in the country.
Anyway, the living conditions were so awful for many of these women that some of the higher ranking spouses started "Hospitality Houses", where these women (nearly all were women and older teens) could come and have a hot meal, a shower, a flush toilet, english conversation, etc. They tried to keep lists of who was in the country, and where they were staying. The women who were not even married to servicemen were in the worst situation, and didn't even have an ID card to be allowed to get on base, use the commissary, BX, medical facilities, etc.
One of our training postures as a medevac unit would have been to evacuate these american citizens if there were serious emergency situations-- which I think about now with the coronavirus outbreak there. These were difficult training situations to work up the chain, diplomatic issues, etc. There isn't even a clear count of how many are there.
Same situation in the Philippines, though the situation there is mostly retired servicemen who married local women. If the serviceman dies, the spouse still has authorization to use base facilities, though they live out on the economy.
So I think about how many US citizens (dependents, retired, etc) are living near military bases outside the country, and wonder how or if we are going to handle that now, with the epidemic/ pandemic. The military bases largely do not have the capability for lots of sick inpatients. A couple asymptomatic people onbase using facilities, in the commissary, BX, etc could expose the entire base to this disease. That affects our readiness posture worldwide. Sobering.
