U.S. Soldier in Virus Quarantine: ‘Prisoners Receive Better Care’

This sad story does not surprise me at all. Until some senior officers get caught up in this it will likely continue.

[COLOR=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]His second tour in Afghanistan over, Henry Chinaski stepped off a plane on Sunday not into the waiting arms of his family, but the U.S. Army. Along with three other soldiers in a 15-by-15 foot room he likens to a prison cell, Chinaski has spent the past three days in quarantine as a precautionary measure against the [/COLOR]coronavirus[COLOR=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)].


[/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]Except Chinaski and his fellow soldiers aren’t tested for COVID-19. Medics come by once a day, take their temperatures, and move on. Until Tuesday, they weren’t even allowed to leave their room at Fort Bliss — not to exercise or even just enjoy a gulp of fresh El Paso air after the crucible of Afghanistan. They get two meals a day, two bottles of water, one bathroom between them and no further information about what they’re supposed to do during their 14-day stay in quarantine.

[/COLOR]
[COLOR=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]“This is the most dysfunctional Army operation I’ve ever seen in nearly 17 years of service,” Chinaski tells The Daily Beast via text. (Henry Chinaski, as [/COLOR]fans of Charles Bukowski[COLOR=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)] will have spotted, is a pseudonym. The Daily Beast has independently verified his identity.)

***

[/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]“Prisoners receive better care and conditions than that which we are experiencing at Fort Bliss,” said Chinaski. “The Army was not prepared, nor equipped to deal with this quarantine instruction and it has been implemented very poorly.”

[/COLOR]
[COLOR=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]According to Chinaski, he’s one of 169 soldiers and Defense Department civilian employees quarantined at Bliss. They’re active-duty soldiers and reservists deployed to various Mideast combat zones for tours of six months to a year. Neither he nor anyone on his flight home displayed Coronavirus symptoms, though the world is learning that is no guarantee. [/COLOR]