Infectious disease training inside
Forgoing combat rifles and body armor, U.S. troops preparing to fight Ebola in Liberia were instead stepping gingerly Thursday into white germ-proof suits and pulling on thick, blue rubber gloves and gas masks.
About 500 soldiers were doing three days of infectious disease training inside a concrete-floored building on Texas' sprawling Fort Hood — getting ready to join as many as 3,900 troops nationwide authorized to go to areas affected by the virus.
Army medical personnel will treat patients who have Ebola while engineers plan to build temporary medical centers. How long they'll be deployed is unclear.
"It feels a bit like the ... tire man, or a marshmallow," trainer John McGuffin joked as a group of Army soldiers tottered about in suits resembling billowy hospital gowns.
Dispatched from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland, McGuffin offered tips on spotting Ebola symptoms, then had troops work in pairs to correctly don protective gear.
"We're going to check each other," McGuffin said. "If we have a tear in the suit, we're going to first remain calm. We're going to remove ourselves from a potentially infectious area, and then we're going to hit everything with disinfectant."