Pentagon limits service members’ travel

The Pentagon on Friday night announced new domestic travel restrictions for service members and their families to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, saying in a memo that virtually all trips must be put on hold through May 11.

The prohibitions, which go into effect Monday, could affect hundreds of thousands of service members, civilian employees and their dependents in the United States and its territories.

“All DoD military personnel will stop movement while this memorandum is in effect,” said the memo, signed by Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist. “In addition, DoD civilian personnel and DoD family members, whose transportation is government-funded, will also stop movement.”

The policy will apply to transfers known as permanent changes of station and temporary training assignments. In addition, Defense Department units will bring on new people only if they already live within the local commuting area, and service members are authorized to take leave only within local areas, the memo said.

A handful of exceptions are allowed and must be granted in writing for “compelling cases,” Norquist wrote. Those exceptions must be essential to the U.S. military’s mission, necessary for humanitarian reasons or warranted because of extreme hardship, the memo said.

Approvals for such waivers must be granted by one of a handful of senior defense officials, including the four-star officers in charge of regional geographic combatant commands, the service secretaries or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley.

“These exceptions are to be done on a case-by-case basis, shall be limited in number, and shall be coordinated between the gaining and losing organizations, as appropriate,” the memo said.