DVIDS:

In early 2020, as COVID-19 spread rapidly across the globe, no cases had yet been reported in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. To protect the islands, the Marshallese government suspended all incoming international travel, Feb. 26, 2020, which affected U.S. personnel coming to work on the U.S. Army Garrison-Kwajalein Atoll and the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.

This decision presented significant challenges for the RTS team of U.S. Army Soldiers, civilians and contractors charged with supporting the Missile Defense Agency’s Flight Test Missile-44, a crucial, time-sensitive and congressionally mandated test designed to evaluate the feasibility of the U.S. Navy’s Standard Missile-3 Block IIA’s capability to defeat an intercontinental ballistic missile threat.

Life on Kwaj Gets Difficult –
Many of the 1,500 U.S. personnel living and working on Kwaj serve a one-year remote tour, which typically ends at the start of each calendar year. Although a significant number of personnel were permitted to return to the U.S. when their tours ended, their replacements were denied entry. This led to a shortage of about 450 personnel at the base, about 30% below normal requirements. It also threatened to delay FTM-44 beyond its 2020 mandate, placing pressure on garrison and USASMDC leadership to figure out how to get staff on the island to conduct the flight test and how to maintain the base’s day-to-day functions.

The Army’s Role –
USAG-KA, a subordinate of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command, and RTS worked closely to prioritize who would come on the island and in what order. However, this only occurred once an agreement was negotiated with the Marshallese government, which was not a guarantee at the time…

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