April 27, 2020
FOB Westbrook, NM

I’ve known since last summer that I would be spending this summer in Honduras with the Army Reserves.  I was supposed to have left weeks ago, but this whole global pandemic thing is cramping everyone’s style.  They finally decided to move me to Texas where the original plan was to spend a week of in-processing before flying to Honduras where I would quarantine.  There is an old Army adage that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.  Indeed.

Getting to El Paso was easy enough, though American Airlines has conveniently decided that the pandemic gives them as excuse to have no food or beverage service.  Spokane Airport had no concessions open, but a reasonably motivated person can get a burger and beer at DFW.  Formations of Texas State Police meet every incoming flight and you are forced to show evidence of a plan to quarantine for fourteen days if coming from out of state, though military get waived right through.  There’s a reason for that.

After an extraordinarily convoluted process, they finally put about twenty of us on a bus to we didn’t know where.  About two hours later, half of which was on washboard dirt road, we arrived at our home where we will quarantine for fourteen days:  Forward Operating Base (FOB) Westbrook, in New Mexico.

We are required to spend fourteen days in two Quonset huts and one shower/latrine building. White engineer tape defines an approximate ½ acre area we are not supposed to leave.  White engineer tape is magical to the Army.  I’ve seen it define well-built (if imaginary) bunkers that would protect against all form of (imaginary) incoming fire, and now a perimeter that defies escape.

Twice a day someone comes by to ask a long list of questions about symptoms (this morning abbreviated to “Do you have any symptoms?”) and check our temperature. 

There are nine of us to each Quonset hut, curiously co-ed, which is a little awkward.  We are allowed 90 minutes of escape from our engineer tape each day to a small patch of desert where were can run.  Decent soft bunks, efficient HVAC, and slow (but reliable) wireless.  Meals are dropped at a pallet and you know you’re eating haut cuisine when it is served on a pallet!

The food is not as bad as described by some.  Breakfast and dinner are “hot” and we get an MRE for lunch.  The hot meals are UGR-As, which are standard hot meals served in the field.  Bags of food that are boiled, augmented by fresh local produce.  Honestly, not as bad as it sounds.  There is a way to order food from off post and, if you pay by credit card, the cadre here will get the food to you.

You can also do phone orders with the PX with delivery 24 hours later.  Laundry (free) is on a 48-hour turnaround.   There is very good communication with an Engagement Team that addresses issues as they come up.  They are honestly trying to make this the least bad they can.

Each Cohort is quarantined together.  We’re Cohort 29, baby!  Curiously, anyone who has been out of state, even for a day, has to quarantine.  An NCO in my building went TDY to Ft. Leavenworth for two days and now has to quarantine here for fourteen after returning.

We don’t have to be in uniform, and we don’t really have to shave if we don’t want to.  Nobody asks anything of us save to stay within our perimeter and answer symptom questions twice per day.

The biggest negative is that there is nothing to do here inside our engineer tape-defined compound.  There is no shade outside and no one wants to sit in the hot sun, so we just hang out on our bunk.

This is to be my life for two weeks.  I’m told that if we fly commercial to Honduras we can expect another fourteen-day quarantine there.  Then another upon return later this summer.

Anyone who has spent time in the Rotational Unit Bivouac Area at NTC (Ft. Irwin) will feel right at home here on FOB Westbrook.

Damn the diabolic engineer tape!  We are discussing tunneling out.

Bunks look closely spaced, but only every other one is occupied.

Any symptoms?  Note the no-touch thermometer.

Ah, dinner al fresco.

They send us plenty of condiments, so long as you like things spicy.  They’re also pretty generous with extra stuff –  notice 54 cartons of milk at breakfast for 18 people.