Secretariest per hello, everyone. Im joined by general millie and chairman lopez. Today we want to talk to you about all that d. O. D. Is doing to protect our people, our troop, our families from the coronavirus and what were also doing to support the interagency whole of government efforts to deprotect the American People. First i want to thank all of you for your patience and commitment to the nation in this time of great challenge. Its a time of great challenge as we face the pandemic upon us. I want to reassure you that the administration, the military are taking all necessary measures to protect our force, to protect our people, to protect our dependents, to protech ore contractors and civilians. Ive made protecting our people our top priority. The second priority ive outlined for the past couple of months has been ensuring our ensuring the safeguarding of our National Mission capabilities. In other words, making sure we can do our mission when called upon to do it. Im confident we can. Third priority is supporting the whole of government effort to protect the American People. D. O. D. Is all in on this. We have deployed thousands of National Guardsmen from all 50 states plus four territories. The army is deploying field hospitals to a couple of major cities. This navy will be soon deploying our medical hospital ships to both los angeles and to new york city. At the same time, our world class researchers at places like fort detrick, maryland are all in with regard to helping with the multisector effort to come one vaccines and therapeutics to help protect the American People from the coronavirus. I would also were also helping in many other ways as well, whether its opening up strategic stock piles of masks and ventilators and other equipment to help the American People. D. O. D. Is fully supporting the whole of governments effort and im proud of what all the folks here at the pentagon and across the force are doing to help the American People. Again this is a great challenge before us but im confidence well get through this and be better off at the end of the day. There are several things we will discuss this morning with regard to how you can do your part and do better in terms of helping protect yourselves and your colleagues and your shipmates and other members of your unit to protect from the coronavirus. Weve talked a good deal about social distancing, about wiping down surfaces and doorknobs and computer keyboards, all those things you can do we also encourage you to follow urge you to follow the c. D. C. Guidance with troords safe distancing practices and the president s 15day guidance with regard to standing down, avoiding large gatherings. At the end of the day, given all the different scenarios and factors each one of you and us face i trust our commanders and senior enlisted personnel to do the right thing, particular to your units, your situation and your mission. Well talk about this in more detail but its up to the commanders and n. C. O. s to make the right calls to ensure we protect our people while at the same time maintaining Mission Readiness. Ill turn it over to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general millie. This is a difficult time for the nation but like all things in the past im confident, fully confident, well come through this and well be stronger on the back end. Thank you all very much. General millie thanks, secretary, for those words. We look forward to the questions from the family members and troops out there but let me say a couple of things up front. First of all, this is not the first challenge the United States has ever faced. This is not the first war weve ever been nesm president of the United States said were at war this time with an invisible enemy, a war called a virus. We, the United States military, will do our part to protect the American People and pr pro tect our force at the same time and continue with our other regular missions we do to protect the American People. The one thing i would say that is critically important here i think, theres a lot of anxiety, a lot of uncertainty on everything from who what do we do in formation and what distance to maintain. A lot of information is put out by the c. D. C. And through chains of command. The president put out his 15 days, etc. What we need to mike sure all of us collectively do is listen cleesely and rely on the chain of closely and rely on the chain of command. Well get through this, care for our troops and keeping focus on the mission. Well do that so i would encourage everyone to pay close attention to the chains of command, whether in europe or asia or here, wherever you are in the world pay close attention to the chain of command and guidance theyre putting out and adhere to it. Well get through this together and defeat the virus once and for all. On that note id like to turn it over to the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the chairman to the chairman, senior enlisted soldier, sailor, airman, marine in the entire military, Sergeant Major lopez, as you all know hes master chief in the air force. Hes an extraordinary airman of the first class, i turn it over o you. Thank you. I want to reemphasize what our leaders are saying. Our primary mission is to restore peace in time of chaos and this is no different. Our mission is clearly understood and it is a nofail mission. So we need to remain adaptable, versatile and flexible enough to go ahead and dweel this challenge as we are doing right now. But make no mistake, our number one priority is protecting you and your families and that is why were conducting this town hall here today. So at this time, i would like to open up the floor for questions and were here to take them. Excellent, thank you, gentlemen. The first question to the secretary, i welcome the chairman and yourself to chime in, how is the Global Response to covid19 changing our security environment while we has a mill while we as a military remain prepared for the defense of the nation. Secretary esper i am fully confident well remain prepared for our missions. They are taking all precautionary measures to maintain capabilities. Its priority number with two behind priority number one, which is protecting our people and dependents. Im confident well maintain Mission Readiness. As this grows in scale and scope, the sflofede virus, well have to take, be very careful and take prudent measures to ensure we maintain that. It will become more challenging. Im confident if we take the right procedures well do that. With regard to your first question, how does it change the security environment, clearly what we see are countries are turning inward. Theyre looking closely at their own internal affairs how they treat and deal with the coronavirus. Some country have been more affected than others. We have countries such as italy, a close 1kwr58 lie of ours, which probably sthiffered most so far. We have adversaries like iran suffering badly. Prnt to note we have reached out to try to offer them aid and support. Each country is dealing with this differently. We all face a similar challenge. Its just a matter of time before each gets affected. We have the good example of another ally of ours, the republic of korea, who seems to have taken a lot of Smart Measures early and appear to be on the backside of this Coronavirus Spread at this point in time. Mr. Chairman, anything to add on the potential impact to readyness . General milley i think overall for the u. S. Military well have moderate to low levels of readiness impact. The numbers so far, could change, well have to assess it, we are assessing it frequently. Therell be an impact to readiness, i think itll be on the lower end. With respect to the question about the broader security environment, this is affecting Different Countries differently. It depends the level of rigor and robustness of the medical facilities in each country. It could lead to social breakdowns, could lead to political chaos in certain countries. We have to be attuned to that. There could be resource shortages, we see that with masks and gloves and ventilators. Hospital capacity and so on. These can have severe internal consequences that go well beyond the immediate medical issue i think is worthwhile. The other key piece here, and i know that its front and center in everybodys mind is the economic impacts. Which will have secondary security impacts if theres a global recession or global depression, those sorts of things. Im not an expert on the economy. There are effect to all of that its very, very important we do what the professionals are telling us to do which is flatten the curve, take all the appropriate measures for us in the military and also the nation to do our part so to speak, in order to reduce the probability and mitigate the impact of the coronavirus globally and i say this to all the leaders, as the coronavirus hits Different Countries, it may present challenges for us. With allies, we may need to help them with our own supplies, doctors and assistance and may cause them to act out in different ways. We need to be conscience and be on the look out for that as this unfold. We have to deal with the problem in front of us which is taking care of our people. But we have to look beyond that how it may play out and how it may affect our mission. Im in could close coordination. So there is allied and partner effort globally beyond what you are just seeing. The chairman raised a good point about medical supplies how is d. O. D. To take care of its people and does it have enough medical supplies . We have enough that we are able to offer to the Interagency Team masks, gowns and ventilators. Our facilities are fully staffed and have sufficient supplies and medical equipment. We are going to face shortages with regard to some of the p. P. E. Until the private sector industry can pick up the slack. We will be coming out with a policy on elective surgeries that will limit them so we can free up doctors and nurses and medical professionals and will increase the supply. So once the private sector ramps up, we can readjust our policies. We have enough. We want to ensure we are able to help our fellow americans and over time we will continue to manage our medical capabilities. Why are mask form ages still ok if we are social distancing. Why are we having unit formations . On that subject, we have to revert back to the chain of command, the people closest to the troops in the field. We are trusting medical professionals to take the prudent steps to make sure they prevent the spread of the disease. But also we cannot forget there is a Mission Requirement and we expect the sergeants, the captains to make those decisions on the field to maintain our combat effectiveness. We have a mission and that is maintain that mission and maintain that Mission Readiness and includes physical fitness. As i said to the media, you cant get social distancing in a submarine or tank and i have been in both. But you take prudent measures given the situation you are in and given your mission. And we call on commanders to assess their situation and if you can avoid putting a large number of people in small rooms. Hold your meeting outside or meet in small groups. Follow the c. D. C. Guidelines. That is good guidance not only to protect the force and our fellow americans. If you are a young n. C. O. And see something that doesnt make sense, raise it privately and say maybe we should do it differently. Protect one another. Help each other get through this by reminding each others about social distancing and accomplish while accomplishing the same guidelines. Now another question, what do you think about how north come is working with interagency rtners to come pat the covid pandemic. I will turn it over to the chairman. General milley the United States military is structured and we have a chain of command and i want to lay that out for everyone. At the top, you have the president and Vice President is leading this Coronavirus Task force. We have two representatives that interact, the deputy secretary of defense and vice chairman of the joint chiefs. E have a Crisis Management team. And then everyone all the services, et cetera. And north come implements the policy directives that the secretary of defense has put in place so far with the first execute order that went out as much as two months ago. The general, just like we deal with hurricanes and wildfires, the germ has a structure that is stepping up and continuing to stand up and expand, they are linked in with fema. Fema, he team aa has command and control. Commander. They are in charge of the mercy and comfort that are going to various cities. And you have a commander who is in charge of the ground force. A commander who is responsible for transporting. He has a made structure and protect the United States. Coronavirus is his threat and he will do that. He or his team will have a press Conference Today or tomorrow. But he is very squared away. And related to this response effort, are you concerned at all about the spread of disinformation and misinformation specifically with regard to the u. S. Military and more broadly about response efforts. Some people are concerned and scared and anxious and want to dispel bad rumors and we probably have external actors, countries who want to s omp w chaos who are injecting it into the ecosystem. There is no talk of martial law and no talk of mass quarantines of the United States or that other nonsense that is out there. We will set up a page on our at. D. Website that will look what is out there in terms of the rumor mill and answer those and knock them down and keep them possessed and people can refer to that page. If you have ideas, we will have space on that page saying i heard this. In a crisis like this, the most important thing we can do we are putting information out there and transparent to tell everybody what we are doing. But at the same time, knocking down rumors and myths and disinformation, all those things that cause further turn and concern. The nature of coronavirus makes it hard to predict, can you give insight how long this outbreak will last and how long the military is about to address 90 . 30 days, 60, at this point in time, if you look at some of the reporting we have seen, one of the president s closest advisers said looking at how china and korea have contained this virus, looks it has an eight to 10week period from beginning to end. So you are looking probably at least that long. We need to have this be at least. And we are taking precautions. We are going to support the American People and continue to take actions and take care of our own people as long as need be. General milley scientifically and none of us are scientists on coronavirus. All the reports we read indicate what the secretary said. Eight to 10, 12 weeks, call it three months. Based on what we know from china, hong kong, south korea. It may or may not apply to the United States or Different Countries, different circumstances. Well see. Some of it depends on trying to flatten the curve. We in the United States military, we are going to do this as long as the mission takes. Thats what the president has asked and president has asked. The first thing is protecting our people and go to questions. First to the chairman and i welcome anyones input, there is concerned about my moving. Will i get extended, what benefits will be available to offset costs. And stop ley first move for 60 days and it was eight or 10 or the middle of may. And what does that mean . All moves are stopped unless a waiver is granted and exception is granted and has to fall in one of three categories, one, mission essential, second, humanitarian reason and third is undue duress of a particular soldier or family or soldier. The secretary has delegated to that combatant commanders. And they are further delegated o one star or s. E. S. As they see fit. They can determine if it is humanitarian or under duress or hardship. In this particular case, if it is a normal p. C. S. And freeds, hold, completely for 60 daze and reevaluate. If there is a 90day curve and things settling out, we will prioritize the orders moving. If it goes longer. The freeze may go longer. Well see. As far as Household Goods and all the rest of it, that would follow normally once the orders are cut. And there are questions about offsetting the costs. That entitlement is 10 days. We are asking commanders in the field is to go ahead and put members on a waiting transportation status and place them on per diem in order to help them offset the cost. The first course of action for the member to contact their finance office. Specific to the pentagon reservation, how is the long the telework options . Secretary esper it goes back to conditions and telework as long as necessary to make sure we are beyond the crisis if you will. Going back to number one, protecting our people. Its going to be weeks for sure and maybe months and asking every office head and every director, every person in the chain of command to exercise Due Diligence and telework as much as possible and protect our people while performing our mission. People should prepare themselves and adjust their routines and we are doing on the network side to make sure we have adequate band width to support telework. If you are teleworking or doing anything that involves the networks, be very careful of i. T. We are more exposed, using more band width. Ask people to be cautious about getting emails and exercise good computer hygiene because we want to make sure the protection of our networks and system. Thats. You telework, be doubly conscious of teleworking hygiene. Number of folks exposed and taking a number of procedures and precautions. Thats what we are asking the rest of the force to do as well consistent with the Mission Requirements so you kind of protect the forces. We dont live in a riskfree environment. But you can manage and reduce it. A question for rachel to said retirement dates coming up in june, july and august, is there a stop loss on the horizon . And for change over before permanent leave starts . The secretarys policy clearly started retirees, those to be retired are exempt. So for rachel, if you so choose to retire, we thank you for your lifetime of service and retire in good standing. We have one from camp ledge ion, what is your message to stop movement orders . Thank you for serving abroad. It parts additional hardship on the Service Member and the family because you have that separation and we asked them to as you are deployed, practice all these good practices and procedures that we are asking the folks and ask the same ti camp to do the same. And putal halt. But what we have to figure out in the coming days our rotation schedule. His or her marine is on a schedule. We are trying to limit movement and make sure we curtail the spread of the virus by folks going abroad and trying to take all those measures. Hang in there. We have all been deployed and we know what it is like, that separation and appreciate the hardship not having either both parents there or members of the family there. We conscious of that. We are trying to be deliberate and how we might adjust our policies. We have things in place just in case things like this happen. E make sure that are works it seems the department of defense is playing a leadership role in these response efforts. Can you talk me through some of the decisions the mercy deploying in los angeles and some of those efforts that have taken place and may be coming. Ill keep going back to the priorities. Take care of our Service Members and civil quans and families and safeguard our mission capabilities. And number three, we support the whole of government interagency effort that is upon us. Making sure we do number one and two, that frees up capacity to do number three. And territories and the district of columbia are out there on the front lines setting up Treatment Facilities conducting testing and providing food. All those things that are necessary to support the American People. We have our researchers and our scientists in the game helping out. The mercy is deployed to los angeles last night and another in new york city. We are deploying Army Field Hospitals to seattle and new york city. Thats what it looks like right now. We freed up the medical supplies and i anticipate deploying more medical units in the coming days and weeks and we will hop around the country as need arises and will put a demand on our resources. But we think we can manage it and help our fellow americans out whether it is floods, wildfires, hurricanes, we are there to ensure the American People. One final question and turn it to all of you, the question of testing has arisen, are all Service Members who think they need to be tested, do they have access . Tested. Oes need to be get testing, who has to tested, people who are symptom attic. F you are experiencing runny noses, headaches and fever and fever as i have now learned defined as being 100 degrees as higher as opposed to 99 degrees. I think as i read in the news we will see self tests coming out. Tosk but at the same time, if you dont need to be tested, dont get tested. Follow all the c. D. C. Guidelines with regard to best practices and other guidance. I know you all want to griff Closing Remarks to families, when are we going to get through this crisis. I would like to reiterate the fact that uncertainty, nothing new for us. Thats what the military members and families do. We need to take care of one another and make sure we are looking out for our neighbors and those who are deployed, rest assured your families will be taken care of. Stok. I got three messages, to commanders and noncommissioned officers. Number one, take care of your people and take care of family members. Number two, make sure you are ensuring you have capabilities and do our mission and help. And wre will be fully Mission Capable and prepared to do our missions just as we are right now. It is a matter of time but we need everyone to follow these guidelines and help out the chain of command and im fully confident we will be well if not better at the end of the day. Thank you and thank you to the folks at home tuning in. Captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org President Trump will hold a briefing with reporters. We expect Vice President and members of the White House Task force to join the Vice President live at 5 30 eastern here on cspan. Stack stak