So there's a lot going on in the community and I think if we face the very consistent threat, we could come up with one policy and say hey, let's go do this for the next two months, but as we can see day to day, I will tell you been every morning I wake up and I have to check email to see what came out of Washington DC last night to see what's the latest guidance, but I'll tell you you've gotta give great credit where credit is do. AFP C, A one Air Staff is providing some phenomenal guidance, which is speaking right to where airmen are most concerned PCS season Stop Move leaves student dependent travel. There's all these events that are going on, but at the. Time we wake up in the morning and by lunch, we're trying to figure out okay. So how are we interfacing? How are we engaging with the local community? say what are the latest and if you haven't had a chance to go out and see the English translation of Chancellor Merkel speech two nights ago, it's well worth your time to understand what's going on in the German population in their mind, and it's actually helping us drive our decisions here at Ramstein Air Base in the Foreign installations in the KMC for how we are addressing the threat that seemed by the local community. Cover 19 does not discriminate. It's not looking at your passport to say what does it say on the front? it's affecting the entire human race and it's time for us to treat it as such, but there's so many things going on that. we've got to be able to address them line by line and as a result if you haven't stop by the Ramstein Web page and seeing the daily or perhaps hourly updates of everything that's open close current policies procedures. It is the definitive source for what we're doing at Ramstein airbase in the basis that we own here in the KMC for the things that we have to do some things you'll see here soon. Changes to basic dignities and operating hours now, I will tell you you know there's a huge population of course on Ram sign. If you come to Nogales like we're at now, it's pretty quiet out here. You can hear the birds trip and not a lot of traffic but at Ramstein, it's gonna be slightly different cuz we've got steady state operations that have to continue so most units are splitting their shifts or reducing Manning lots of telework going on to kinda protect our force and keep people from having a you know Report for duty. also customer service functions there by appointment only surgeon. Situations you can get that to the commanders point there on some policy, you know. we're really really pleased to see that so lots of changes stop moves imposed a lot of different problems for various people, but one in particular that we had even thought about was fitness testing you know and for airmen, for example, senior airman you know they they gotta have a current fit test by March and you know our fact or fitness testing centers are closed down so they're AFP, C, has pushed out some great policies to help us deal with that. you know if you were doing March now, you're not due until September and you can submit some waivers for promotion eligibility. So we're real pleased to see some. Stuff come together locally. This is near and dear to my heart cuz on Wednesday our Ben our younger son got kicked out of his dorm room. He was told he had told Monday to get all this stuff out of his dorm room. I don't care where you go. You just can't stay here so very emotional for for us here in the August family as well and of course, the issues that we're having especially with the EU closing its borders in the way. Germany is restricting the flow of passengers makes this very very emotional for many parents. What we can tell you for the guidance right now as we think and think is the key word. A sentence that the guidance is there that are are students are allowed back into the country of Germany. If they have an ID card, they have a sofa stamp in their passport. They have a set of orders their parents orders, which shows that there are assigned here in Germany and then a copy of parents ID cards. But what we're seeing across the board is this is not 100 percent enforce. Not everybody understands these exemptions. What would advise parents to do is give the embassy? To work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make sure we have some definitive answers for our students so we can bring these kids back home and reunite some families back here in Germany. That's the student dependent travel. One. A big question is how do you make that decision right? What was the timing decision? And when will you reopen? Yeah? how long does it last? Yeah well so the simple answer. I think is that we trust our local community. You know for about 18 months since the commander and I arrived, we spent a lot of time with local mayors. We spent a lot of time building trust in a relationship with our local leadership. I will tell you that we are very comfortable with the fact that we've been in lockstep with what our local community leaders have done something that isn't lost on us is about 80 percent of our of our force. Both spouses, children and military members, contractors etcetera. They reside off base so we can't simply focus on what's happening inside of our installation. You know many of the people that we care about and we're responsible to take care of our living in the villages and communities so know that we are absolutely gonna be in love. Step with our local community would be a very rare circumstance where you'll see Ramstein or actions taken at Volga Capone that are not in step with what our local government is doing as we look at the idea, though, as well yesterday was the first day for virtual classrooms. my two high schoolers reported that it was a success that the teachers are working hard and I've gotta give a shout out to the teachers. There are some folks that are going above and beyond. they realized some folks. we've got some students that are stranded back in the state, so they're recording their. Instructions so those kids still get their education. They're working with the new technology. We've never done this before. but if you've got some feedback, please let us know we work daily with Dodie to make sure we get the absolute best for our kids and like we said last week we won our virtual classrooms to be as effective as our physical classrooms hanging their parents. I know that's gotta be tough. so let's talk about this from a medical perspective as well this morning and I know one of the common questions has been about testing for covered 19 and basically who gets it. You know how can they get it? Alright so. First of all, it's a clinical decision to test somebody if they have symptoms that are consistent with code, which is usually fever lower respiratory symptoms like cough and shortness of breath. those are the big things. It's also important to remember that you you have to when you test you have to make sure that you're testing for something that you can actually test for and I say this in regards to the test actually requires a certain amount of viral load. so you need so much virus in your blood in order to detect it. We don't want people running around with a full sense of. If they get a negative test that doesn't actually indicate that they are negative afterwards, so we have to be mindful about who we test in why we test them if they, if people have questions or concerns they can always call the coveted hotline and that's from Monday through Friday at 730 to to 1630 and medical staff will look at yet and and make a determination on whether or not they think you need testing or not. I know we've said it before, but just to reiterate what about people showing up at the clinic is that a good idea. So ultimately we wanna. Try to keep sick people from mixing and commingling with not sick people and so ideally calling first is the best way to make a determination of if we think we need to see you or whether it's just the the better part of Valor is to let you go home and stay there. It's a lot like social distancing and if you get sick, stay home so that you don't spread it to other people. There are a lot of jobs that can tell the work and so we've been pretty clear on the military front. This is what's authorized this is what's capable, but really a lot of. We're asking questions because it definitely applies this Evans for US. Evans stop by take a look at our webpage. Look at the policy letter that I signed, which is very clear on what's allowed for US civilians were following OPM guidance, but there is lots of options for telework. The one thing that was sort of authority issue is okay. So I've got small kids at home, No CDC's no schools. There's even allowances now for even if you have to supervise children at home, there are still many telework options. Available now for the local National side, there's been some questions that have come up with. you're right. How do I fix it fix it H Vac system. How do I take care of the electrical system at the base? How do I do those telework for for many of our LS and their specialized skill set their continuity of decades of experience working with us? There aren't that many options and of course, the legal challenges are also significant. This is an ongoing discussion with the works councils with our two group commanders who are primarily affected for both mission support and CEO, and of course the wing as well. We're gonna work on some options. And more to follow next week for Ellen's for telemarketing. You know as airmen are our responsibility is to execute the mission and to project combat power from where we live and so that really is kind of our posture. The mission must continue humanitarian support disaster relief that's something that we're critical in terms of airlift and requirements that that's what we do for a living is airman and so we are mission essential. At this point. We'll continue to operate in the in the ways that we need to do to execute the mission, but we're not gonna use the term mission essential. If we say those types of terms, it actually triggers sort and legal things we start to think about see. EA moving snow so we can get roads open or in the case of wind cutting down and removing 90 tons of trees. We need to give the base a chance to recover to do something else. We're not in that status. We're doing right now. so the best way to look at it is we're covered Manning. We're protecting our combat capability. We're making sure folks stay healthy. We are preserving our strength for the missions that we know are coming in. they're happening daily yesterday. I'm very proud to say that the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force. A true airlift mission headed down to Morocco to grab a bunch of Americans somewhere folks that were stuck down there for African Lion. Some were just Department of State and US citizens that needed to move before Morocco completely closes its borders to air traffic. and when you start to think about what that means, where did they come to they came to Ramstein airbase, They came to the mobility hub that gateway to the world. As we balance our coveted 19 response, we will continue to engage on this gateway to the world mission, and if you start thinking about humanitarian assistance, disaster relief the deployment of medical forces. To areas that are in need of folks are gonna look to those big great aircraft with US flags on the tail. That's our mission. That's what we do every day we partner with AMC. We do it organically so we are mission critical all the time we're focusing on that mission set and we're proud to show that even as of yesterday, folks are leaning on the base to do what we do best. Yep. There's been substantial changes at the clinic with us as the chief eluded to a single point entry and that's to keep both our staff and our patients safe so that we like I said earlier, kinda keep the sick people away from the healthy people to avoid. Each other they're so we have the hotline, which I talked about specifically earlier. We also have the Covered clinic where we've got an area separately set aside for those that are really that we really think are truly positive or potentially positive and we put them in a separate area with increase precautions to protect everybody and the good news is you know if we end up testing somebody the results are coming back quicker than they were previously because previously we had to send it back to the States practically to get the confirmation and nowadays we can do. Usually less than 20 - four hours depending on how fast we need the the results back, which is great. The good news is that AFP C I'll tell you you know in 20 - eight years doing this business. I've never seen them be more proactive in terms of pushing out guidance and so we're doing the best job we can of pushing those my purse guides out you know via all sorts of media. Whether it's Facebook email you name it that way. not just the military members will see this, but the spouses and family members will have an opportunity to read and review what some of those changes may. In particular with PCS, the immediate action is a roses are being adjusted to 30 to 60 days, and then what that will do, of course is give people a little bit of stability, but the next question remains will then what because there are people that are already supposed to leave you could be leaving in 30 to 60 days. so all of these questions we Fed back into the APC system and what I'm really pleased to see is those folks are they're working around the clock and they've got a real servant leader mentality to make sure that they had. All of these concerns that our airmen rightfully have to make sure that we're getting to the best outcomes. I can't promise you that this isn't gonna be inconvenient. It already is you know and it'll continue to be and I think that will be in this posture and airmen and families are gonna be affected for six to eight to nine months. It just really depends on how long we're hunker down here and unable to peace. Cbs back to Conan. But the good news is is that your local leadership teams supervisors commanders and then the broader AFP C system is working over. To make sure that we account for all your needs best advice I could give you if you're listening and you're thinking well, I have they thought about you know fill in the blank elevate that up through your leadership chain and make sure that we're tracking your unique situation. so we can input that into the system and you know they they may not right and so we can't make assumptions right now that that folks know what's on your mind. Please give us your feedback and allows to work those issues for you. Yeah, this is near and dear to everybody's heart cuz all four of us in front of microphones. today. This affects every single one of us whether it's retirement retraining just defrosting out and peace. So we're tracking this as closely as everybody else for Savannah, please pay attention to it, CPO saying for both inbound and outbound and for military as well. If you have a specific case, please work with your squadron leadership. There are a few exceptions that are posted as of last night for household good shipment and and PCS please work with your squat and leadership. There's some things I can do. There's some things that your squat or leadership can do, but we are all gonna have to realize that if you take six months worth of PCS in and try to cram it in. Months At some point, the air force is gonna have to prioritize they're gonna deliver additional guidance. Let's give the air force a little bit of time to work through this, I need to get through Cove in 19 first. One question that has come up a lot is how do I deep clean like that's deeply has been the the the phrase today and there's a difference between cleaning and disinfecting so cleaning is you know, generally removing the dust and the dirt. If you're trying to disinfect you actually trying to wipe out the virus so you're trying to take away the germs and so there's usually chemicals that are involved with doing a disinfection or a you know when you take off the virus and the EPA and the CDC both have excellent links on how to clean at your home like I said. There's no such thing as deep cleaning, but really the cleaning has to do with how Active you are in cleaning all of the surfaces that you don't normally think about cleaning like your door handles and your and your knobs on your on your sink and those in those things we will make sure that the EPA with the link with the list of items that are kind of been approved that they can kill covered the Corona virus. we'll be up on the Rim Sign webpage link so just remember this is like cleaning for a cold or a flu. What would you normally do for that? and you just wanna be more proactive on doing that? There's why are we doing things differently and then really plain English is realize that 20 first TSC the the Army senior officer here in Germany. The Garrison and the wing have three different areas of responsibility when the 20 -first TSE Commander signs a piece of paper, giving direction or orders realize that covers Greece, Romania, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. If the Garrison Commander signed something and says, here's some of the things that you're doing. He's thinking all the way up to bomb holder down to permissions all the way out through K Town through Mesa and when the 80 - six Wing Commander when I signed something, I'm thinking Portugal, I'm thinking Spain. I'm thinking Belgium and I'm Installations here in the KMC and so does that look different to everybody? Yup because we're looking at the world through different lenses and that's okay. We also have to realize this gateway to the world Mission is really forcing us to continue to project our combat power. We definitely need to show our resiliency and our capability that while this enemy that we're facing this non-discriminatory viruses out there, we still have a military mission. We're still forward deployed in service of our National security interest, and we've got a mission that we have to accomplish. We've got to stay focused on that mission set as well, which is forcing us to look at the world through different lenses as well. Will you see differences? I promise you will continue to see differences between the two organizations if your name tapes as United States Air Force, you are a family member or married to somebody Who's name tapes as United States Air Force. Your paycheck is signed by the United States. Air Force Go by the USAF Connect App. Select Ramstein Air Base Go by the Ramstein Facebook page and the Ramstein Web page to see what the latest guidance is. Much like we're not talking about Army HR isms. We're talking about AFP C, There's gonna be all sorts of things that they're gonna wanna know and that includes what's going on right here at Ramstein Air Base Get way to the world Ben I would like to add here's one thing that is common and I think we probably all agree a policy never fix the problem right. I never really solved any problems. It's about the implementation and really my message to everybody who is you know listening to us on the air. now how you implement measures that you know if you don't know what the measures are to be safe, then you're really just not paying attention. Right cuz everybody is talking about this so despite leadership policy implementation is what's gonna really get after making sure that we stay safe. So as I drive around our installations, large congregations of children, not a good idea right make sure that you are tuned in. you're paying attention. you have to take care of yourself. You've gotta take care of your loved ones and that is every one of our individual responsibility. So I know that standardization is great. I know we love guidance. I know we love policy but right now roll out. Be safe Follow the guidelines you've been given and that's the best course of action. Any single one of us can take and please keep these questions coming. We're gonna keep coming on the air with the chief and I are gonna continue to do town halls. We're gonna get the information out as it rolls out. but if you want the blow by blow stop by the online medium and that's where we're keeping our things most up to date. as the chief said, You know, we're not gonna solve anything up and wing headquarters building as an installation perspective by issuing another piece of paper, it comes down to every person's responsibility to stay healthy, but just as important, it's time it's time to lead. It's time to take care of each other and it's time to be prepared. Hey, we're proud of your teammates. Thanks for all you're doing out there to continue to get the job done. continue to take care of one another as a community. I've seen everybody come together to combat the issues that we're facing so keep leading on gentlemen. Thanks for being here this morning. Thanks Ben Thanks for having us definitely a pleasure.