FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas — In the face of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, with confirmed cases on every military installation, Army leaders have taken decisive action aimed at preserving individual soldier readiness and mission focus by declaring public health emergencies, triggering mandatory health-protection directives which local unit-level senior leaders have implemented by disregarding them entirely.

According to anonymous sources within the command staffs of multiple high-level headquarters elements, unit leaders have adopted the viewpoint that due to the mission-essential status of literally every soldier assigned to every unit everywhere (and the field-grade approval authority level for waiving reporting restrictions imposed by higher-level commands), the across-the-board mandates implemented by top installation and major Army commanders do not, in fact, apply to their units or any soldiers assigned to those units.

“The way we’re meeting the commander’s intent while still maintaining a mission and organizational focus is to ensure that our command teams are briefing the individual soldiers on current HPCON (health-protection condition) levels and ensuring that they are given the point of contact for local public health and nurse advice lines, but that they are not to actually call those numbers unless referred there by a primary care provider,” said one anonymous battalion commander with the 1st Cavalry Division.

When asked whether the providers were referring any soldiers for testing, or even seeing any soldiers at all given the current conditions, the official declined to answer other than to maintain that sick-call referrals by company-level medics would continue to be the primary gating mechanism. He did mention in passing that line medics had been instructed not to refer any soldiers to the providers for COVID-19 related concerns.