Soldiers would have supported effort against Ebola

MINNEAPOLIS — Members of the Minnesota National Guard won’t be going to Liberia as planned to help the U.S. military’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Soldiers from the Rosemount-based 34th Red Bull Infantry Division were supposed to go to Liberia this year in support of Operation United Assistance. But late Saturday, Guard spokesman Col. Kevin Olson released a statement saying the plan had changed.

Olson said the division has informed the nearly 300 soldiers preparing for the mission “that they will not be required to support the effort to contain the Ebola virus disease in West Africa.”

The Guard announced in November that nearly 700 members of the 34th Red Bull would be deployed to Liberia in April for a six-month period, but that mission was later reduced to nearly 300 soldiers.

No soldiers from the Albert Lea unit were affected.

The U.S. military has sent about 3,000 troops to West Africa to build treatment centers, though the outbreak started to subside before the first U.S. centers were completed. The disease has killed at least 8,675 people in the region.

The Minnesota mission was intended to support humanitarian relief and not the direct treatment of Ebola patients.

Minnesota Guard members had undergone their initial training, which included making sure they had the proper immunization, were cleared medically and that their paperwork was in order, Olson said. If the mission had gone through, the Minnesota soldiers would have gone through extensive training.