The 3,000 U.S. troops who will deploy to West Africa to help contain the Ebola epidemic will not have direct exposure to patients infected with the potentially deadly virus, a top defense official said Friday.

"We're clear-eyed about the risk that we're incurring in standing up this mission down in Liberia," said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby. "There's no intention right now that [service members] will be interacting with patients or in areas where they would necessarily come into contact with patients."

U.S. troops "will be kept in locations where they can do their jobs without coming into contact with patients," Kirby said.

On Thursday, a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane arrived in Liberia and seven military personnel began assessing the capacity of the runways at Roberts International Airport outside the capital of Monrovia.

That followed Wednesday's arrival of the mission's commander, Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, chief of U.S. Army forces in Africa, and his 12-person assessment team, Kirby said.

This weekend, two additional C-17s will arrive in Liberia along with about 45 more U.S. military personnel, who will begin establishing the command headquarters.

The U.S. military's mission will focus on the logistics underlying the massive effort to treat those who are stricken with the deadly virus. U.S. troops will help train civilian medical personnel, build 17 new 100-bed treatment centers and provide logistical support to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is coordinating the international aid operation.

Officials have not identified the specific units that are deploying to West Africa. One defense official said the current civilian-led efforts to contain the virus are lacking large-scale airlift capabilities, which the U.S. military could provide.

The combined death toll for the five nations affected by the Ebola outbreak totals more than 5,300 cases and 2,630 deaths.

In total, the military operation will involve about 3,000 troops and up to $1 billion from the Pentagon budget and will last about six months, Kirby said.

U.S. troops will receive protective gear and specialized training to avoid contracting Ebola.

"We're going to train. We're going to equip them the best we can. You can never eliminate risk in a military operation. You deal with it. … and the men and women who sign up and serve in the military understand that when they do," Kirby said.

"And I can tell you that should any of our troops fall ill, we're going to do everything we can to make them better, and to get them back to the treatment that they need."

Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. He is a former Military Times Pentagon reporter and served as a Middle East correspondent for the Stars and Stripes. Before covering the military, he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle in Texas, the Albany Times Union in New York and The Associated Press in Milwaukee.

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