WASHINGTON, D.C. – If you have friends or family in the military service, you’re now going to have to wait more than two more months to be reunited with them as the Department of Defense announced it has extended the travel ban on service members.
“Effective today, Secretary Esper approved an extension to the stop move order through June 30 to aid in the further prevention of the spread of COVID-19. While the Department acknowledges that this order will have great impact on our service members and their families who are looking to proceed with their lives, the rapidly changing environment has created significant risks to service members, as the DOD continues personnel movements and travel,” the Department of Defense said. “The decision was made in order to protect U.S. personnel and preserve the operational readiness of our global force. The Department now has procedures in place to allow for additional waivers and the resumption of travel for several categories of travelers that were previously suspended, including deployments.”
All DoD Service members will stop movement, both internationally and domestically, while this memorandum is in effect. All DoD civilian personnel, and dependents of DoD Service members and DoD civilian personnel, whose travel is Government-funded will stop movement, both internationally and domesticall y, while this memorandum is in effect.
Except as provided below, this stop movement applies to all official travel, includingtemporary duty (TOY) travel; Government-funded leave travel; permanent duty travel, including Pern1anent Change of Station (PCS) travel; and travel related to Authorized and Ordered Departures issued by the Department of State. For DoD Service members, it also includes personal leave outside the local area and non-official travel outside the local area. DoD Components may onboard civilian employees within the local commuting area only, and civilian employees whose travel to the local commuting area is not government-funded.
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