--- title: Ebola U.S.: Pentagon Says 4,000 Troops Available description: The Pentagon has approved 4,000 troops for a potential deployment to Liberia to help fight the spread of the deadly Ebola outbreak. canonical: https://time.com/3462240/pentagon-4000-troops-ebola/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-03T19:57:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:32.314Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola U.S.: Pentagon Says 4,000 Troops Available og:description: The Pentagon has approved 4,000 troops for a potential deployment to Liberia to help fight the spread of the deadly Ebola outbreak. og:url: https://time.com/3462240/pentagon-4000-troops-ebola/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb399392d1946dd88/6986a70f169ab08fe227b933/john_kirby.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3408 og:image:height: 1917 og:image:alt: Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 23, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola U.S.: Pentagon Says 4,000 Troops Available twitter:description: The Pentagon has approved 4,000 troops for a potential deployment to Liberia to help fight the spread of the deadly Ebola outbreak. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb399392d1946dd88/6986a70f169ab08fe227b933/john_kirby.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. May Send Up to 4,000 Troops to Liberia to Help Contain Ebola > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: How Ebola is Changing Liberia [Watch (HLS stream): How Ebola is Changing Liberia](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bIJG7Y1S.m3u8) (1:35)  _Published 2014-10-01. TIME's Africa bureau chief Aryn Baker discusses everyday life in the densely packed seaside city of Monrovia, amid chlorine, thermometers and rubber boots – key tools in the fight against the Ebola outbreak._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 3, 2014 7:57 PM UTC  Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 23, 2014. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 23, 2014. Bao Dandan—Xinhua Press/Corbis  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 3, 2014 7:57 PM UTC Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved 4,000 troops for potential deployment to Liberia to help fight the spread of the deadly Ebola outbreak, the Pentagon announced Friday. President Barack Obama had [previously announced](http://time.com/3380545/u-s-to-commit-500-million-deploy-3000-troops-in-ebola-fight/) a commitment of 3,000 troops. “As we continue our support to the broader U.S. government response to the Ebola crisis, I want to emphasize that our operations remain focused on four lines of effort: command and control, logistics support, training, and engineering support,” said Pentagon spokesperson Rear Admiral John Kirby at a press conference. While 4,000 troops have been approved, the number that will actually be deployed to West Africa remains unclear. There are currently just over 200 troops working to fight Ebola in the region. “I want to make one thing real clear, that that’s a potential deployment. That doesn’t mean it is going to get to that number,” Kirby said. The United States has already made deep financial commitments to help thwart the Ebola outbreak, committing $500 million to a global effort that the World Health Organization [estimated](http://time.com/3387063/ebola-who/) that would cost $1 billion. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged an additional $50 million toward both immediate treatment and long-term research into the disease, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives in West Africa. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3462240/pentagon-4000-troops-ebola/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3462240/pentagon-4000-troops-ebola/"},"headline":"U.S. May Send Up to 4,000 Troops to Liberia to Help Contain Ebola","datePublished":"2014-10-03T19:57:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:32.314Z","description":"Obama had previously announced a commitment of 3,000 troops","url":"https://time.com/3462240/pentagon-4000-troops-ebola/","keywords":["ebola","World","Pentagon","Chuck Hagel","Infectious Disease","Department of Defense","Liberia"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb399392d1946dd88/6986a70f169ab08fe227b933/john_kirby.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb399392d1946dd88/6986a70f169ab08fe227b933/john_kirby.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 23, 2014.","caption":"Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 23, 2014.","creditText":"Bao Dandan—Xinhua Press/Corbis","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3462240/pentagon-4000-troops-ebola/","name":"U.S. May Send Up to 4,000 Troops to Liberia to Help Contain Ebola"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Ebola is Changing Liberia","description":"TIME's Africa bureau chief Aryn Baker discusses everyday life in the densely packed seaside city of Monrovia, amid chlorine, thermometers and rubber boots – key tools in the fight against the Ebola outbreak.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bIJG7Y1S/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-01T13:28:30.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bIJG7Y1S.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3462240/pentagon-4000-troops-ebola/","duration":"PT1M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3462240/pentagon-4000-troops-ebola/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```