AP FACT CHECK: Trump distorts military role in vaccines

WASHINGTON (AP) — From the get-go, President Donald Trump has miscast or exaggerated the military's role in his administration's crash program to accelerate the development, production and eventual distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

The military theme originated in the May 15 announcement of the creation of Operation Warp Speed. Speaking from the Rose Garden, Trump likened the effort to the Manhattan Project, the military's successful World War II program to engineer and build in secret the world's first atomic bombs.

“That means the full power and strength of the military,” Trump said, referring to the project as a partnership that would combine the full resources of the Pentagon and the Health and Human Services Department. He added: “We have the mightiest military in the long history of humankind."

Indeed, the military has contributed mightily to the project. It has provided a range of assistance in the form of planning, program management, logistics expertise and other efforts. The accelerated work on COVID-19 vaccines also has benefitted from past investments by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in science and technologies related to infectious diseases.

Army Gen. Gustave Perna was plucked from his job as commander of Army Materiel Command to be the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, and he, too, initially gave the effort a military spin.

“This mission is about defeating the enemy," Perna said at the Rose Garden announcement with Trump. “We will defeat the enemy.”

But it has been Trump, not Perna, who has miscast the military's role. Trump said in his initial announcement the military would “deploy every plane, truck and soldier required" to distribute a vaccine when ready.

Within months he was stating even...