When a wildfire tears through a forest, attention immediately focuses on the negative—how many acres burned, the impact on the environment, and above all the tragic loss of life. What rarely goes noted, however, is the critical benefit wildfires provide. In many respects, wildfires are the most effective way for many ecosystems to rid themselves of the overgrowth that strangles out and prevents new plant life from thriving. If the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is a wildfire, the Department of Defense's bureaucracy is the forest.