The New York Post shared an article yesterday about ‘Operation Blue Bloods,’ a mission initiated by White House officials to help the NYPD, who are in desperate need of protective equipment at this time. As part of this effort, company executives from Raytheon, Pernod Richard and General Dynamics were called on to help. General Dynamics was able to quickly send 120,000 pairs of gloves to New York to help with the severe shortage of supplies. The gloves, along with supplies sent from the other defense companies, will help give frontline workers the proper protection needed during the Coronavirus outbreak.
The full story is posted below:
White House sends protective gear to NYPD in ‘Operation Blue Bloods’
Ebony Bowden, April 2, 2020
WASHINGTON — White House officials sprung into action on Monday after receiving an “SOS” email from the NYPD begging for protective equipment — delivering the frontline gear just 16 hours later, The Post has learned.
In a mission dubbed “Operation Blue Bloods,” President Donald Trump’s equipment czar Peter Navarro, Assistant to the President for Trade and Manufacturing Policy, cobbled together a rapid-response team including company executives who flew thousands of full-body suits on a private plane the next day.
More than 6,000 gallons of hand sanitizer donated by alcohol company Pernod Ricard were also rushed from Arizona by a USPS trucker in 48 hours.
With a mounting number of bodies left in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, reports have emerged of homicide detectives being forced to make house calls without the correct protective equipment — potentially exposing them to the virus.
A desperate email from NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan asking for gear to protect Big Apple Finest — of whom more than 1,400 have tested positive for COVID-19 — landed in Navarro’s inbox on Monday, he said.
After being named the national Defense Production Act coordinator last week, Navarro called on executives at defense companies Raytheon and General Dynamics, and Pernod Richard, to step up.
With a severe shortage of PPE confronting frontline workers across the nation, the supplies — “described as a game changer” by the NYPD — began arriving within just 16 hours of Monahan’s email plea.
More than 1,750 crime scene Tyvek suits arrived on private Raytheon plane on Tuesday afternoon, while another 2,125 arrived in the early hours of Wednesday — a total of 4,275.
Some 120,000 pairs of gloves from General Dynamics arrived in New York Wednesday, as did the 111 barrels of hand sanitizer donated by Pernod Ricard.
Detectives responding to house calls will now be provided with a kit including a Tyvek suit, gloves, a face shield, N95 mask, shoe covers and disinfectant wipes.
Navarro said the mission was an example of private companies heeding the call during the pandemic which has so far infected more than 216,000 people in the U.S. and killed over 5,100, according to Johns Hopkins University.
“What we’ve been trying to do under President Trump’s leadership is to wed the full force of federal government with the full power of private enterprise,” he said.
“We got an SOS from the NYPD and a huge Trump thanks to General Dynamic’s Phebe Novakovic, Raytheon’s Tom Kennedy, Tara Engel of Pernod Ricard, and Laura Lane of UPS for answering the call.”
“At the White House we love to move in Trump time, which is ‘as soon as possible,’” he added. “We’re not interested in thanks. We just want the people of New York to know the White House is thinking about them and getting it done.”
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