NY National Guard officer takes on new role in COVID-19 response

[The Patriot]

NEW YORK--The New York Army National Guard is full of Citizen Soldiers who leverage civilian job skills in performing military missions and the statewide pandemic response for COVID-19 is no different in bringing those civilian skills to the fight.New York Army National Guard Lt. Col. Peter Morrissey took command of a training battalion at the National Guard training site at Camp Smith on March 27, 2020. His military job would normally mean scheduling and staffing numerous professional development courses for Soldiers. But 24 hours later, on March 28, was mobilized and ordered to New York City and tasked with supervising the access control at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, a 1.2 million square foot building with 2,500 people coming and going in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.It’s not the job the Army trained him to do, Morrissey said. But for Morrissey, a New York State Trooper in his civilian career, “leadership is leadership,” and only the situation changes, he added.For the next month Morrissey served as the Chief of Physical Security, drawing on his law enforcement skills and interagency support for the alternate care medical station the Army Corps of Engineers erected inside the Javits Center.“A large convention center like this pretty much had all the plans we needed,” Morrissey said, “everything from access badges to where security posts should be, so it was just a matter of hooking up with the personnel here.” The Javits Center already has a physical security plan in place for trade shows or conventions Morrissey said. He just needed to coordinate efforts with Kenneth Dixon, Vice President of Security and Safety Solutions for the Javits Center. But as they soon discovered, there was a lot of uncharted territory to cover.


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