ALBANY, NY — On March 7, 2020, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed Executive Order 202 declaring a state of emergency for the state of New York. Within days, military forces in the state mobilized to respond to the pandemic with the deployment of 270 servicemembers from the New York Army National Guard and Air National Guard to New Rochelle in Westchester County—the location of the first outbreak in the state—where they provided community services.
In the subsequent 24 months, New York State Operation COVID-19 (OPCOV19) would become the largest—by length of mission, volume of deployed soldiers and diversity of missions—domestic mobilization in US history and an example for mobilizations in the future.
In an article published in JAMA Health Forum, Kai Ruggeri, PhD, a former specialist in the New York Guard and current officer candidate in the U.S Air Force (New York Air National Guard) and colleagues with New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, New York Army National Guard, and New York Air National Guard detailed the COVID-19 contributions of military forces.1
The article aimed to demonstrate the role of the military in planning, supporting and leading the most extensive public health in U.S. history at the state level, the authors wrote.
“New York is particularly important to highlight, as it had arguably the earliest and longest overall involvement in dealing with the pandemic, mobilizing more than 7,000 soldiers across the state,” they wrote. “To put that into context, New York state has a population of approximately 19.5 million; countries such as Germany (83.2 million) and China (1.4 billion) initially committed 10 000 military personnel to supporting COVID-19 operations before expanding later.”
Under civilian direction of New York state and coordinated by New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, those 7,000 soldiers provided critical services, including distributing personal protective equipment, delivering food, providing testing and vaccination, recovering the deceased, cleaning and disinfecting and establishing and operating drive-through testing sites, mobile testing sites and airport health screenings. At nursing homes, New York military forces (NYMF) provided staffing and medical support, ranging from direct testing to full-time labor backfill.
“Servicemembers were on duty during holidays, lockdowns, overnight shifts and miserable cold winter nights directing parking lot traffic to keep the testing/vaccination sites running,” said Ruggeri, who is an assistant professor of health policy and management at Columbia University School of Public Health, “Soldiers were helping thousands of people each day get in and out of vaccination sites rapidly”.
“Many of us even started having drills start again while we were on orders or, when those weren’t possible, doing training on Zoom in free time on the weekends,” Ruggeri continued. “I was extremely proud to be part of that operation, especially my own unit.”
Ruggeri said he wrote the article as a way to make use of his skills in a way that benefited the mission and to recognize the incredible impact/sacrifice of so many on mission. “It was meant to inform the public—which was hugely supported by leadership—about what was happening as well as give some validation for soldiers/airmen/women who would go on to apply for jobs later the sorts of impacts they had,” he said. “We made it clear that every servicemember that was on COVID orders for even one day in the state can claim credit for the publication.”
- Ruggeri K, Palacios K, Perkins ZA, Fay TT, Perez J, Stump WP 3rd, Cooley C, Razack J, Tomlinson A, Spohr RT, Cosme M, Crudden R, Jani P, Carr A, Lefton A. Role of Military Forces in the New York State Response to COVID-19. JAMA Health Forum. 2022 Aug 5;3(8):e222136. doi: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.2136. PMID: 36218979.
