Hi, I’m Paul Darley, and thanks for turning into our April issue of Inside Darley.
Our first attachment is the spring-summer issue of our Darley Times newsletter, be sure to download that and check it out. The newsletter is filled with new products and feature articles on customers and employees and some of the things we are doing to serve our customers and society in general.
This month’s Inside Darley issue is focused on the defense market and our growing defense business. If you stick around at the end of this video, we have an interview with our board member General Ray Palumbo. He is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. He has served on our board of directors since 2018. Before joining our board of directors, he served on our defensive advisory board. In the United States government, he served as the deputy undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and served as a director of intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). He’s a West Point grad with a master’s from the war college, he’s one of the most amazing patriots I’ve ever met. He has been a great advisor, and I think you’ll be struck by his humility.
He’s going to talk about the next two attachments, the first of which is President Biden’s Interim National Security Strategic Guidance Advice. As well as a memo put out by Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd to all of our defense employees on March 4th. The memo talks about three basic key initiatives.
The first initiative is to defend our nation, not only from potential enemies but any threat, such as the coronavirus and other pandemics, as well as climate control and how we are using innovation to address those.
The second initiative is taking care of our people within the Department of Defense, growing talent, and verifying they have accountable leadership.
Lastly is succeeding through teamwork, not only within the department of defense but also with our allies. Including talking about working with first responders at state, federal, and local levels; so some great stuff there.
Our Defense Division continues to grow. We are hiring a lot of folks. We probably have twenty-five openings available on our website for new contract positions to help fulfill new contracts. If you know people who are great team players, who work hard, and have grit, send them our way. We’ve got some great opportunities here.
Over the past weekend, I finally took some time to clear out my father’s office. He died just three years ago this month. In doing so, I came across documents from when we did business during World War 2. You might be aware, but our company received the Army Navy E award for excellence during wartime production three times during world war two when we built hundreds of fire trucks and thousands of pumps for the United States military.
We received over a thousand bump orders from different fire truck builders Mack, Maxim, Oren, Central Fire Trucks in St Lous, and Minnesota fire equipment. The average price of a front-mounted pump in those days was about three hundred and fifty dollars.
You’ll also see the attached letter from the undersecretary of war Robert Patterson at the time congratulating our employees at Chippewa Falls on that accomplishment.
On March 4th, in Chicago, at our headquarters in Itasca, we had the former acting secretary of defense Chris Miller come and visit us that was neat. As a business, we’ve been serving the army and navy for years. The next attachment is a publication put out by the Navy Fire and Emergency News. It’s called What’s Happening. They have a great article on Darley on pages four and five written by Tim Shand called titled “Back in the Day.” I would also call your attention to pages one and two, which I think are more important and significant. It’s a feature on the very first black fire chief in America. His name was Chief Patrick Raymond, he was a chief in Cambridge Massachusetts and he was involved in the great fire of Boston in 1872; some great history.
We have roots in Boston, and Boston’s a great customer of ours, all of their frontline pumpers are Darley pumps. The Fire Department Safety Officer’s Association (FDSOA) was originally from there.
On May 19th and 20th, Darley will be hosting a virtual meeting along with FAMA, so check that out. You can register for only fifty dollars.
Speaking of Boston, the NFPA is located there, and our May issue of Inside Darley will feature an interview with the NFPA president, Jim Pauley, so be sure to check that out.
If there’s anything we can be doing to support you, we hope you reach out to us.
