LATHAM-- Members of the Army and Air National Guard, New York Naval Militia and the New York Guard participate in the Joint Staff Training Course at Joint Forces Headquarters on Wednesday, May 20.

Seventy-five New York military force members are now certified by Northern Command to conduct joint operations.

The Army and Air National Guard, New York Naval Militia and New York Guard members completed an eight-month on-line and resident course training, culminating with a two-day face to face joint staff training exercise on May 20 at the Latham, NY headquarters.

The Joint Staff Training Course enables participants to better execute domestic operations and work with local first responders in a Joint Task Force.

Joint Task Force staffs will practice these newly trained skills during a large scale disaster preparedness exercise called Vigilant Guard later this year. The November exercise in Buffalo, will enable the Joint Task Force to oversee roughly 2,000 members of the National Guard, New York state and local first responders and provide a full range of flexible and adaptable, command and control capabilities for emergency response operations in order to protect, defend and assist the citizens of New York State.