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CONTACT: Eric Durr, 518-429-5186, eric.d.durr.nfg@mail.mil
FOR RELEASE: Sunday, Mar 22, 2015

56 Capital Region-based National Guard Soldiers hold Guantanamo Bay deployment ceremony Sunday

TROY, N.Y. (03/21/2015)(readMedia)-- Fifty-six New York Army National Guard Soldiers slated to deploy to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba in April will hold a deployment ceremony on Sunday morning, March 22, at the Glenmore Road Armory.

The Soldiers are members of the 42nd Infantry Division and will serve as members of the headquarters element for Joint Task Force Guantanamo. The task force headquarters personnel provide administrative support to to the joint task force. They will not be directly involved in detainee operations.

WHO: Fifty-six members of the 42nd Infantry Division and their families.

WHAT: A formal deployment ceremony marking the detachment's mobilization and deployment. The Soldiers will train at Fort Bliss before deploying to Guantanamo Bay. They are expected to be gone for 10 months.

WHEN: 11 a.m. Sunday, March 22, 2015.

WHERE: New York State Armory, 137 Glenmore Road, Troy, NY

For Access to this secure military facility members of the press should contact CPT Vincton at 716-534-4755.

Coverage Opportunities

Reporters will be able to cover the formal deployment ceremony and speak to members of the 42nd Infantry Division about their mission.

BACKGROUND

The 42nd Infantry Division is a headquarters unit whose personnel are trained to exercise mission command over three to five brigade elements of 3,000 to 5,000 Soldiers.

The officers and non-commissioned officers taking part in the Joint Task Force Guantanamo mission will serve in personnel management, operations, and logistics positions as part of the Joint Task Force headquarters staff. They will serve alongside Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel of both the reserve components and Active military.

Other members of the detachment will work in the Staff Judge Advocates Office and support the Office of Military Commissions.

This is the fourth time New York Army National Guard Soldiers have deployed to serve as part of Joint Task Force Guantanamo.

50 Soldiers of the 102nd Military Police Battalion from Auburn, New York are currently serving at Guantanamo and are expected to return home this summer. They mobilized in July 2014.

The 138th Public Affairs Detachment deployed to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base from August 2012 to July 2013. These eight Soldiers produced the Joint Task Force Guantanamo publication "The Wire" and assisted the task force public affairs officer.

In June 2011 the 107th Military Police Company from Utica mobilized 170 Soldiers who served at Guantanamo Bay for ten months. The Soldiers provided the outer ring of security around the prisoner detention facility.

New York Army National Guard Brig. General James Lettko, since retired, served as deputy commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo in 2011-2012.

About 40 Airmen from the 106th Civil Engineering Squadron deployed in 2010 for a traditional two-week training cycle at Guantanamo Bay, worked to support earthquake relief efforts in Haiti for Operation Unified Response by providing repairs and maintenance for roads and other infrastructure.

The 42nd Infantry Division has training oversight of the New York National Guard's 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade and the 369th Sustainment Brigade. The division also has training responsibility for National Guard brigades in New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The division served as a key National Guard headquarters during the state's response to Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Irene in 2011.

In 2004 and 2005 the division headquarters deployed to Tikrit, Iraq where Major General Joseph Taluto was responsible for more than 20,000 U.S. Army Soldiers in four brigades in three Iraqi Provinces.

The division was first organized during World War I when National Guard units from 26 states were brought together to deploy to France as quickly as possible. Then Col. Douglas McArthur, who was the division's chief of staff and later a commander said the unit stretched across America "like a rainbow." This gave the division its nickname as the Rainbow Division.

In World War II, 42nd Infantry Division Soldiers freed inmates at the Dachau Concentration camp.

Read more about this unit's training here: http://www.army.mil/article/144108/New_York_National_Guard_Soldiers_train_for_Guantanamo_Bay_mission/

© NYS DMNA Press Release:56 Capital Region-based National Guard Soldiers hold Guantanamo Bay deployment ceremony Sunday
URL: https://dmna.ny.gov/pressroom/?id=1427130223
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Page Last Modified: Mar 23, 2015