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CONTACT: Col. Richard Goldenberg, 518-786-4581
FOR RELEASE: Friday, Aug 14, 2015

New York Army National Guard's 'Harlem Hellfighters' head for Annual Training

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (08/14/2015)(readMedia)-- More than 625 New York Army National Guard Soldiers of the 369th Sustainment Brigade, famous as the "Harlem Hellfighters," conduct their annual training at Fort Drum, New York this weekend.

The two-week training period will focus on battle staff training for the brigade headquarters and the individual and collective skills of the brigade subordinate units.

Participating in the annual training will be the 369th Sustainment Brigade Headquarters and Support Battalion, based at the Harlem Armory in New York City, the 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion based in Yonkers with its subordinate companies from Poughkeepsie and Orangeburg, and the 187th Signal Company from Farmingdale.

Battle staff training will prepare the 369th Headquarters Company, staff and leadership to direct the logistics needed to request, receive, store, transit and deliver critical Soldiers needs on a battlefield.

Events will include battle command system training, command post setup and a five-day culminating exercise focused on supporting a notional Army combat division conducting operations that require staff planning and implementation of a logistics support plan.

Soldiers will focus on the physical setup of the command post, its communication infrastructure, support and power generation.

Staff and Soldiers will be immersed in the Army Command Post of the Future (CPOF) and Battle Command Sustainment Support System training for operators.

These command and control systems provide the 369th Headquarters with improved visibility to track in-transit movement of supplies, providing logistics support such as fuel, ammunition, replacement vehicles or weapons systems, medical supplies, food and water for Soldiers on a battlefield.

This year's training prepares the brigade for a 2016 Warfighter exercise that will evaluate and validate the unit leadership and staff capability to execute logistics battle drills.

Soldiers from across the 369th Sustainment Brigade have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and been involved in several recent joint exercises in Africa. During the state response to Superstorm Sandy in November 2012, the 369th Sustainment Brigade played a key role in delivering relief supplies across New York City and helped sustain a National Guard response force that saw some 5,000 troops assisting New Yorkers in the storm's aftermath.

The 369th Sustainment Brigade was originally organized as the 15th Regiment of the New York National Guard in 1915 as a unit for African American Soldiers in a segregated Army. When the 15th New York was federalized in 1917 and sent to France the unit was renumbered as the 369th Infantry Regiment.

The 369th, which is the subject of the recent Max Brooks graphic Novel "The Harlem Hell Fighters" served more than six months on the front lines during World War I, sustained 1,500 casualties, and its soldiers received 171 Legion of Honor or Croix de Guerre awards from the French government.

Albany native Henry Johnson who became famous for defeating a German patrol during an engagement in May 1918, was a member of the 369th. President Obama awarded Johnson the Medal of Honor for those actions in June 2015. New York Army National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Louis Wilson, the senior enlisted soldier for the New York National Guard, received the award on behalf of the regiment.

© NYS DMNA Press Release:New York Army National Guard's 'Harlem Hellfighters' head for Annual Training
URL: https://dmna.ny.gov/pressroom/?id=1439576155
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Page Last Modified: Aug 14, 2015