CONTACT: Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg (518) 786-4581

FOR RELEASE: Saturday, Oct 27, 2007

Members of the N.Y. National Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division began their deployment to Egypt this past weekend as the first 50 Soldiers departed Albany as part of the U.S. Central Command Bright Star Exercise. Bright Star is a multinational joint training exercise intended to expand military to military relations with partner nations across the Middle East and the world. Citizen Soldiers from the 42nd Infantry Division culminate months of planning and preparations as members of the division headquarters and special troops battalion deploy to Cairo, Egypt in early November for the unit’s annual training in support of the U.S. Central Command’s Bright Star exercise. The balance of the unit’s 150 deploying members will depart from Troy for Egypt this coming weekend. The training exercise is scheduled to continue through November 19 when the troops will redeploy home to New York. The 42nd Infantry Division will provide a command and control headquarters for the Army Forces employed in a battle simulation exercise. The computer-model wargame will place the senior leaders and staff of the Troy, N.Y. unit in command of more than 110,000 coalition forces during notional battles that will train and rehearse tactics, techniques and procedures for the U.S. Army Central Command and U.S. Central Command commanders and staff. The exercise will mark the largest sized combat force the 42nd Division headquarters and staff have managed for any training event. The battle simulation will include counterterrorism, consequence management, Humanitarian Assistance, counterinsurgency and conventional operations for the Rainbow Division leadership and staff. The training is supported by the Joint Warfighting Center, the military’s proponent for cost-effective, forward-thinking combat multiplier for joint warfare. The Bright Star deployment involves more than a dozen participating nations, including Egypt, the United States, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Jordan, the United Kingdom, Kuwait and Pakistan. Training and preparation for the overseas annual training began nearly one year ago when the division began mission planning and coordination with Egyptian training authorities and military planners from Central Command. In the spring of 2007, the 42nd Division hosted its Egyptian and partner nation’s military leaders in New York City for a Bright Star training conference. The Rainbow Division, as the 42nd Infantry is known in the Army, will also train alongside partners from the Egyptian Army. Egyptian Armored Division senior staff will work alongside their U.S. partners in the division’s tactical command post. The training exercise will conclude with a senior leader seminar for the division’s commander, Brig. Gen. Paul Genereux, who will participate with Egyptian and coalition partners in reviewing lessons learned from the Command Post Exercise, Psychological Operations, Consequence Management, Evolution of Warfare (Cold War to the present). Members of the Rainbow Division Headquarters, including Genereux, deployed to Iraq in 2005 as the combat headquarters for the Multinational Division for North Central Iraq. The unit, organized as Task Force Liberty, operated from Tikrit, Iraq and worked to support the developing Iraqi security forces and assist in the successful Iraqi national referendum for their constitution on October 15, 2005. The unit redeployed and demobilized in the late autumn of 2005. The training is expected to be completed by November 19 with Soldiers from the division redeploying home on or about November 21. For additional information contact the DMNA public affairs office at (518) 786-4581.