CONTACT: Mr. Eric Durr (DMNA), 518-786-4581 or (cell) 518-429-5186

FOR RELEASE: Thursday, Apr 30, 2009

Angola resident and combat veteran, Russell Clark, a major in the New York Army National Guard, has been selected to command the 42nd Special Troops Battalion, based in Troy. Clark, who will take command of the battalion in the fall, was selected by a Command Selection Board of National Guard general officers. He is currently an operations officer for the 42nd Infantry Division, which is also headquartered in Troy. Clark is also serving on State Active Duty as executive officer of Joint Task Force Empire Shield, a New York National Guard security force on duty full-time in New York City. Clark, a combat engineer, served in Iraq in 2005 as the Force Protection Officer for the New York Army National Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division and Task Force Liberty, a force of 23,000 Active Army, Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers deployed in northern Iraq. In that role he was responsible for overseeing security measures on a number of Forward Operating Bases scattered across an area the size of West Virginia. After returning from Iraq, Clark also served as a trainer, preparing other Soldiers to deploy. In civilian life Clark is a Department of Corrections drill instructor at Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility in Brocton. The 42nd Special Troops Battalion is comprised of headquarters soldiers and other specialist troops which support the commander of the New York Army National Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division, one of eight National Guard divisions.

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