CONTACT: Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg, 518-786-4581

FOR RELEASE: Saturday, Jun 13, 2009

WHO:

Members of the New York Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, the Army’s famous “Fighting 69th.”

WHAT:

NEW YORK -- More than 300 Citizen Soldiers from the New York Army National Guard’s historic 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, known throughout the Army and the nation as the “Fighting 69th,” deploy this weekend for their two-week annual training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The battalion will conduct individual, crew and collective unit training at the Fort Knox Zussman Urban Combat Training Center to sharpen their skills in combat operations in urban warfare.

WHEN:

Noon, Saturday June 13, 2009, the battalion Soldiers will depart from their armories.

WHERE:

Soldiers depart from New York State Armories at the following locations: 68 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY (Headquarters and Company A) Media contact on site is Sgt. 1st Class Fernando Gonzalez, 646-424-5551 100 East 5th Street, Huntington, Station, NY (Companies B and D) Media contact on site is Sgt. 1st Class Robert Walsh, 631-424-6890, extension 4 63 Babylon Turnpike, Freeport, NY (Company F, 427th Support Battalion) Media contact on site is Sgt. 1st Class Qiyo Luo, 516-378-3920 Camp Smith Training Site, Cortlandt Manor, NY (Company C) Media contact on site is Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Fisher, 914-788-7319

The NY Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry The 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment traces its heritage back to 1851 when the Second Irish Regiment of the New York State Militia organized. That regiment was combined with others to form the 69th Infantry Regiment, which became a part of the famous Civil War "Irish Brigade." Reportedly the 69th got its nickname as the "Fighting 69th" from Confederate General Robert E. Lee in 1862 in Virginia, when it forced the "Louisiana Tigers" Brigade to retreat. Ironically, the 69th fought alongside the same Louisiana Tigers during its deployment to Iraq when the 69th was part of the brigade, now the 256th Infantry Brigade of the Louisiana Army National Guard. In World War I the 69th was redesignated the 165th Infantry and fought as part of the 42nd Infantry Division, the Rainbow Division, only the second U.S. combat division to arrive in France with the American Expeditionary Force. The author of the poem "Trees," Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, was a scout in the 69th Infantry and died while serving in France. In World War II, the 69th mobilized with the New York National Guard's 27th Infantry Division for service in the Pacific, invading the islands of Makin and Saipan and fighting on Okinawa. In 2004 the battalion mobilized for service in Operation Iraqi Freedom. As part of the 256th Brigade Combat Team, the battalion secured "Route Irish", the road from Baghdad International Airport to downtown Baghdad. At one time this was termed the most dangerous road in Iraq and the 1-69th turned that around in the summer of 2005. In 2008, approximately 300 Soldiers from the battalion volunteered for service in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard’s 27th Brigade Combat Team and Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix, training and mentoring the developing Afghan national army and police. These Soldiers returned in early 2009 and were celebrated in this year’s Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Manhattan. The Zussman Urban Combat Training Center, Fort Knox, Kentucky The Zussman Urban Combat Training Site provides a unique learning center for individual and collective technical and tactical skills supporting a successful urban military deployment. Units with limited training objectives may elect to face a single structure or any mixture of allocated structures. The facility can support four separate company-sized units simultaneously, each with a defined area of operation, or a battalion task force taking on the entire facility. Located a little over 30 miles south of downtown Louisville, the Zussman Urban Combat Training Center, to date, is the government's most realistic and complex military training facility. The 26 acre Center supports mounted, dismounted, special operations and combined force training ranging from urban unrest and operations other than war (such as peace keeping missions and hostage recovery), through to mid-intensity combat.