New York Army National Guard Soldiers Complete Guantanamo Bay Deployment and return to the United States

FORT BLISS, TEXAS (01/16/2016)(readMedia)-- More than 50 Soldiers from the New York Army National Guard returned to Fort Bliss, Texas, following their ten-month deployment to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba in April 2015.

The troops will conduct demobilization tasks over the coming days before returning home individually to families across New York State.

The Soldiers are members of the 42nd Infantry Division, based in Troy, N.Y. They served as members of the headquarters element for Joint Task Force Guantanamo. The task force headquarters personnel provided administrative support to the joint task force.

They mobilized for federal service back in March 2015.

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 served in personnel management, operations, and logistics positions as part of the Joint Task Force headquarters staff. They served alongside Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel of both the reserve components and Active military.

Other members of the detachment worked in the Staff Judge Advocates Office and supported 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. A fifth unit, the 442nd Military Police Company, based in Jamaica, Queens, mobilized in early January for service at Guantanamo Bay for security missions. That unit is expected back by the end of the year.