New York Army Guard Lt. Col. Eric Lindemann, Iraq war veteran, tapped for command of 258th Field Artillery battalion

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (11/02/2018) New York Army National Guard Lt. Col. Marc Lindemann, an Iraq war veteran, took command of the 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery Regiment in a unit ceremony held here October 28.

Lindemann, a Long Island resident with 15 years of military service in the field artillery, replaced Lt. Col. Peter Mehling, who led the battalion since 2015.

The battalion is headquartered at the Jamaica, Queens Armory in New York City, and has artillery batteries in New York City and Newburgh.

The unit provides fire support to the Syracuse-based 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

As part of the change of command ceremony, New York Army National Guard Col. Christopher Cronin, commander of the 27th Brigade, presented Lindemann with the colors of the artillery battalion, symbolically passing the responsibility of command to him in front of his Soldiers.

Lindemann is a graduate of officer candidate school in 2004 and first served on active duty with the Army, deploying in 2005-06 for Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq, as a platoon leader for Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 77th Field Artillery, part of the 4th Infantry Division. He joined the New York National Guard in 2007.

He has held numerous field artillery positions with increasing responsibility, including intelligence officer, operations officer, fire support officer and battalion executive officer for the 258th Field Artillery and most recently as the Maneuver and Operations Chief for the 53rd Digital Liaison Detachment.

Lindemann resides in Miller Place with his wife, Candace, and their four children, Lilah, Marc, Conrad, and Cyrus.

During his time in command, Lt. Col. Mehling led his battalion through deployment to Fort Polk in 2016 at the Joint Readiness Training Center, returning to New York to implement the Army's redesign of the unit.

The battalion reorganized over the past year, increasing the troop strength from 350 to 500 Soldiers, placing new elements at Camp Smith and Peekskill and fielding 18 new howitzers.

The unit traces its lineage back to the Revolutionary War. A predecessor of the 258th Field Artillery was once entrusted with security for General George Washington so the nickname of the unit today is "the Washington Grays." The unit's distinctive unit insignia is based on the Washington family crest for this reason.