Lt. Col. Mathew Kilgore Takes Command of Utica's 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry

UTICA, NY (01/22/2020) Lt. Col. Mathew Kilgore, a Cornwall resident, and a 2002 graduate of the United States Military Academy took command of the New York Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry during a January 12 ceremony at the battalion's headquarters in Utica.

Kilgore is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has served in the New York Army National Guard since 2008. He has served as a full-time Army National Guard officer since 2009.

Kilgore replaced Lt. Col. Jeffrey Csoka, who is deploying with the New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division to the United States Central Command area in the Middle East.

The 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry is headquartered in Utica and has elements upstate New York in Morrisonville, Gloversville, Leeds, Ogdensburg, and Ithaca.

Kilgore served as the commander of the battalion's Bravo Company in 2012 during a deployment to Afghanistan.

After being commissioned in 2002, Kilgore served as a platoon leader, weapons platoon leader and company executive officers in the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade. He also served in the operations and information operations sections of the 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad.

Since joining the New York Army National Guard, Kilgore has served as an assistant operations officer and company commander in the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry; as the commander of a company in the New York Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention Battalion and as executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry.

Kilgore also serves full-time as the deputy operations officer of the New York Army National Guard's 53rd Troop Command which is located at Camp Smith Training Site in Cortlandt Manor.

Kilgore is a graduate of the Army's Infantry Officer Basic and Captain's Career Courses, the Command and General Staff Officer School, the Advanced Operations Course, Defense Strategy Course, and the Reserve Component National Security Course.

His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, The Meritorious Service Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Afghan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, The Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, The Overseas Service Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, and the NATO Medal, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Parachutist Badge and the Air Assault Badge.

Kilgore and his wife Dawn have two children; Ryan age 15 and Josie, age 13.

The New York National Guard (New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs) is the state's executive agency responsible to the Governor for managing New York's Military Forces, which consists of nearly 20,000 members of the New York Army National Guard, the New York Air National Guard, the New York Naval Militia and the New York Guard.