Turning Artillery into MPs, Page 3
2-108th Ready for Iraq, Pages 12-13
Volume 12, Number 1
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Permit #3071 Syracuse, NY
January-February 2004
More Out the Door in 2004
By Lt. Col. Paul Fanning Guard Times Staff
JOINT FORCES HEADQUARTERS, LATHAM
H
undreds of troops from New York’s Army and Air National Guard from across the state are undergoing alert, mobilization and deployment for Operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom as the new-year begins. Infantrymen from the 1st Battalion, 108th Infantry in Buffalo, engineers and maintenance troops of the 204 t hEngineer Battalion and 133rd Maintenance Company from the Hudson Valley and Southern tier, aviators from the 1st Battalion 142n d Aviation Intermediate Maintenance from Rochester, Airmen and women from aerial port teams of the 109t h Airlift Wing and others mobilized for active duty in the US and overseas. Following months of training, the 2nd Battalion 108t h Infantry with engineer, artillery forward observers and medical support personnel – nearly 800 soldiers in all, deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom late in February in the first federal deployment of NY Army National Guard infantry since World War II. This “all-New York” battalion includes soldiers from New York City, the Hudson Valley, the Capital District, the Adirondack North Country, Central New York, Rochester and Buffalo. And the history-making developments keep coming. Late in February, at a gathering of NY Army National Guard officers at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, Lt. Gen. Roger Schultz,
the Director of the Army National Guard from National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon announced the likely spring activation of the Headquarters 42n d Infantry Division plus hundreds of other NY-based Rainbow Division troops for Operation Iraqi Freedom – not the NATO Peacekeeping Mission that the 42n d had long been preparing for. The activation will likely affect as many as 1200 Rainbow Division troops statewide. The division headquarters will command up to three National Guard maneuver brigades from other states with augmentation and support by NY-based Rainbow Division brigades headquarters like the Long Island-based aviation brigade and the Buffalobased engineer brigade. Troops assigned to Task Force Empire Shield operating from Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn continue to perform State Active Duty security missions at the rail stations in New York City and at the state’s four nuclear power sites in support of the civil authorities. Air Wings of New York’s Air National Guard continue to press forward with Air Expeditionary Deployments and missions such as the 109 t h Airlift Wing’s continued support to the National Science Foundation in Antarctica, ongoing homeland defense operations by the Northeast Air Defense Sector out of Rome, refueling missions by the 107t h Air Refueling Wing from Niagara and the 105t h Airlift Wing from Newburgh continues its strategic airlift support to military operations around the world.
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment's Company B board their aircraft for movement to their Fort Hood mobilization station. The troops join nearly seven hundred other Orion Soldiers who deployed this winter to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. Story on page 3.
Air Guard Recognizes Unit Heroes, Page 10