Bidding a Statewide Farewell to the 27th New York Army National Guard Combat Brigade is State’s Largest Single Mobilization of Troops in GWOT Story by Eric Durr, Guard Times Staff HANCOCK FIELD AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Syracuse -- More than 1,400 New York Army National Guard Soldiers bound for Afghanistan bid farewell to friends and family Jan. 16 at deployment ceremonies held across the state. In Syracuse, at a farewell ceremony at the headquarters of the 27th Brigade Combat Team, Gov. Eliot Spitzer praised the Citizen Soldiers and invoked the words of former President and New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt often said that the credit belonged to “the man who was actually in the arena,” Spitzer said. “These men and women have chosen to enter the most difficult and dangerous arena of all,” the governor said. “They have chosen to put their lives and personal safety on the line so their fellow citizens can be protected.” While the Soldiers are deployed the state will watch out for their families, the governor promised. Major General Joseph Taluto, the Adjutant General, urged Soldiers to do their jobs and watch out for each other. “Focus on your mission and never compromise your standards and watch out for each other every day,” Taluto said. Nine ceremonies were held across the state, ranging from 35 Soldiers saying goodbye at the Connecticut Street armory to 130 Soldiers of the 1st Battalion 69th Infantry bidding farewell at Suffolk County Community College Sports Center. Other farewells occurred in Rochester, New York City, Ithaca and at Camp Smith in the Hudson Valley. Colonel Brian Balfe, 27th BCT commander, evoked the history of the brigade and urged his Soldiers to follow in the footsteps of the 27th Division of World War I and II. He also praised the brigade Soldiers for never faltering during the ten-month train-up that brought them to the deployment. “Everything we have done in the 27th and 10
will do here forward will be done as a team,” Balfe said. Staff Sergeant Mathew Storm, a member of the brigade logistics section, who received a coin from Gov. Spitzer, said it was exciting to meet the governor face-to-face and good of him to come see the brigade’s Soldiers off. “It shows he cares about the National Guard.” Storm said. A total of 1,700 New York Army National Guard troops are being deployed for Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix VII in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, making this mission and this deployment the largest in New York since the beginning of the Global War on Terror. Staff Sergeant Arlyn C. Cunningham , 27th BCT Embedded Training Team,
gives his daughter one last good-bye before heading out the door for the Fort Bragg mobilization station. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Peter Towse.
Governor Eliot Spitzer and 27th Brigade Combat Team Commander Col. Brian Balfe cut cake at a ceremony marking the mobilization and deployment of the 27th BCT held Jan. 16 in the Hancock Field hangar. Photo by Staff Sgt. Kevin Abbott.
GUARD TIMES