Military Moms Serving at Home and Overseas
New York Army National Guard Warrant Officer Priscilla Burnah from Waterford, N.Y., is a deployed military mom with eight years total service, five in the New York Air National Guard and three with the New York Army National Guard. She is originally from Plattsburgh, N.Y. She is a human resources technician and is serving as the assistant personnel officer and public affairs officer for the 427th Brigade Support Battalion, Logistics Task Force for Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix VII in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her son Ryan M. Burnah, 18, is graduating on May 10 from LaSalle Institute in Troy. He has been in LaSalle’s Reserve Officer’s Training Corps program throughout and is captain in the Cadet Corps, and is also a eucharistic minister for the Roman Catholic Church. Ryan is joining the 109 AW in Scotia, he will be part of the 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron as a flight medic. When he graduates high school in May, Ryan will attend basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas and then his technical school will follow. Upon completion, he will be attending college full time as a pre-med major. Priscilla is a single parent, with two children, Ryan 18 and Melina 6. Melina’s elementary school class is preparing to support her mom by sending donations of school supplies, clothing and other items that can be distributed to Afghan children. Warrant Officer Burnah is full-time Guard Soldier assigned to the Human Resources Office at the Division of Military and Naval Affairs in Latham, where she supervises other Human Resources personnel. Her mother, Maj. Judith Sorrell-Lynch retired after 20 years as a nurse in the Army Reserve, based out of Malone. Her brother is 1st Sgt. Shawn Burnah, U.S. Army, and serves at the Airborne School in Fort Benning, GA. (U.S. Army photo by Lt. Col. Paul Fanning)
The commander of New York State’s military forces extends Mother’s Day greetings this weekend to the more than 500 military mothers currently serving in the New York Army and Air National Guard.
“Those who put on the uniform of our country show tremendous self-sacrifice and service to others,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Taluto, the adjutant general for the state of New York. “I can think of no better group of military women more deserving of our military family’s praise than those serving women who balance their careers as Soldiers or Airmen and mothers for their children. They are heroes in their families, in their communities and deserve that recognition across our great state and our nation,” Taluto said.
The New York National Guard currently has more than 2,200 women serving in uniform as part of the Army and Air National Guard, the reserve components part-time community military force that serves New York state in times of disaster or the nation in times of war. More than 500 of these service women are caregivers for dependents.
In just the past two years, some 651 women in the New York Army National Guard have mobilized and deployed for support to operations in Iraq or Afghanistan. This number does not include the women serving with Air National Guard units for shorter-term deployments overseas with Air Force expeditionary forces. Members of every New York Air National Guard element have deployed forces for these in the same timeframe.
In Afghanistan, 130 women are currently deployed with the New York Army National Guard’s 27th Brigade Combat Team. The unit is leading Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix in Kabul, overseeing the training and mentoring of Afghan national army forces.
Mothers serving with the National Guard task force include Soldiers from upstate New York, including Capt. Lynn Currier from Malta, Warrant Officer Priscilla Burnah from Waterford, and Staff Sgt. Linda Nosbisch from Lancaster and Staff Sgt. Katherine Quinones from Rochester.
“The National Guard is family,” said Taluto. “We enlist individual Soldiers and Airmen, but we retain entire families. Recognizing that this weekend, mothers will be on duty with the National Guard in the service to their state and nation reminds us all how truly special these women and their families are.”
New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Linda Nosbisch, from Lancaster, N.Y., is a military mom currently serving with Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix in Kabul Afghanistan. Nobisch has 10 years of military service as a Chaplain Assistant. She supervises all the chaplain assistants for the task force. Her oldest son is Senior Airman Daniel Nosbisch, on active duty at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., assigned to a Security Forces squadron. He has 4.5 years of service and will be deploying for his third time sometime next month to the United Arab Emirates. He has already served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her younger son is Airman 1st Class Brian Nosbisch, serving in the New York Air National Guard. He finished basic training and is in his technical school to be a fire fighter he will be stationed with the 107th Air Wing at Niagara Falls Air Base. (U.S. Army photo/Lt. Col. Fanning)
DVIDS
By Eric Durr
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