N.Y. Guard gets major callup for overseas
The largest single deployment of the New York Army National Guard since 2003 will send more than 1,700 soldiers to Afghanistan, according to an announcement Tuesday from the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs.
About 200 members of the 27th Brigade, headquartered in Syracuse but with members across upstate New York, will deploy as early as September for Operation Enduring Freedom. The rest will leave in the following six months to relieve the South Carolina Army National Guard’s 218th Brigade.
Soldiers from the 427th Forward Support Battalion, some of whom live in the Rochester area, are also scheduled to be activated.
About a quarter of the service men and women who will be activated have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan before, said Eric Durr, a spokesman for the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs.
The brigade will serve as embedded teams in Task Force Phoenix VII, which involves training the Afghan army command staff and soldiers in the field. Durr said deployments will last no more than 12 months.
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