Photo By Master Sgt. Jim Greenhill | Army Gen. Frank Grass, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, is briefed by Army Maj....... read more read more
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LATHAM, N.Y. - Gen. Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau, will speak to veterans and members of the Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation 95th annual reunion Saturday evening at the Desmond Hotel.
Grass, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the highest ranking National Guard officer in the nation, will speak about the service of the New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004 and 2005.
Grass will be available to speak with reporters before the formal dinner address.
The Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation was established in 1919 by World War I veterans of the 42nd Infantry Division. Today, the organization includes World War II veterans of the division and descendents and family members of the division's World War I and World War II veterans and veterans of the divisions Cold War and Iraq or Afghanistan service.
WHAT: Media availability for Capital Region Press.
WHO: Four-star Gen. Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau, along with retired Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto, chairman of the Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation and former division commander and New York State adjutant general, along with veterans of the 42nd Infantry Division Headquarters and their family members.
WHEN: 5:45 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 6.
WHERE: Desmond Hotel, 660 Albany Shaker Road, Latham, NY.
Media Opportunity:
Interviews with Grass and Taluto. Interviews with Capital Region veterans of the 42nd Infantry Division in their full dress uniforms as they gather for the formal reunion banquet.
Background:
The 2014 reunion of the Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation is the 95th annual event to mark the contributions of 42nd Infantry Division Soldiers in both World Wars, the Cold War, and the nation's Iraq War for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In June 2014, the division veteran's foundation memorialized the service of Rainbow Division citizen-Soldiers with a plaque marking their mobilization site at Fort Drum, New York. A similar marker will be placed in September at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
These memorial plaques two join others at Garden City, New York. to commemorate the division's organization there for World War I at Camp Mills and Camp Gruber in Braggs, Oklahoma, where the division reorganized for World War II.
More than 300 local area citizen-Soldiers of the New York National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division mobilized in Troy, New York in late May of 2004. The troops trained at Fort Drum, New York through the summer and fall to prepare for their deployment to Iraq as the head of a task force with more than 23,000 Soldiers.
The task force included two active duty combat brigades from the 3rd Infantry Division, the Tennessee National Guard's 278th Regimental Combat Team, Idaho National Guard's 116th Armored Cavalry Brigade, along with the base elements of the Rainbow Division, including the division artillery, engineer brigade, aviation brigade and division support command.
A video of Task Force Liberty accomplishments during their tour in Iraq can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmEgZ-F80FA
The chairman of the foundation, Taluto, is the former adjutant general of the New York National Guard and past commander of the 42nd Infantry Division, including the division's combat deployment to Iraq in 2005.
Today, the 42nd Infantry Division serves as part of the New York Army National Guard, based in Troy, New York. The division headquarters overseas the training and preparations for combat or disaster response of some 14,000 Soldiers across five states, including New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The 42nd Infantry Division in Operation Iraqi Freedom
The 42nd Infantry Division Headquarters, based in Troy, New York, mobilized for deployment in May 2004. It conducted its predeployment training at Fort Drum along with other division base units through the fall. The division base included some 3,000 Soldiers from the New York Army National Guard, New Jersey Army National Guard, Massachusetts Army National Guard and select augmentees from the active Army.
Initial units at Fort Drum or Fort Dix in 2004 included New York's 42nd Infantry Division Headquarters, the 42nd Aviation and Engineer Brigade Headquarters, the 642nd Division Aviation Support Battalion, the 642nd Military Intelligence Battalion, 42nd Division Band and 42nd Rear Operations Cell; Massachusetts' 42nd Division Artillery Headquarters, the 42nd Military Police Company, Battery E (Target Acquisition), 101st Field Artillery, and 272nd Chemical Company; New Jersey's Division Support Command Headquarters, the 1st Battalion, 150th General Aviation Support Battalion, and 50th Main Support Battalion, the 250th Signal Battalion; and Rhode Island's 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment.
The 42nd Division Soldiers provided the command and control, logistics and operational base for four maneuver brigades operating in north central Iraq.
The division base, after conducting predeployment training through the summer of 2004, received its combat brigades and formed Task Force Liberty with the addition of the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, the Idaho Army National Guard's 116th Cavalry Brigade and the 1st and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.
Together, more than 23,000 Soldiers served as Task Force Liberty February through November 2005.
The 42nd Infantry Division Headquarters helped establish the conditions for the successful Iraqi-led constitutional referendum vote in October 2005.
Throughout the summer and fall of 2005, Task Force Liberty Soldiers of the 42nd Infantry Division and 42nd Engineer Brigade also initiated the process of base closures in north central Iraq, beginning the transfer of bases to Iraqi control. By November 2005, nine Forward Operating Bases in North Central Iraq closed or transferred to Iraqi army control. The tenth facility, Forward Operating Base Danger, the former presidential compound in Tikrit, transferred to Iraqi control on Nov. 22, 2005.
Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation
The Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to commemorating the deeds, sacrifices and traditions of the 42nd Infantry (Rainbow) Division through memorials, education and the preservation of the history of the division.
Two other such Rainbow Division memorials exist in Garden City, New York to commemorate the unit's birthplace and deployment preparations for World War I. The other is located at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, marking the site of the 42nd Infantry Division's mobilization for WWII. These memorials recognize the sacrifices of Rainbow Division Soldiers and their families from generation to generation.
| Date Taken: | 09.04.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.04.2014 13:22 |
| Story ID: | 141138 |
| Location: | LATHAM, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 100 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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