New York Guard unit gets order for extra training
Dennis Yusko, Times Union
1,400 troops called to Fort Drum for nine days before Afghanistan duty
COLONIE — The New York Army National Guard has summoned more than 1,400 of its soldiers to Fort Drum today an unexpected nine days of extra training before they head to Afghanistan.
The Syracuse-based 27th Brigade Combat Team, which includes at least 200 troops from the Capital Region, will in January become the first Guard unit in the country to be mobilized under a reduced training regimen implemented by the Army this year.
The new model was designed to limit the total active duty tour of Guard members to one year, or two months of training and 10 months abroad. Past Guard mobilizations to Iraq and Afghanistan lasted up to 18 months.
To achieve the new 12-month timetable, the Army brought members of the 27th Brigade to Fort Drum in June and October for six weeks of intensive training at 19 hours a day. It recently decided that wasn’t enough, and today brought most of the unit back to ensure their success and safety in Afghanistan.
The soldiers will sharpen their combat skills through Saturday, Dec. 8.
“Clearly, an additional week of training for citizen soldiers in December will impact families and employers at a most inconvenient time,” said Col. Brian K. Balfe, commander of the 27th Brigade Combat Team. “That said, I ask once more for their understanding and support because our focus is on the mission the nation has given us and our soldiers’ safety. We simply need to ensure that our units and our soldiers have the training they absolutely need to be successful in combat.”
The Guard attributes its late-notice need for additional training mostly to the development of the Army’s new training timeline.
It’s also necessary because the military wants to teach new lessons learned from previous deployments, said Lt. Col. Paul Fanning, who works at the Guard’s headquarters in Latham and will deploy with the 27th Brigade to Afghanistan.
The Army wants to ensure the soldiers complete individual tactics training so they will be prepared for collective exercises when they arrive at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in January, Fanning said. The extra training also will serve soldiers who missed the previous Fort Drum exercises.
“This is a catch up, a clean up, to make sure everyone gets their tasks performed,” Fanning said. “It’s inconvenient for many, but absolutely essential.”
The 27th Brigade Combat Team will become the largest single Guard unit from the state to serve in Afghanistan or Iraq when it takes command in 2008 of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix VII.
A total of 1,700 men and women from around New York will train, mentor and support the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police from bases mainly near Kabul, the country’s capital.
More than 230 troops have already been called up for the mission, Fanning said.
Some 6,000 members of the New York Army National Guard have been called to federal active duty since 2003, mostly in Iraq or Afghanistan. About 30 percent of the 27th Brigade Combat Team were previously deployed, the National Guard said.