300 New York Army National Guard Soldiers return to New York from Middle East mission
Soldiers of the 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion supported fight against Islamic State and other missions during Kuwait deployment.
LATHAM, NY (02/01/2019) — Three hundred members of the New York Army National Guard's 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion which is headquartered in Yonkers and has elements in Peekskill and Orangeburg, are returning home to New York following a nine- month deployment in the Middle East.
The Soldiers returned to Fort Hood, Texas from Kuwait on Jan. 25, 2019 and began returning home on January 30 after out-processing at Fort Hood.
The unit left the Hudson Valley from Stewart Air National Guard Base on March 17. They trained for 45-days before deploying.
The Soldiers are returning to New York in small groups at airports closest to their homes. They will go on leave for about a month before leaving federal active duty status.
The 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion provides communications support to military units across large distances using satellite communications technology.
The 101st served nine months in support of Operation Inherent Resolve - military operations in Syria against the Islamic State --and Operation Spartan Shield-building the militaries of Middle Eastern nations. The 101st Soldiers also supported Operation Freedom's Sentinel; the ongoing mission in Afghanistan against Al-Qaeda.
The unit provided communications support at seven locations and manned a dozen communications hubs across U.S. Central Command's area.
101st Soldiers took part in three major exercises in Egypt and Qatar and also managed tactical communication s for the Army Theater Wide Air Defense Artillery Brigade's Patriot mission sites in the Persian Gulf region.
Finally, the New York National Guard Soldiers provided secure computer communications to military units operating in southern Afghanistan.
The 101st turned the communications mission over to the Army Reserve's 98th Expeditionary Signal Battalion during a Jan. 18 ceremony at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.
The 101st Signal Battalion traces its linage back to December 1886 as the Provisional Signal Corps of the 1st and 2nd Brigades. The unit's predecessors fought in World War II and in the Korean War.
In 2012, the 101st served in Afghanistan where it provided critical signal support to strategic and ground forces during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Media Attachments
New York Army National Guard Soldiers SGT Abel Burgos-Davila and SPC Terence Cheung works to assemble the pedestal for an Army SNAP terminal at Mohammed Naguib Military Base, Egypt in support of Operation Bright Star on Sept 3, 2018.The 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion, which has units in New York's Hudson Valley, deployed 11 Soldiers from Kuwait to Egypt to provide communications support to the training exercise from Sept. 8 to 20, 2018. ( U.S. Air Force Photo by Sr. Airman Amanda Stanford.
Lt. Col. Ian Seagriff and Master Sgt. John Reid, 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion, salute prior to casing their colors during the transfer of authority ceremony between 101st and 98th Expeditionary Signal Battalions at Camp Buehring, Kuwait on Jan 18, 2019. The 101st ESB served nine months in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and Operation Spartan Shield, providing communications support for more than a dozen operating sites in some seven countries across the Middle East as part of the coalition effort to defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Brandon Fambro)