Dennis Kavanagh, a Ballston Spa resident, retires as New York National Guard federal civilian employee after 15 years

Kavanagh served as New York Army National Guard Soldier and officer from 1965 to 1999

Latham, NY (08/02/2022) — Dennis Kavanagh, a Balston Spa resident, retired from the New York National Guard for a second time on Thursday, July 28.

Kavanagh, who retired from the New York Army National Guard as a colonel in 1999, has worked as both a state and federal civilian employee of the National Guard since 2006.

In between he took a job with General Dynamics in which he provided training support to New York Army National Guard units.

Kavanagh first joined the New York National Guard in May of 1965 when he enlisted in the 2nd Battalion, 127th Armor as a reconnaissance Scout.

In 1968 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the National Guard's Officer Candidate School program.

He served at many levels of command as a platoon leader, company commander, battalion staff officer and battalion commander of both an Armor and an Infantry battalion.

In 1985 he became a full-time Army National Guard Officer and served with the Active Army's 10th Mountain Division as an assistant operations officer.

He then went on to serve as the training officer for the Empire State Military Academy, the operations officer of the 42nd Infantry Division, chief of staff for the 53rd Troop Command, and director of training and operations for the New York Army National Guard.

In that job he prepared troops for overseas mobilization and for domestic responses to include a major New York City Blizzard and the crash of Flight 800 off Long Island.

After retiring from the National Guard in 1999, Kavanaugh worked outside the military for three years. He was then hired by General Dynamics in 2003 to work in the Distributed Battle Simulation Program where he planned and coordinated computerized battalion, brigade and division battle simulations to prepare National Guard organizations for deployment.

He helped prepare 42nd Infantry Division Soldiers for deployment to Iraq in 2005, following them to Fort Drum to run training exercises prior to their heading overseas.

In 2006 Kavanagh accepted a position as a state employee with the Division of Military and Naval Affairs, as the Counterterrorism Program Manager. He was responsible for overseeing training and awareness of personnel and preparation of facilities in developing local antiterrorism training, and security plans.

In 2008, Kavanagh became a federal employee and was assigned to the agency's information directorate as the Policy and Plans Manager, the job he held until his retirement.

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