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New York National Guard marks National Guard's 387th birthday on Wednesday, Dec. 13 with cake-cutting ceremony

Media Advisory

Latham, New York (12/12/2023) — The New York National Guard will celebrate the 387th birthday of the National Guard with a military birthday cake cutting ceremony at New York State National Guard headquarters in Latham on Wednesday, Dec. 13.

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Michael Zanghi, a 60-year old helicopter pilot from Rochester who has served more than 42 years in the Army ; and Pvt. 1st Class Glenn Bryant, a 17-year old from Kingston who enlisted in June will cut the cake.

Traditionally the youngest service member present joins the oldest in cutting the birthday cake. The oldest service member represents the history and traditions of the National Guard, while the youngest represents the future of the Guard.

The National Guard claims Dec. 13, 1636 as the birthday of the organizaed militia in the United States.

WHO: Chief Warrant Officer 5 Mark Shumway, the New York National Guard Command Chief Warrant Officer, will preside over the ceremony.

WHAT: New York National Guard headquarters will commemorate the National Guard's 387th birthday. The National Guard is the oldest armed service in the United States, predating the American Revolution, and traces its lineage back to the legislation organizing the Massachusetts Bay Colony militia which was approved on Dec. 13, 1636.

WHERE: New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs Headquarters, 330 Old Niskayuna Road, Latham, N.Y. 12210.

WHEN: 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2022

Members of the media interested in covering this event must contact the Division of Military and Naval Affairs Public Affairs Office at 518-786-4581 for access to this secure facility.

Zanghi, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, who currently serves as the New York Army National Guard state Aviation Logistics and Safety Officer, enlisted in the Army in 1981.

Zanghi who flies the CH-47F, the Army's largest helicopter from the Army Aviation Support Facility in Rochester, was promoted to Chief Warrant Officer 5, the Army's to warrant officer rank, in 2007.

Bryant, a student at Kingston High School, who turned 17 in January, enlisted to serve as a military police Soldier in the 206th Military Police Company, which is based in Latham.

BACKGROUND:

The National Guard, today composed of the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard, traces its official birthday to December 13, 1636, when the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law establishing formal militia companies in the colony. These companies were made up of all adult males older than 16 and were expected to meet and train in military skills regularly.

In New York, the first citizen-soldiers were members of the Burgher Guard, organized by the Dutch East Indian Company in 1640 to help protect New Amsterdam from their English neighbors in Massachusetts and Virginia or from hostile natives.

After New Amsterdam became the English colony of New York in 1665, a militia modeled on the system used in Massachusetts and other English colonies was put in place.

Citizen Soldiers of the militia and National Guard have fought in all of America's wars from King Philips War against Native Americans in the New England Colonies in 1675 to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are 11, 000 members of the New York Army National Guard and 5,800 members of the New York Air National Guard.

Currently 1,800 members of the New York Army National Guard are deployed, securing U.S. installations in the Horn of Africa, providing support and airlift to U.S. forces in the Middle East, and training Ukrainian soldiers in Germany. The New York Air National Guard currently has 340 Airmen deployed, including 200 supporting research in Antarctica.

Some notes from New York National Guard history include:

  • New York gave the country the term National Guard for its militia forces when the 2nd Battalion, 11th Regiment of the New York Militia renamed themselves the National Guard to honor the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolutionary War who had commanded a force called the "Guard de National" in the early days of the French Revolution.
  • The 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment was portrayed in the 1940 movie "The Fighting 69th" starring Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The movie was based on the historic unit's service in World War I.
  • The New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division was given its nickname "The Rainbow Division" during World War I by General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur, then a colonel, was charged with organizing a division of National Guard troops from across the country to deploy to France in 1917. He described the division as reaching across the country "like a rainbow."
  • The band of the New York National Guard's 369th Infantry Regiment, an African-American unit originally formed as the 15th New York, is credited with introducing jazz music to Europe during World War I. The 369th became known as the Harlem Hell Fighters.
  • The oldest Air National Guard unit in the nation is part of the New York Air National Guard. The 102nd Rescue Squadron of the 106th Rescue Wing traces its history back to the 1st Aero Company organized in the New York National Guard in 1908 as a balloon unit.
  • The Soldiers of the New York National Guard's 105th Infantry Regiment faced the largest Japanese "Banzai" attack of the Second World War on 7 July 1944 on the Island of Saipan. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th Infantry had 650 men killed and wounded, but killed more than 4,300 Japanese Soldiers. Three regimental Soldiers earned the Medal of Honor posthumously in that battle that day.
  • The New York Air National Guard's 138th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, based at Syracuse, was one two Air National Guard units assigned to provide aircraft for the defense of the United States on March 1, 1953. Today the unit operates the MQ-9 remotely piloted aircraft.
  • The New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing flies the largest ski-equipped aircraft in the world, able to land on snow at the South Pole Station.
  • The New York National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division headquarters and support units served in Iraq in 2005 and was the first National Guard division headquarters to deploy to a combat zone since the Korean War in 1953.
  • In 2020 the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters commanded Spartan Shield, the 10,000 Soldier Army force on duty in the Middle East.

Media Attachments

New York Army National Guard Master Sgt. Jerry Swain and Air National Guard Airman 1st Class Emma Davignon cut the ceremonial National Guard birthday cake during a celebration of the Guard's 386th birthday at New York National Guard headquarters, Latham, New York, Dec. 13, 2022. Swain, age 60, and Davignon, age 18, participated in the tradition of the oldest and youngest service members coming together to cut the cake to symbolize the past and future of the National Guard. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Ryan Campbell)

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