LATHAM, N.Y. – Seven hundred New York Military Nationwide Guard Troopers will participate in a multinational coaching train in Tunisia and Morocco in Might.
Many of the New York Nationwide Guard Troopers concerned within the train are a part of the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment, and will probably be coaching in Morocco within the second half of the month.
The regiment is headquartered in Utica and has components in Geneseo, Morrisonville, Ithaca and Glenville.
The first Battalion, 258th Subject Artillery, will deploy 120 Troopers with a battery of 105 mm M114A1 howitzers, based mostly on the Armed Forces Reserve Heart in New Windsor, to Tunisia in early Might.
The train, dubbed African Lion, would be the largest U.S. army coaching occasion carried out on the African continent. Over 8,100 army personnel from 27 nations and NATO will take part in coaching occasions in Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal.
Nationwide Guard models from Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, North Dakota, Vermont and Virginia may even practice alongside U.S. lively responsibility forces, together with the U.S. Military and Air Drive Reserve, and a big cohort of allied and accomplice nations. Navy medical doctors and dentists may even go to native villages to supply humanitarian help as a part of the train in Morocco.
”Multinational workout routines like African Lion permit us to work shoulder to shoulder with a number of worldwide companions and be a part of a singular multinational power,” mentioned U.S. Military Lt. Col. Frank Engle, the commander of the 108th Infantry. ”We relish the chance to display our proficiency on the continent.”
Engle’s battalion will take part in operations in Morocco with Troopers from the twenty seventh Infantry Brigade Fight Workforce headquarters based mostly in Syracuse, the 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion from Buffalo, and the first Battalion, 258th Subject Artillery, working out of Camp Smith, close to Peekskill.
Through the coaching, the 108th Infantry will hearth tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles, often called TOWs, and Javelin anti-tank missiles.
African Lion 2024 is the twentieth anniversary of a coaching train that originally concerned simply the U.S. Marine Corps and the Moroccan army.
The train, coordinated by U.S. Africa Command, enhances regional cooperation and safety in North and West Africa.
The New York Nationwide Guard Troopers will probably be participating in live-fire workout routines as a part of drills involving naval gunfire and even B-52 bombing missions in Morocco.
“This will probably be simply the largest factor I’ve ever seen,” Engle mentioned.
