SYRACUSE, N.Y. – More than 400 Soldiers from the New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division will be among the 6,700 troops taking part in the Army's 250th anniversary parade June 14 in Washington, D.C.
The division is responsible for Soldiers across the Northeast but has its headquarters in Troy.
The Soldiers left June 11 for Washington, D.C., and will return June 15.
Maj. Gen. Jack James, the commander of the 42nd Infantry Division and a color guard, is leading the contingent.
Marching contingents will represent 11 of the Army's 19 divisions. The 42nd Infantry Division is the only one of the eight Army National Guard divisions sending a contingent to the parade.
The marchers are coming from the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a part of the 42nd Infantry Division headquartered in Syracuse, with elements located across the state. The Soldiers come from units based in Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, New York City and the Hudson Valley.
Thirty Soldiers from the Massachusetts Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 182nd Infantry Regiment, which is assigned to the 27th Brigade, also are part of the contingent.
Another 30 Soldiers from the 42nd Infantry Division Band, which has its headquarters at Camp Smith Training Site near Peekskill, also are marching.
The headquarters elements of the 42nd Infantry Division are training for a deployment to the Middle East at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania.
The marching units will be divided up to represent different periods of the Army's history. The 42nd Infantry Division contingent, along with marchers from the active Army's 4th Infantry Division, will represent World War I.
Soldiers in World War I uniforms will march in front of the two division contingents.
"The 42nd Infantry Division is honored to represent the entire U.S. Army in WW I at the Army's 250th birthday parade," James said.
"The legacy forged by Rainbow Division Soldiers on battlefields across France marked the 42nd ID as one of the premier Divisions of the American Expeditionary Force. We are honored to represent our predecessors and all brave Americans who fought in that conflict 100 years ago," he added.
The 42nd was created during World War I by taking National Guard units from 26 states and forming a special division that could go quickly to France in the fall of 1917. The division was organized in Garden City on Long Island and nicknamed "The Rainbow Division."
The division's first chief of staff, Douglas MacArthur - who later commanded American forces in World War II - said the division would "stretch across the country like a rainbow."
The Army traces its birthday to June 14, 1775. On that day, the Continental Congress voted to enlist Soldiers into a force serving all the colonies. Previously, each colony had raised its own troops when required.
The Soldiers moved from locations across New York and Massachusetts to Washington. They are being housed in an empty Department of Agriculture office building and an unused General Services Administration warehouse.
The 500 New York National Guard Soldiers and Airmen who helped at the presidential inauguration in January stayed in these buildings then.
The Army is covering the cost for the New York National Guard to send Soldiers to the parade.
The Soldiers will receive meals ready-to-eat for breakfast and lunch, as well as a hot meal for dinner, along with a per-diem of about $69.
The parade will include 28 M1A2 Abrams tanks, 28 M3 Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicles, 28 Stryker wheeled infantry vehicles and four M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzers.
The parade will march on Constitution Avenue along the Mall past the White House. Flyovers from historic aircraft and Army helicopters will be part of the event.