LATHAM, N.Y. – Two hundred forty-six New York Army National Guard Soldiers will go to Fort Irwin, California, the home of the Army’s National Training Center in the Mojave Desert, starting July 15.
The Soldiers will serve with members of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment as the training center’s opposing force, or OPFOR.
At the National Training Center, an Army brigade of 3,000 to 5,000 Soldiers will be pitted against the OPFOR in combat war games designed to test their ability to fight and win.
All actions of the simulated battle will be tracked, and Soldiers and their leaders will learn what they did correctly or incorrectly during after-action reviews.
The New York Soldiers are coming from C Company of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, based at Camp Smith Training Site in Cortlandt Manor; B Battery of the 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery, located at the Jamaica Armory in Queens; and the Electronic Warfare Platoon of the 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion, located at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse.
All of the units are part of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which has elements across New York.
B Battery is equipped with six 105 millimeter M119 howitzers.
The 100 Artillery Soldiers will conduct live fire training before the start of the war game.
Once that begins, they will conduct simulated missions, said Capt. Greg Cheung, the B Battery commander.
C Company of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry is a light infantry company.
The New York National Guard Soldiers will be “fighting” against members of the Florida Army National Guard’s 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
They will be “in the box,” actively participating in the war games, from July 25 to Aug. 3.