Army National Guard Major Jeffrey Kneer, Watertown resident, & Williamsville native, commands helicopter unit

Former 10th Mountain Division officer leading Rochester-based medical evacuation company

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New York Army National Guard Major Jeffrey Kneer accepts the guidon of Co. C 1st Battalion 171st GSAB during change-of-command ceremonies on Oct. 15.

FORT DRUM, NY (10/21/2016)(readMedia)-- New York Army National Guard Major Jeffrey Kneer, a Watertown resident and a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, took command of the Guard's Rochester-base air ambulance helicopter company during a change-of-command ceremony at Fort Drum on Saturday, October 15.

Kneer , a Williamsville, N.Y. native, replaced Major Christopher Gagliardo as the commander of the unit, which has been renamed the Company C, 1st Battalion 171st General Support Aviation Battalion (GSAB), following and aviation restructuring.

Previously the unit, which flies six UH-60 medical evacuation helicopters was known as Company F 1st Battalion 169th GSAB.

Kneer served in the Active Army from 2006 to 2013. After earning his commission through the Army ROTC program at the State University of New York, Brockport.

Kneer served in the 10th Mountain Division, in both the 2nd Battalion 10th Aviation Regiment and the 1st Battalion 10th Aviation Regiment as a company executive officer, UH-60 platoon leader, and assistant operations officer.

He deployed to Forward Operating Base Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq and to Combat Operating Base Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan.

His final Active Duty assignment was at the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence's Concept, Experiments, and Analysis Division.

Kneer joined the New York Army National Guard in 2013 and served in Company F 1-169th GSAB before being assigned as the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team's Aviation Officer. He served in that role during the brigade 2016 rotation through the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

His awards and decorations include the Air Medal, the Meritorious Unit Citation, the Iraq and Afghanistan campaign medals, the Combat Action Badge, the Senior Army Aviator Badge, and the Parachutists Badge.

In civilian life Kneer is a member of the New York State Police assigned to the Alexandria Bay barracks. He and his wife Elizabeth have two children; Jeffrey and Mary.