Brooklyn National Guard Soldier Receives Promotion While Overseas

Roseline Velez, from Bedford Stuyvesant, receives Army promotion during Kuwait deployment

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oseline Velez is promoted to the rank of specialist by Capt. Odelle Despot in a ceremony held at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, December 29, 2016. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Cesar E. Leon)

CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT (01/07/2017)(readMedia)-- New York Army National Guard Specialist Roseline Velez, a Brooklyn resident, received a promotion to the rank of specialist in the New York Army National Guard here in Kuwait on December 29, 2016.

She is currently deployed to the Middle East and serves in the sustainment automation support management officer (SASMO) of the 369th Sustainment Brigade, famously known as the "Harlem Hell Fighters."

The brigade headquarters deployed to Kuwait in early November with about 250 Soldiers to provide logistics support to military operations across the Central Command area of responsibility.

Velez joined the New York National Guard in 2015 and is a graduate of The Urban Assembly Academy of Government and Law in New York.

The "Harlem Hell Fighters" trace their history to service in World War I when the unit was a segregated African-American Infantry Regiment, becoming one of the most decorated in the United States Army. The Soldiers fought under French command and were famous for never giving ground to the enemy.

Velez and the 369th Sustainment Brigade are expected to redeploy back to New York in the summer of 2017.