Helicopter airlift marks start of National Guard Best Warrior event in Guilderland on Friday, March 18

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Soldiers work on a land navigation problem during a Best Warrior competition held in Western New York in October 2021.

GUILDERLAND, NEW YORK (03/17/2022) (readMedia)-- New York Army National Guard Soldiers participating in the 42nd Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade Best Warrior competition will arrive at the Guard's Guilderland range on board a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter on Friday, March 18 at around 11 a.m.

Reporters are welcome to cover the start of the three-day competition.

WHO: Five Soldiers assigned to the New York Army National Guard's Latham-based 42nd Expeditionary Combat Brigade. The Soldiers represent the 3rd Battalion, 142nd Assault Helicopter Battalion, the 642nd Aviation Maintenance Battalion and the brigade Headquarters Company.

WHAT: The first day of the three-day Best Warrior competition. The Best Warrior competition tests a Soldier's physical fitness, military knowledge, endurance, and marksmanship. The competition opens on Friday with the airlift of the competitors who will disembark and move to a land navigation event as the start of the competition.

WHEN: 11 a.m. Friday, March 18, 2022. (Time is approximate. The aircraft could arrive within a ten-minute window around 11 a.m.)

WHERE: 6095 Grant Hill Rd, Voorheesville, NY 12186

Media opportunity:

Reporters will be able to speak briefly to Soldiers participating in the event and the non-commissioned officer in charge about the competition. Visual opportunities include the UH-60 arriving from Army Aviation Support Facility 3 in Latham and Soldiers starting the land navigations course.

For Access to this Division of Military and Naval Affairs facility reporters should call Col. Richard Goldenberg at 518-786-4581 or his cell 518-7277314

BACKGROUND

Best Warrior Competition:

The Best Warrior competition is an annual event in which Soldiers from across New York compete at their local units before going onto a statewide competition held later this spring at Camp Smith Training Site.

The winners of that event compete regionally with the chance to compete nationally. In 2021 New York Army National Guard Corporal Dakoatah Miller finished in second place in national competition.

The multi-day competition tests a Soldier's military knowledge, physical fitness, endurance, and marksmanship.

Soldiers are judged on tasks that can range from assembling and disassembling a machine gun, emplacing a land mine, navigating at night and during the day with map and compass, to treating a simulated casualty.

The event also includes a 12-mile forced march in which Soldiers must carry a 35- pound pack and a weapon, held this weekend in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

The 42nd Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade

The 42nd Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade is headquartered in Latham at Division of Military and Naval Affairs headquarters adjacent to Army Aviation Support Facility #3 at Albany International Airport.

The headquarters is designed to provide mission command for up to four aviation battalions and an aviation support battalion. The brigade's New York units had 1,043 Soldiers assigned at the end of fiscal year 2021.

The Brigades major elements include the 3rd Battalion, 142nd Assault Helicopter Battalion, which is headquartered at Ronkokoma and the 642nd Aviation Support Battalion.

The 3rd Battalion, 142nd Aviation and flies 17 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. It has companies at Army Aviation Support Facility 1 at McArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma and at Army Aviation Support Facility 3 at Albany International Airport in Latham. Another company is part of the Maine Army National Guard.

The 642nd Aviation Support Battalion, the aviation maintenance battalion has elements in Rochester, Farmingdale, Olean and Dunkirk and provides aviation maintenance and logistics support to brigade elements.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, brigade elements have deployed to Iraq and Kuwait in support of U.S. military operations.