NY National Guard marks 389th year since National Guard's founding on Friday, Dec. 12

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Soldiers and Airmen cut the National Guard birthday cake at New York National Guard headquarters in Latham on Dec. 13, 2024. The NY National Guard will mark the Guard's 389th birthday on Dec. 12, 2025

LATHAM, NEW YORK (12/11/2025) (readMedia)-- A Soldier with 39 years of service from Brooklyn, and an Airman from Fultonville with who enlisted in 2023, will cut a cake to celebrate the 389th birthday of the National Guard at New York National Guard headquarters in Latham on Friday, Dec. 12.

Traditionally, the oldest Guardsman present joins the youngest Soldier or Aitman in cutting a birthday cake during the ceremony.

Members of the press are invited to cover the annual event.

WHO: Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 5 William Solmo, a 60-year-old from Brooklyn; Airman 1st Class Emma Grace Charboneau, a 20-year-old from Fultonville, and Brig. Gen. Gary Charlton III, the assistant adjutant general, Air. Charlton will preside over the ceremony

WHAT: A military cake-cutting ceremony in which Charlton will join Solmo, and Geise in cutting the Guard birthday cake. The oldest service member present represents the history and traditions of the National Guard while the youngest represents the future of the organization.

The National Guard is the oldest armed service in the United States founded as colonial militias and predating the American Revolution and traces its lineage back to the legislation organizing the Massachusetts Bay Colony militia which was approved on Dec. 13, 1636.

The event is being held a day early since Dec. 13 is a Saturday this year.

WHERE: New York National Guard Headquarters, 330 Old Niskayuna Road, Latham, N.Y. 12210.

WHEN:11 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12.

Members of the media interested in covering this event must contact the Division of Military and Naval Affairs Public Affairs Office at 518-786-4581 for access to this secure facility.

BACKGROUND:

Chief Warrant Officer 5 William Solmo

Chief Warrant Officer 5 William J. Solmo, a veteran of the Iraq War, serves as the Command Chief Warrant Officer for the New York National Guard.

He enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1986 as a light wheeled vehicle mechanic. He has served in a number of maintenance positions as a non-commissioned officer and then a warrant officer.

In 2001 Solmo received his appointment as a warrant officer.

Following the attacks on September 11th, 2001, Solmo was activated and served at ground zero assisting with recovery efforts. Following his service at ground zero, Solmo remained with 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment and was promoted to chief warrant officer two in 2003. In 2005 Solmo deployed to Iraq with 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In 2010, Solmo was promoted to Chief Warrant Officer three. The following year Solmo was transferred to the 369th Sustainment Brigade and served as a senior ordnance ground maintenance warrant officer branch chief.

In 2020 Solmo returned to 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment. In 2022 Solmo deployed with 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, to Djibouti as part of Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa.

Solmo is a graduate of a number of military schools.

He is the recipient of the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal the Army Achievement Medal the Humanitarian Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Combat Action Badge, and the Iraq Campaign Medal.

Solmo graduated with an associate degree in business administration from the Dominican College of Blauvelt in 1985.

He resides in Brooklyn, NY with his wife of 27 years, and they have two adult children.

Airman First Class Emma Grace Charboneau

Airman 1st Class Emma Grace Charbonea is a nurse helper assigned to the 109th Airlift Wing's Medical Group.

A resident of Fultonville in Montgomery County, Charboneau enlisted in the New York Air National Guard in August of 2023. She is a full time student when she is not in uniform.

National Guard History

The National Guard, today composed of the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard, traces its official birthday to December 13, 1636, when the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law establishing formal militia companies in the colony. These companies were made up of all adult males older than 16 and were expected to meet and train in military skills regularly.

In New York, the first citizen-soldiers were members of the Burgher Guard, organized by the Dutch East Indian Company in 1640 to help protect New Amsterdam from their English neighbors in Massachusetts and Virginia or from hostile natives.

After New Amsterdam became the English colony of New York in 1665, a militia modeled on the system used in Massachusetts and other English colonies was put in place.

Citizen Soldiers of the militia and National Guard have fought in all of America's wars from King Philips War against Native Americans in the New England Colonies in 1675 to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are over 11,850 members of the New York Army National Guard and over 5,880 members of the New York Air National Guard. The New York Army National Guard is the fourth largest in the nation while the New York Air National Guard is the largest Air Guard in the country. The New York National Guard is the second largest National Guard in the nation after Texas.

Some notes from New York National Guard history include:

• New York gave the country the term National Guard for its militia forces when the 2nd Battalion, 11th Regiment of the New York Militia renamed themselves the National Guard to honor the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolutionary War who had commanded a force called the "Guard de National" in the early days of the French Revolution.

• The 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment was portrayed in the 1940 movie "The Fighting 69th" starring Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The movie was based on the historic unit's service in World War I.

• The New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division was given its nickname "The Rainbow Division" during World War I by General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur, then a colonel, was charged with organizing a division of National Guard troops from across the country to deploy to France in 1917. He described the division as reaching across the country "like a rainbow."

• The band of the New York National Guard's 369th Infantry Regiment, an African American unit originally formed as the 15th New York, is credited with introducing jazz music to Europe during World War I. The 369th became known as the Harlem Hell Fighters.

• The oldest Air National Guard unit in the nation is part of the New York Air National Guard. The 102nd Rescue Squadron of the 106th Rescue Wing traces its history back to the 1st Aero Company organized in the New York National Guard in 1908 as a balloon unit.

• The Soldiers of the New York National Guard's 105th Infantry Regiment faced the largest Japanese "Banzai" attack of the Second World War on 7 July 1944 on the Island of Saipan. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th Infantry had 650 men killed and wounded but killed more than 4,300 Japanese Soldiers. Three regimental Soldiers earned the Medal of Honor posthumously in that battle that day.

• The New York Air National Guard's 138th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, based at Syracuse, was one two Air National Guard units assigned to provide aircraft for the defense of the United States on March 1, 1953. Today the unit operates the MQ-9 remotely piloted aircraft.

• The New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing flies the largest ski-equipped aircraft in the world, able to land on snow at the South Pole Station.

• The New York National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division headquarters and support units served in Iraq in 2005 and was the first National Guard division headquarters to deploy to a combat zone since the Korean War in 1953.

• In 2020 the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters commanded Spartan Shield, the 10,000 Soldier Army force on duty in the Middle East.

• In 2022 & 2023 a 1,000 Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry deployed to the Horn of Africa in September and conducted security operations at U.S. installations in Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia.

• In 2024, New York Army National Guard Soldiers deployed to Europe in support NATO forces in the Baltics and to the Southern Boarder in support of the U.S. Border Patrol.

• Currently the headquarters element of the 42nd Infantry Division is deployed in the Middle East serving as the headquarters of Task Force Spartan, the 10,000- Soldier Army force in the region.