National Guard Soldiers return from overseas training

Rainbow Division troops redeploy from Bright Star Exercise

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Brig. Gen. Paul Genereux presents a unit coin to Lt. Gen. Sami Hafez Anan, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces

LATHAM, NY (11/19/2007)(readMedia)-- Members of the 42nd Infantry (Rainbow) Division Headquarters and Special Troops Battalion redeploy this week from annual training overseas in Egypt.

WHAT: Redeployment of Citizen Soldiers of the 42nd Infantry Division following the successful Bright Star 2007 exercise.

WHO: Approximately 150 Soldiers from the N.Y. National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division

WHERE: New York Army National Guard armory, 137 Glenmore Road, Troy, N.Y. 12180

WHEN: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at approximately 6:30 p.m.

BACKGROUND: Bright Star is a biannual joint, multinational training exercise designed to bring together military forces from more than a dozen nations. This year's training involved Egypt, the United States, Jordan, Kuwait, Yemen, Turkey, Pakistan, Greece, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain.

Over the two-week training, members of the 42nd Infantry Division partnered with counterparts from the Egyptian army's 9th Armor Division to plan, coordinate and control a large-scale battle simulation exercise near Cairo.

Joint training began almost immediately after the division’s deployment as members of the Egyptian staff learned about the Army’s military decision-making process and techniques for the command and control of combat forces.

“This exercise is a good way to bring our soldiers together,” said Maj. Gen. El Araby El Suray, commander of the Egyptian 9th Armor Division. “When we train like this, we’ll know everything about each as well as we can.”

The staff leaders went on to fight a computer simulation exercise involving more than 75,000 replicated troops from five different nations. The combined divisional staffs tackled the challenges of battlefield synchronization of combat forces, aviation, artillery fires, engineers and combat service support.

"We started this exercise with our Egyptian partners with lecture and discussion and finished Bright Star as one integrated staff," said Brig. Gen. Paul Genereux, the 42nd Infantry Division Commander.

The Soldiers will arrive by bus in civilian attire following their return flight from Egypt into Albany International Airport. Family members are expected to be at the armory to welcome home some of the Soldiers.

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