New York National Guard Soldiers Deploy to Middle East

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Soldiers of the New York Army National Guard’s 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion board a plane following the unit’s farewell ceremony at Stewart Air National Guard Base on March 17, 2018.

• Soldiers of the 101st Signal Battalion operate a Satellite Transportable Terminal (STT) during annual training at Fort Drum, New York, August 18, 2015.

YONKERS, N.Y. (05/02/2018) (readMedia)-- Three hundred members of the New York Army National Guard's 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion (101st ESB) are on their way overseas.

The Soldiers left late last evening from their training site at Fort Hood, Texas. The Soldiers are deploying to Kuwait.

The battalion is headquartered in Yonkers with elements in Peekskill and Orangeburg. The Soldiers left New York for predeployment training at Fort Hood on March 17.

The unit will serve overseas in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, providing communications support for more than a dozen operating sites in some seven countries across the Middle East as part of the coalition effort to defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

They are expected to serve one year on active duty with the Soldiers returning to the Hudson Valley in the spring of 2019.

The battalion last deployed overseas in 2012 to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan where it provided critical signal support. The unit received the Meritorious Unit Citation for its exceptional service for that tour on September 4, 2014.

The 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion traces its linage back to December 1886 and has served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, along with numerous state emergency response efforts.