New York National Guard marks 388th birthday of the National Guard on Friday. Dec. 13

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The oldest and youngest New York Army National Guard Soldiers cut the National Guard Birthday Cake on Dec. 13, 2023 .

LATHAM, NY (12/12/2024) (readMedia)-- A Soldier with 41 years of service from Ballston Spa, will join Army and Air Guard recruits celebrating the 388th birthday of the National Guard at New York National Guard headquarters in Latham on Friday morning, Dec. 13.

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

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

WHO: Master Sergeant Michael Schin, a 59-year from Ballston Spa, who has served over 41 years in the Army; Pvt. 1st Class Aliyah Billar, a 17-year-old from the Bronx, who enlisted in October; and 18-year-old-old Airman Gabriela Geise who enlisted in September from Averill Park will cut the cake. Major General Michele Natali, the assistant adjutant general, Army, will preside over the ceremony.

WHAT: A military cake-cutting ceremony in which the Schin, will join Billar 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.

WHERE: New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs Headquarters, 330 Old Niskayuna Road, Latham, N.Y. 12210.

WHEN: 11 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024

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:

Master Sgt. Michael Schin

Master Sgt. Michael Schin, a veteran of the war in Iraq enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1983. In 1984 he transferred to the New York Army National Guard where he became an infantryman. From 1991 to 2002 he also worked full-time as a member of the New York Counterdrug Task Force, while also serving as an infantry Soldier.

He deployed to Iraq in 2004 as an assistant inspector general. He currently works as a federal technician specializing in information technology for the Division of Military and Naval Affairs, while also serving in the Army National Guard.

"it's been an awesome adventure from start to finish, and I would do it all over again," Schin said.

Pvt. 1st Class Aliyah Billar

Pvt. 1st Class Aliyah Billar, age 17, is currently a senior at Brewster High School in the Bronx, where she plays varsity lacrosse and has been an active member of the Navy Junior ROTC for the past four years. She enlisted in the New York Army National Guard on October 16th, 2024, to be a finance specialist, and is assigned to the 7th Finance Company.

She will report for Basic Combat Training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in August of 2025.

Airman Gabriela Geise

Airman Gabriela Geise, 18, graduated from Averill Park High School, where she played varsity football and soccer. She enlisted in the New Air National Guard on Sept. 5, 2024, and plans to train in the air transportation function.

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, 300 members of the New York Army National Guard and over 5,800 members of the New York Air National Guard.

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.