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                         November 21, 2001

Two companies of the New York Army National Guard were federalized this month before being assigned to West Point for a six-month stint to help the academy with its security in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11.

Companies A and B of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment arrived Nov. 14 after two weeks of training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, according to West Point 1st Battalion, 1st Infantry Operations Officer Maj. Chris Cantrell.

Company A is from New York City and Company B is from Bayshore, N.Y.

The 200 soldiers are expected to be billeted at Camp Smith and in transient billets initially, Cantrell said.

"Eventually both units will end up on West Point," he added.

The elements of the Fighting 69th will help augment the U.S. Military Academy’s Military Police in providing force protection, security and training, Cantrell said.

The new soldiers are expected to undergo one week of further training at West Point before assuming their duties, which will include vehicle inspections.

"The two companies will do everything that the other two companies of the 1-1 do," Cantrell said. "When they are prepared and ready we will put them on the mission cycle and let the Military Police, Engineer Platoon and 2nd Aviation get back to doing their (primary missions)."

Their one-week training period ends today. Cantrell said the plan is for them to jump right into things Friday. The first noticeable change will be the re-opening of Washington Gate to Department of Defense traffic.

"Our plan is to re-open Washington Gate, with a couple of restrictions," Cantrell said.

He noted specifically that the plan would still call for large trucks to use the Stony Gate entrance.

Both companies of the Fighting 69th are made up of infantry soldiers who had previously been doing security work at the World Trade Center in New York City.

"They are going to bring a lot to the table," Cantrell said. "They will help teach us what they learned working with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Hopefully, we can offer them some additional training in some things that they aren’t normally able to do," he said. "That’s our goal -- to let them leave here better trained than when they arrived.

The history of the 69th Infantry Regiment stretches back to the Revolutionary War, includes service during the War of 1812 and the American Civil War, where it formed the nucleus around which the Irish Brigade was formed and fought in action as part of the Army of the Potomac from the First Bull Run thru the surrender at Appomattox, according to the 69th New York State Volunteers web site.

The 69th also took part in the Spanish-American War, the Mexican Border campaign, World War I, to include the Meuse-Argonne campaign and World War II, where it served in the Pacific theatre at Makin, Saipan and Okinawa.