More than 800 New York Army National Guard soldiers head for Australia Friday for a three-week training exercise with the Australian Army.
Most of the soldiers are assigned to the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry which has units in Manhattan, Camp Smith Training Site near Peekskill and Farmingdale, Long Island. The soldiers are deploying as part of a regularly scheduled Australian/U.S. military exercise known as Talisman Sabre.
The exercise is held every other year and involves 30,000 Australian and American military personnel at six different locations conducting field exercises and command and control exercises. The unit will return to New York at the end of the month. Troops from Niagara Falls, Lockport and Syracuse also are part of the deployment.
