CONTACT: Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg, 518-786-4581

FOR RELEASE: Monday, May 18, 2009

LATHAM, NY (05/17/2009)-- More than 160 members of the New York Army National Guard's 3rd Battalion, 142nd Assault Helicopter Battalion who served in Iraq for nine months returned to the United States this weekend. The battalion, headquartered near Long Island's Islip MacArthur Airport at the New York Army National Guard's Ronkonkoma Army Aviation Support Facility, also has a flight company near Albany International Airport in Latham, N.Y. The Soldiers arrived at Maguire Air Force Base in New Jersey on Sunday, May 17. They then moved to nearby Fort Dix to begin out-processing from active duty before returning home. The Soldiers are expected to take five days to out-process and are expected home at their New York Army National Guard armories on Long Island, Latham and Rochester late next week. Known in Iraq as Task Force Jester, the aircrews and Soldiers of the 3-142nd conducted aviation operations throughout central and southern Iraq to support coalition and Iraqi forces movements of troops and supplies. The battalion of more than 320 Soldiers conducted split based operations with a company located in Basra and the remainder of the battalion at Baghdad International Airport. By May of 2009, Task Force Jester had oversight of 62 aircraft (55 UH-60 Blackhawks and seven AH-64 Apaches), more than double the unit's normal complement of helicopters without additional staffing. Over the course of the deployment, the aircrews from the task force flew more than 15,000 flight hours, moving more than 50,000 personnel and 1,000,000 lbs. of cargo. The unit conducts a transfer of authority on May 19 with the New Jersey National Guard's 1st Battalion, 150th Assault Helicopter Battalion and completes its redeployment of troops back to New York by the end of May.