Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.

Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Welcome! We hope that you enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribe purchase a subscription to continue reading.

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribe purchase a subscription to continue reading.

Thank you for signing in! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Checking back? Since you viewed this item previously you can read it again.

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.

Please purchase a subscription to continue reading.

Your current subscription does not provide access to this content.

Sorry, no promotional deals were found matching that code.

Promotional Rates were found for your code.

Partly cloudy skies this morning. Thunderstorms likely during the afternoon. High near 80F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 63F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.

U.S. Army soldiers assigned to Task Force Orion, 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, New York Army National Guard stand in formation during the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine Transfer of Authority ceremony in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on Aug. 8. The unit will train Ukrainian military personnel on systems and equipment issued under the United States’ Presidential Drawdown Authority.

U.S. Army soldiers assigned to Task Force Orion, 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, New York Army National Guard stand in formation during the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine Transfer of Authority ceremony in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on Aug. 8. The unit will train Ukrainian military personnel on systems and equipment issued under the United States’ Presidential Drawdown Authority.

LATHAM (readMedia) — A total of 140 soldiers from the New York Army National Guard’s 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team took charge of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine during a transfer of authority ceremony Aug. 8 at the U.S. Army military training vase in Grafenwoehr.

The brigade is headquartered at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse. Its members come from across New York.

The unit mobilized for the mission on July 15, and trained at Fort Bliss before deploying to Germany.

The New York National Guard soldiers, collectively known as Task Force Orion, are training Ukrainian military personnel on systems and equipment issued under the United States’ Presidential Drawdown Authority.

This marks the second time the 27th IBCT has assumed the mission of the Joint Military Training Group- Ukraine, known as JTMG-U. This is the first unit to get that mission twice.

Task Force Orion assumed the JMTG-U mission from Task Force Gator, a unit established from the Florida Army National Guard’s 53rd IBCT, which deployed in November 2021 to Combat Training Center-Yavoriv in western Ukraine.

Task Force Gator began its mission conducting ongoing multinational partnering and advising operations in order to further develop the Combat Training Center into a self-sufficient, brigade-level combat training center. The unit was ordered to leave Ukraine for Germany in February 2022, prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Task Force Gator integrated with its JMTG-U parent organization, 7th Army Training Command, to support ongoing training and exercise support activities, including Operation Assure, Deter and Reinforce, conducting missions across Europe in more than 18 locations and 12 different countries.

In April 2022, Task Force Gator re-established operations in support of the JMTG-U mission, training Ukrainian military personnel in the Grafenwoehr Training Area.

“We started this mission in Ukraine, completed an unexpected and hasty move to Grafenwoehr, and worked through a lot of change. But one thing has remained constant: our commitment to Ukraine,” said Col. Jerry Glass, Task Force Gator and 53rd IBCT commander.

Since April, more than 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained on 15 different programs of instruction at the Grafenwoehr Training Area.

“Our mission’s success is measured by our ability to increase the proficiency of our Ukrainian partners in their lethality and their survivability, as they defend their country against Russian hostilities,” said Col. William Murphy, Task Force Orion commander.

“Each one of us understands this and is prepared to take every task assigned with the utmost professionalism and proficiency,” Murphy said. “We know the urgency of this mission and gravity of what the Ukrainian people have at stake.”