Memorial wall features photographs of the fallen including six Airmen and Soldiers with Hudson Valley ties
New York National Guard leaders unveiled a memorial to 39 New York National Guard Soldiers and Airmen who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 at Camp Smith Training Site on Thursday, Feb. 27.
The 150 people who attended the event included local government leaders, Soldiers, Airmen, veterans and family members of the Army and Air National Guard members commemorated by the memorial.
The memorial, located at the training site's O'Brien Hall guest housing facility, features photographs of each of the Soldiers or Airmen silhouetted against an American flag. The photographs are mounted on a wall painted as an American flag just inside the entrance to the building.
Additional photographs will be added it necessary.
The first death commemorated took place during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the most recent deaths-four Airmen of the 106th Rescue Wing killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq-occurred in 2018 during operations against the Islamic State.
Six of those pictured had ties to the lower Hudson Valley.
The permanent memorial replaces a temporary one, which was initially located in the building and added to as Soldiers, and Airmen were killed or died of wounds in combat zones over the years.
"Because so many New York National Guard Soldiers and Airmen pass through Camp Smith during training, we felt this would be an appropriate place to remember the Soldiers and Airmen who have been called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001," explained Lt. Col. Robert Zizolfo the training center manager.
In his remarks Major General Ray Shields, the Adjutant General of New York, said that the memorial wall is also a way to mark the sacrifice that the families of the men and women pictures have made.
"We can never thank you enough for sharing your loved ones with our nation's military forces," Shields said.
Shields pointed out that New York Guard Airmen and Soldiers were the first members of the military to engage in what the military calls the Global War on Terror.
On Sept. 11, 2001, New York Air National Guardsmen assigned to the Eastern Air Defense Sector in Rome, New York responded when notified that four airliners had been hijacked and began scrambling fighter planes. That evening New York Army National Guard Soldiers from the Lexington Avenue Armory in Manhattan were on sight at the ruins of the World Trade center, Shields said.
Since then the New York National Guard has sent its 42nd Infantry Division to Iraq and its 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team to Afghanistan. New York Air National Guard members have repeatedly deployed as part of Air Expeditionary Wings and the New York Air National Guard's 107th and 174th Attack Wing fly remotely piloted aircraft on combat patrols every day, Shields said.
One of the military veterans present for the event was retired Col. Jeff Slack who led the New York Army National Guard's first Battalion, 69th Infantry in Baghdad, Iraq in 2004 and 2005.
The photographs of 11 Soldiers who served under Slack's command are on the wall.
"To not be here would be impossible," Slack said.
Soldiers and Airmen with Hudson Valley ties pictured on the memorial include Technical Sgt. Joseph G Lemm, a Brooklyn resident; Staff Sgt. Louis Bonacasa, from Coram; and Staff Sgt. Todd J. Lobraico, Jr. a New Fairfield Connecticut resident.
Lemm, Bonacasa and Lobraico were all members of the 105th Airlift Wing's 105th Security Forces Squadron, based at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh.
Lemm and Bonocasa were killed on Sept. 5, 2015 outside Bagram Air Base when a suicide bomber detonated a motorcycle filled with explosives at a checkpoint. Lobraico was killed by small arms fire Sept. 5, 2013, when insurgents attacked his patrol near Bagram Air Base.
All three Airmen were awarded the Bronze Star for Valor for their actions during those incidents.
Also pictured on the wall are two members of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry from the region who died in Iraq in 2005.
Sgt. Kenneth VonRonn, a Bloomingburg resident, died on January 6, 2005 in Baghdad Iraq from wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device struck the Bradley fighting vehicle that he was riding in.
Sgt. Anthony N. Kalladeen, a student at State University of New York, Purchase, was killed on August 8, 2005 in Baghdad following an attack in which the Humvee he was riding in was struck by two improvised explosive devices.
In addition, Poughkeepsie resident Sgt. Mark Palmateer, who was killed in Afghanistan on June 26, 2008, while serving with the New York Army National Guard's 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry, is memorialized.
Palmateer died when improvised explosive devices, small-arms fire, and rocket-propelled grenades fighting took place near Forward Operating Base Shank.
Camp Smith Training Site, located in the Town of Cortlandt, is the New York National Guard's premier training site. The New York National Guard has used the location for training since the 1880s.