NEW YORK, NY - The Soldiers of the New York National Guard's 1st Battalion 69th Infantry, Commanded by Lieutenant colonel Sean M. Flynn, lead this year’s 254th New York City Saint Patrick's Day Parade on Tuesday, March 17, 2015. This marks the 164th time since 1851 that the battalion, nicknamed "The Fighting 69th" since the Civil War, has led the world's largest St. Patrick's Day Parade. This year the battalion was accompanied by a riderless horse provided by the Military District of Washington's 3rd Infantry Regiment, known as the Old Guard. A horse without a rider, with boots re
NEW YORK, NY - The Soldiers of the New York National Guard's 1st Battalion 69th Infantry, Commanded by Lieutenant colonel Sean M. Flynn, lead this year’s 254th New York City Saint Patrick's Day Parade on Tuesday, March 17, 2015. This marks the 164th time since 1851 that the battalion, nicknamed "The Fighting 69th" since the Civil War, has led the world's largest St. Patrick's Day Parade. This year the battalion was accompanied by a riderless horse provided by the Military District of Washington's 3rd Infantry Regiment, known as the Old Guard. A horse without a rider, with boots reversed in the saddle's stirrups, traditionally signifies a fallen warrior. The inclusion of the riderless horse is to commemorate 23 Soldiers assigned and attached to the 69th Infantry who were killed in Iraq in 2004/2005 and in Afghanistan in 2008. Nineteen Soldiers were killed in Iraq, including eight members of the Louisiana National Guard's Company C , 2nd Battalion 156th Infantry which was assigned to the New York Battalion, and four lost their life in Afghanistan in 2008. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the 69th’s deployment in Operation Iraq Freedom in 2004-2005, as part of Task Force Wolfhound. The Soldiers marched in their dress blue Army Service Uniform, and one squad marched in light infantry "battle rattle" – combat equipment, helmet, and carrying M-4 carbines-- so that the public was able to see how the Soldiers dressed in the field. -Photos by CPT Mark Getman, New York Guard
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