Governor Corbett to Pay Tribute to PA Army National Guard's 28th Infantry Division at Memorial Service in Boalsburg
HARRISBURG, Pa., May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Tom Corbett and senior leaders of the Pennsylvania National Guard will honor the men and women of the Guard's 28th Infantry Division at an annual memorial service at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, Centre County.
The service, which is attended by several hundred service members, will include remarks by Governor Corbett, who served in the division from 1971 to 1984, and Maj. Gen. Randall Marchi, commander of the 28th Infantry Division.
Additionally, a memorial monument will be dedicated to the 83 fallen troops who were killed as part of the division's 2nd Infantry Brigade while they were deployed to Iraq from 2005 to 2006. The monument is a replica of one built in Iraq and later reconstructed at the Pennsylvania National Guard headquarters at Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County.
Founded in 1879, the 28th Division is the oldest division in the U.S. Armed Forces. Some units within the division trace their lineage back as far as 1747, when Benjamin Franklin founded his volunteer companies of "Associators" in Philadelphia.
The entire division was activated for service during World War I, World War II and the Korean War, when it was mobilized to augment NATO forces in Germany. More recently, division members have served in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Egypt, Iraq, Kosovo and Kuwait.
The 28th Division is currently comprised of nearly 15,000 members, from more than 100 units that are based in 80 communities across the state.
Media contact: Sgt. Matt Jones, 717-861-8352 (office); 717-943-4328 (cell)
SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs
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