A sweat-soaked Soldier of the New York Army National

A sweat-soaked Soldier of the New York Army National Guard’s 27th Brigade moves through the Army’s Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk, Louisiana during the brigade’s war-fighting exercises there in August, 2001. The unit, now designated the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT), is heading there again for war-fighting exercises in July. New York Army National Guard combat veterans, who trained with the brigade at JRTC in 2001, advised troops to be ready for JRTC’s high operations tempo (ops tempo). Operations went on around the clock, the veterans recalled. “You learn to do things while you’re very tired,” said Sgt. 1st Class Justin Westfall, of Valatie, N.Y. But the veterans also praised JRTC, saying it prepared them for deployments during America’s war on terror, which began shortly after their return from JRTC. (U.S. Army National Guard file photo/released)