Press Release
☷NY Guardsman Ends Career as NCO Officer and Warrant Officer
National Guard ( By Press Release office)
Feb 01,2024
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A New York National Guard Soldier recently retired after a 42 - year military career . Albert Thiem served in various roles , including sergeant , lieutenant colonel , and chief warrant officer 4 . Throughout his career , he gained experience in chemical warfare , helicopter flying , tank company command , division staff work , responding to 9/11 attacks , and electronic and cyber warfare . Thiem held different ranks in his career , both as an enlisted Soldier and an officer . Maj . Gen . Thomas Spencer , commander of the 42nd Infantry Division , commended Thiem ' s dedication and exceptional work . Thiem ' s journey began in 1981 when he joined the Vermont Army National Guard tank company at the age of 17 . Initially , he joined to help pay for college but stayed in the Guard because he found it interesting . After serving as an enlisted Soldier and reaching the rank of sergeant , Thiem became an officer through ROTC . He earned a commission as a second lieutenant in 1985 , although he had hoped to become an Army pilot . Instead , he served as an armor officer . With support from his battalion leaders , Thiem applied to fly helicopters and was accepted . He attended flight school , learned to fly the UH - 1 "Huey , " and joined an aviation unit in Burlington , Vermont . Eventually , he commanded an airfield control detachment . In 1993 , Thiem transferred to the New York Army National Guard and joined the 42nd Infantry Division ' s aviation staff . He later commanded a tank company in Hoosick Falls . Thiem also played a crucial role in relief efforts following an ice storm in Hopkinton in 1998 . When the 9/11 attacks happened , Thiem and the rest of the 42nd Division staff were in Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , but they quickly returned home to assist in the recovery mission in New York City . In 2004 , the 42nd Infantry Division was deployed to Iraq , and Thiem served as an air operations officer in Tikrit . He takes pride in the fact that the division ' s aviation units successfully transported numerous passengers and critical cargo without any losses . Thiem became a full - time Army National Guard officer in 2011 and spearheaded the establishment of the FEMA Region II Homeland Response Force . This team is able to respond to attacks or disasters in New York and New Jersey . Eventually , Thiem became a lieutenant colonel and when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 49 , he didn ' t want to give up his military career . Luckily , he was able to join the warrant officer program . So , Al Thiem started a new phase of his military career as a full - time warrant officer in the Army National Guard . Army warrant officers are technical experts who hold a position between noncommissioned officers and officers in the Army rank structure . Choosing to serve at a lower rank as a warrant officer instead of ending his military career says a lot about Thiem ' s dedication to the Army . For the next 13 years , Thiem worked as an electronic warfare technician for the 42nd Infantry Division . He participated in six major command post exercises and spent three weeks training at the Army ' s Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Johnson , Louisiana . He also had a year - long rotation working in cybersecurity at Fort Meade , Maryland . In 2020 , he served as the division ' s electronic warfare technician when the 42nd Infantry Division was the headquarters for Task Force Spartan in the Middle East . However , after 42 years and six months , it was finally time for Thiem to retire from the military . During the ceremony , Thiem expressed his gratitude for the retired soldiers and former colleagues who attended and said that it was the experiences and friendships he made along the way that made his Army Guard service special . He also thanked his wife , Susan , and his adult sons , Brian and Walter , for their support throughout his military career , as they had to endure many separations and deployments .
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