Soldiers prepare at Camp Smith for Guantanamo Bay deployment

CORTLANDT MANOR – Some 50 soldiers, members of the Troy-based 42nd Infantry Division headquarters, are training this week at Camp Smith in Cortlandt Manor as they prepare for a nine-month deployment to Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba.
Lt. Col. Todd Bookless, the officer-in-charge of the detachment, said the deployment is a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to work alongside Air Force, Navy and Marine personnel.
“We will be acting as a joint task force coordinating both in assistance of the commissions, which is the legal proceedings, and also supervising the detainee operations, although none of us will have direct day to day interaction with the detainees,” Bookless said.
While at Camp Smith for two weeks, the soldiers have gone through standard Army deployment training including weapons training, land navigation, dealing with IEDs and refreshing themselves on basic tactics.