JUNE 15, 2026 — A 60-year-old Army Guard warrant officer with 40 years of service, and a 17-year-old high school junior who enlisted in April, celebrated the Army’s 251st birthday during a June 12, 2026, cake-cutting ceremony at New York National Guard headquarters in Latham, New York.
New York Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 5 William J. Solmo, New York’s command chief warrant officer, and Pvt. London Brown, who attends Fayetteville-Manlius High School, represented the past and future of the Army, respectively, as they sliced a birthday cake with a cavalry saber.
Solmo, who represented the oldest Soldier in the New York Army National Guard, was performing that role for the second year in a row.
Solmo, who is the top-ranking warrant officer in the New York Army Guard, said it was “a fabulous opportunity” to cut the cake for the Army’s birthday once again while representing the Army’s past.
The Brooklyn resident, who enlisted in 1986, joked that he was not the oldest Soldier in the New York Army National Guard, but he was representing the oldest Soldiers.
Brown, who will report to basic training at the end of June, symbolized the future of the Army during the short ceremony.
Brown, who will serve in the New York Army Guard’s 206th Military Police Company as a combat medic, said he was “very excited” to be part of the ceremony.
“I don’t want to say it’s an honor. But it is an honor,’ said Brown.
Brown, a resident of Fayetteville, will go to basic combat training between his junior and senior years of high school.
He joined the Army National Guard because wants to be a first responder, Brown said. He can learn a skill in the Army Guard which will translate into his civilian goal, Brown added.
In his remarks, Brig. Gen. Patrick Clare, the director of joint staff and presiding officer at the event, pointed out that Solmo has served for 15 percent of the Army’s 251-year history.
Solmo, he said, saw the Berlin Wall come down, responded when the Twin Towers fell in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, and was part of the 69th Infantry Regiment’s fight to keep Route Irish open in Baghdad, in 2005.
“Chief, thank you for your tremendous service for 40 years,” Clare told Solmo.
Brown, meanwhile, was embarking on his own “history making service in the Army,” Clare said.
“Thank you for stepping up to put country before yourself and to do your part in continuing the history of the United States Army and the New York Army National Guard,” Clare added.
The Army claims June 14, 1775, as its birthday. On that day the Second Continental Congress voted to recruit ten regiments of riflemen to join the army of New Englanders besieging the British garrison in Boston.
The 830 Soldiers who were to fill those 10 regiments were the first troops recruited for a national Army, not a colonial militia or in an English provincial regiment, said Lt. Col. Charles Ackley, the master of ceremonies for the birthday event.
In his remarks, Clare said that the Army is not a glamorous service, but it is a vital one.
In its 251 years the U.S. Army won American independence, preserved the Union and ended slavery in the Civil War, defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and held the line against communism during the Cold War.
Currently, seven hundred New York Army National Guard Soldiers out of a total strength of 12,037 are serving on federal active duty.
Another 3,000 Army National Guard Soldiers are currently serving on State Active Duty missions supporting the New York State prison system or in Joint Task Force Empire Shield, the National Guard security force in New York City.
Story by Eric Durr
New York National Guard