New Weekly AA Meeting Starting at FTIG
A new Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting is starting at Fort Indiantown Gap, Annville, PA, every Wednesday at noon beginning on Jan. 29, 2025. This meeting will be held at the Post Chapel (Bldg. 0-38) and is open to all National Guard (Army and Air), Reserve and active-duty personnel as well as any civilian employees. This confidential and supportive group is open to all who are seeking help with alcohol abuse or addiction regardless of rank, branch, or affiliation.
AA is a safe place for participants to share experiences, strength, and hope. It will also enable participants to create bonds with those who understand the unique challenges of civilian and military life. The meeting is appropriate for those struggling with addiction and those who simply have a concern for their alcohol consumption.
The meeting is strictly confidential, and participants can come in civilian clothes, PT uniform, or duty uniform with or without their name visible. The impact and difference participation can make on people’s lives can be the first step towards better health, happiness, and a more fulfilling life. Those struggling with alcohol are not alone.
For more information, please contact JoAnn Tresco, risk reduction coordinator, at joann.p.tresco.ctr@army.mil or phone: 717-708-8500 or James Ring, state resiliency coordinator, at james.a.ring6.mil@army.mil or phone: 717-769-9676.
Showcasing the PA National Guard Army Cyber Team and the Cyber Shield National Level Cyber Exercise
The Pennsylvania National Guard Army Cyber Team hosted the 2025 Cyber Shield Initial Planning Conference in early January at the Fort Indiantown Gap, Keystone Conference Center. Brig. Gen. John Pippy, Pennsylvania’s acting adjutant general and Head of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA), welcomed over 100 exercise participants and planners from across the country that came to the national level cyber planning event.
Cyber Shield is the largest recurring unclassified interagency and joint national-level cyber exercise. Cyber Shield involves an average of nearly 1,000 participants: including members of the Army National Guard, Air National Guard, Army Reserve, Coast Guard, Navy, Marines, representatives of state and federal government agencies, industry partners, and academia taking part to test their collective skills and evaluate their defensive capabilities in response to cyber warfare.
The National Guard and Reserve cyber mission forces contain some of the most talented cyber security and information technology government and civilian workforce, significantly contributing to the ability of the National Guard and Reserve to assist in the event of a state or national level cyber security incident. Cyber Shield brings state defensive cyber operations elements, cyber brigades, cyber protection teams, government agencies, and other DoD cyber mission forces together to exercise and validate standard operating procedures, reporting systems, tool sets, and critical skills to better prepare for future cyber mission requirements.
Cyber Shield 2025 will occur in early June at the Virginia State Military Reservation near Virgina Beach, VA. Fort Indiantown Gap was selected as the hosting site for the January Cyber Shield Initial Planning Conference because it is anticipated that Cyber Shield 2026 and 2027 will take place at the Fort Indiantown Gap Mission Training Complex. The PA Army Cyber Team has participated annually in every Cyber Shield event since 2015, and members of the PA Army Cyber Team currently hold and have held national level key leadership positions within the exercise executive command and planning staff.
If interested in more information about the Cyber Shield exercise, the PA Army Cyber Team or how to become a member, please reach out to Maj. Christine Pierce, J36/PA National Guard director of Cyber Operations at christine.m.pierce.mil@army.mil.