JAMAICA, QUEENS, N.Y. \u2014 New York Army National Guard Capt. Rodrick Ortiz assumed command of Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery Regiment, during a ceremony at Jamaica Armory in Queens, N.Y., on Aug. 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ortiz replaced Capt. Christopher Guzzetta, who relinquished command after completing his leadership tour with the unit.<\/p>\n
Lt. Col. Adam Connolly, commander of the 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery, presided over the traditional passing of the unit colors and praised Ortiz\u2019s tactical readiness to lead the Queens battery.<\/p>\n
Taking charge of the formation, Ortiz thanked Guzzetta for his mentorship and steady leadership leading up to the transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for your mentorship, trust, and guidance,\u201d Ortiz said.<\/p>\n
Ortiz highlighted their shared operational history as key preparation for command.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur deployment in support of Operation Spartan Shield and Operation Epic Fury provided invaluable experience,\u201d Ortiz added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat professional mentorship helped prepare me for the responsibilities I assume today,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Ortiz assumes authority over a battery equipped with M777A2 155-millimeter towed howitzers. The unit provides indirect artillery fire support for the New York Army National Guard and stands ready to support civil authorities during domestic emergencies across New York State, or operations overseas in the theater of war.<\/p>\n
His wife, Abigail Ortiz, was welcomed to the unit family with a traditional presentation of yellow roses, symbolizing new beginnings and strong unit bonds.<\/p>\n
Connolly also commended Guzzetta for maintaining high training standards and fielding capable artillery crews throughout his tenure.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his time in command, Guzzetta recalled an early vehicle accident involving a light medium tactical vehicle, commonly known as an LMTV, just hours after his own first ceremony.<\/p>\n
Guzzetta explained that the operation of tactical vehicles is no easy task and spoke about the ordeal the Soldiers endured and learned from.<\/p>\n
\u201cLessons were learned, no one was hurt, and the back has been rebuilt,\u201d Guzzetta said. \u201cA legend was born.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guzzetta explained that the early trial set the tone for the realities of company command.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt let me know right away that command would be demanding and full of curveballs,\u201d Guzzetta said.<\/p>\n
During the event, Guzzetta\u2019s wife, Danielle, was presented with red roses in appreciation of her endurance, support, and sacrifice during his tenure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JAMAICA, QUEENS, N.Y. \u2014 New York Army National Guard Capt. Rodrick Ortiz assumed command of Charlie Battery, 1st…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-324317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}