The state mission of the 27th Infantry Brigade is to maintain a manned, trained and equipped force capable of rapid deployment to any area within New York to aid civil authorities.

The 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team is also tasked with overseas deployment missions and must be capable to respond to any threat, foreign or domestic.

After World War I the 27th Infantry Division was reactivated back in the New York National Guard for peacetime service, climaxed by participation in the First Army maneuvers of 1940.

The initial call up was for one year which would have ended in October 1941; the President directed that all federalized National Guard units be extended for six months.

While in California the 27th awaited orders to ship out and concentrated on bringing itself up to the authorized field strength of 1,012 officers and 21,314 enlisted men.

On 20 November 1943, the 27th Infantry Division embarked on its first combat assignment, the capture of the coral atoll of Makin.

Later court of inquiry showed that the charges were for the most part unsubstantiated and General Ralph Smith was quickly given a new command.

In the 1990s, the Army National Guard nationwide was reorganized and the 27th was established as one of 15 separate "enhanced" brigades, subject to priority call up in the event of a federal mobilization.

In 1998, the 27th Brigade was committed to disaster recovery operations in the New York's North Country following a devastating ice storm which struck in January.

Scores of unit members mustered at the headquarters of B Co, 1st Bn, 105th Infantry located at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue and within a matter of hours, roughly two platoons from B Company, including several soldiers and officers from other 27th Brigade units, deployed further downtown in two public buses borrowed from the MTA.

Their mission was to assist the New York Police Department in their security and recovery efforts and was the first Army unit to respond to Ground Zero on 9-11.

[3] Following extensive state and federal active duty for Homeland Defense in response to the terrorist attacks of 9-11, 2001, subordinate units of the 27th underwent individual call ups for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

From 1985 until 2005, the 27th had also been the "round-out" brigade of the Regular Army's 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), based in upstate New York at Fort Drum.

On 27 September 2007 advanced elements from the 27th, primarily composed of soldiers from the 2d Battalion, 108th Infantry and 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, as well as volunteers from 2d Squadron, 101st Cavalry, began shipping out from New York State to Fort Bragg for pre-deployment training and exercises prior to a combat deployment in Afghanistan.