Joint Task Force North

Joint Task Force North in the News

SGM Hochstedler wins gold at Warrior Games

Dave Burge, El Paso Times, July 28, 2016

Hochstedler won the silver medal in the same event last year at the Warrior Games in Quantico, Va., and the bronze two years ago in Colorado Springs, Colo.

He has used cycling as a way to cope with his injuries. In 2009, while deployed in Afghanistan with 3rd Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, N.C., he was shot by a sniper. Since then, he has undergone nearly 30 surgeries on his arm.

Fallen Heroes remembered on Memorial Day

Dave Burge, El Paso Times, May 30, 2016

Miniature U.S. flags, at more than 50,000 grave sites, fluttered in the breeze Monday morning at Fort Bliss National Cemetery.

Larger flags lined the walkways and roads, and visitors started arriving a couple of hours before the annual Memorial Day ceremony to pay their quiet respects or get a good place to sit for the ceremony.

More than 1,000 soldiers, veterans, family members and civic leaders attended the remembrance ceremony Monday at the national cemetery.

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New commander of JTFN first from National Guard

Dave Burge, El Paso Times, Nov. 4, 2015

The new commander for Joint Task Force North is making a little bit of history.

Brig. Gen. Kurt S. Crytzer is the first National Guardsman to command the unit. Crytzer, a 52-year-old native of Natrona Heights, Pa., took command of the unit Oct. 8.

Crytzer is affiliated with the West Virginia National Guard, but has spent his entire 28-year career on active duty, either in service with the federal government and the Army or with the state of West Virginia.

Dotson wants to make sure JTFN succeeds

Dave Burge, El Paso Times, Nov. 29, 2015

The new senior enlisted leader for Joint Task Force North has some straightforward goals for his job.

Army Command Sgt. Maj. Tim Dotson wants to serve as a mentor and coach to the command’s enlisted soldiers and take care of them and their families. He also wants to serve as a second set of eyes and ears for JTF North’s new commanding general, Brig. Gen. Kurt S. Crytzer, who took command Oct. 8.

Dotson said that if he is successful in those two goals, then the unit will succeed in its mission. Joint Task Force North, with about 200 service members and civilians, provides behind-the-scenes support to federal law-enforcement agencies in their fight against international drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.