Drum chief urges NNY: prepare for deployments

FORT DRUM — While soldiers and their families will bear the biggest burden of upcoming deployments to Afghanistan, the north country, too, should start planning now for the economic impact if more Fort Drum soldiers receive orders to deploy as part of a change in war strategy expected in coming weeks from President Barack Obama's administration.

That was the message for regional civic and business leaders from Maj. Gen. James L. Terry, commander of Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division, speaking during a meeting of the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization on Thursday afternoon at the division's headquarters.

"We are definitely heading out the door to OEF," Gen. Terry said, using the military term for the war in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom.

The division's 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, recently returned from Iraq, and the 10th Mountain Division headquarters are the only Fort Drum units that have received orders to deploy to Afghanistan, the aviation brigade in fall 2010, the headquarters unit in spring or summer 2011. But Gen. Terry predicted that other units from the base would deploy to Afghanistan in early 2011 as well, including the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, which is due home from a yearlong deployment in the country during the next two months, and a portion of the 10th Sustainment Brigade.

There is also speculation that the 1st Brigade Combat Team might head to Afghanistan, after its planned January deployment to Iraq was canceled last month.

"We're not certain where 1st Brigade is going to go at this point," Gen. Terry said. "Don't ask me to be presumptuous and tell you that they're going to go to Afghanistan; I don't know anything that you don't know, but prudent planning would indicate that when there is a presidential decision in terms of a strategy out there, that that strategy, frankly, must be resourced, and we have a trained, ready and available brigade sitting right here in Fort Drum, New York, that's supposed to be in the deployment window anyway."

"We're doing the prudent things out here to make sure that we have 1st Brigade ready for being so moved," the commander said.

Gen. Terry then referred to a PowerPoint chart showing that if his deployment predictions are accurate, that would take the percentage of Fort Drum soldiers deployed from today's approximately 30 percent to closer to 50 percent in 2011.

"I know the economic prosperity of the north country kind of ebbs and flows by some of that, so if those organizations that had those question marks on them are deployed, that's what you're looking at," Gen. Terry said.

The base has brought about 37,000 soldiers, spouses and children to the region, and an additional 2,500 are expected to come in the next four years. Deployments deplete the region's population not only because soldiers leave, but because spouses often choose to return to their hometowns or live with other family members during a deployment.

Thursday's appearance was Gen. Terry's first at a meeting of the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization, a nonprofit group with the mission of fostering communication, planning and problem-solving between Fort Drum and the surrounding communities and advocating for the base's long-term viability. Gen. Terry took over command of the base and division in early September.