Drum troops watch speech, anticipate deployment
FORT DRUM — As President Obama announced Tuesday he would send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team said they were bracing for deployment orders to Afghanistan and had received no official word yet on whether they might be headed there, or when.
The brigade is in a pool of units available for deployment after a planned Iraq mission, set for January, was canceled in October.
The president reportedly issued orders Sunday afternoon for more troops, and Fort Drum is widely expected to play a major role in the escalation of the war effort. But the division's commander, Maj. Gen. James L. Terry, said Tuesday morning he'd still received no orders for more of the base's units to deploy, and 1st Brigade soldiers said Tuesday night they'd received no new information.
Still, to many 1st Brigade soldiers and their families, the president's announcement of an escalation was just another signpost pointed toward Afghanistan.
"We're really going to be prepping now," said Pvt. Justin R. Danowit, 24, watching the president's speech from a friend's home on post.
April D. Moffett, 26, agreed. "I know the where now; I just don't know the when," she said from the living room of the home she shares with her husband, Pfc. Chris D. Moffett, 27, and daughter, Destiny Daugherty, 8.
Pfc. Moffett, 27, said he was eager for his first deployment. "I kind of always wanted to go to Afghanistan," he said. An assistant Howitzer gunner, "I signed up to play with the big gun," he said. He thought those particular skills would be more useful in Afghanistan than in Iraq.
Mrs. Moffett said she knew what she was getting into, marrying Pfc. Moffett last year as he planned to join the Army, but a possible deployment left her in a quandary. Just as her daughter is getting used to living with her stepfather, the family must prepare for his possible departure. The couple was trying to decide whether Mrs. Moffett and Destiny should move back to Texas to be closer to family and save money, or stay in the north country for the family support offered on base and to keep Destiny in her current school.
Even lacking orders, Pvt. Danowit said the president's speech made a first deployment to Afghanistan seem more real to him.
"For me, with the winter break coming up, I'm really going to make the best of being home and being with my family," he said.
At the John Hoover Inn, a bar in Evans Mills near Fort Drum, a dozen soldiers watched the speech on a large-screen TV, drinking beer out of red cups. When Obama announced the troop increase, only one cheered; the rest remained silent. They continued to play darts while the president was speaking.
"I'm just relieved to know where we're going," said Spc. Adam Candee, 29, of Chicago.
Theresa McCleod said she worries what Obama's plans might mean for her husband, a soldier in the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. She said he's already done long combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving her to care for their three children.
"First he was supposed to be pulling everyone out, and now all the sudden he's throwing everybody back into Afghanistan and it's like nobody can really make up their minds," Mrs. McCleod said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
