General: NNY hasn't seen fully populated Drum

The north country has yet to contend with the real meaning of Fort Drum's expansion, Maj. Gen. James L. Terry, commander of the Army post and the 10th Mountain Division, told members of the Watertown Noon Rotary Club on Wednesday.

"I can't begin to tell you what it looks like to have 18,500 soldiers at Fort Drum at once," he said at the Best Western Carriage House Inn.

"I think the last time we had every brigade at rest at Fort Drum was a short period of time, in July of 2005, if I've got it correct. I think it was two weeks."

Before that, the last time the post was fully populated by all of its units was just after Sept. 11, 2001, before Fort Drum's expansion as part of an Armywide reorganization effort that took the number of combat brigades at the post from two to five.

It's not likely the region will see those 18,500 soldiers all at once any time soon, but as the Army moves toward a goal of giving soldiers two years of dwell time to each year of deployment — instead of the current cycle that's closer to one-to-one — "we'll start seeing some of that" increased soldier population, Gen. Terry said. The hope is to change that cycle by 2011, he said.

The commander urged the Rotary Club members to begin thinking ahead to what the effects on the region could be.

Through the remainder of his address, Gen. Terry praised the north country as a supportive community for soldiers and their families, saying the quality of public education available here is rare for the areas surrounding Army installations. He also praised Fort Drum's civilian work force as the best he'd worked with in 31 years at any Army post.