When they all come back home
A few years ago, Fort Drum expanded, big time. It added an additional brigade, bringing more than 5,000 people to the greater Fort Drum area. Places like Carthage and Gouverneur also became homes for soldiers, as troops sought affordable housing far beyond the Drum gates.
At the time, two of the 10th Mountain Division’s brigades were deployed, to Iraq and Afghanistan. The big concern was how would the tri-county area (Jefferson-St. Lawrence-Lewis) absorb the massive growth, in terms of housing, education, law enforcement, etc., when all the soldiers, and their families – came home at the same time.
Well, it never really happened. Drum troops are in a constant state of deploy for a year, come home for a year. At least, for now. The Watertown Daily Times has a story today on Defense Sec. Gates’ plans to increase “dwell time” – the stay-at-Drum period in between deployments to 15 months, and to 24 months by this time next year.
That decision could foretell the population growth, and its consequences, we’ve been talking about since 2005. Carl McLaughlin of the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization told the paper they’re already on it…
More families that stay in the area through deployments also could translate into a shortage of services, ranging from space in schools and hospitals to the number of housing units, Mr. McLaughlin said. He has said in the past that it could never be like between 2003 and 2005 when the 3rd Brigade Combat Team came to Fort Drum and brought 3,500 soldiers and almost 1,800 family members to the area in a short period.
He said he believes that threat is low because the area is preparing for the day when consistent deployments will end and Fort Drum will have all 17,500 soldiers and 17,000 family members here at once. Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown is expanding, as are schools, in anticipation of providing more services to soldiers and their families.
“We are ahead of the curve. There are lots of housing units coming on line and the Samaritan hospital project is coming along at the right time and all the school projects are timed well,” Mr. McLaughlin said.
It’s good to see the regional community planning for the future. But there are some big unknowns – the future of the war in Afghanistan, not to mention what will happen in Pakistan and Iran under the Obama Administration.
