{"id":1364,"date":"2009-12-02T07:57:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-02T11:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/12\/02\/morale-at-fort-drum-questioned-in-shadow-of-afghanistan-fight\/"},"modified":"2009-12-02T07:57:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-02T11:57:00","slug":"morale-at-fort-drum-questioned-in-shadow-of-afghanistan-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/12\/02\/morale-at-fort-drum-questioned-in-shadow-of-afghanistan-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Morale at Fort Drum questioned in shadow of Afghanistan fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a fascinating exchange on the blog being hosted<\/a> by Fort Drum commander James Terry. In a post late last month, he asked his men and women point-blank:<\/p>\n

“I’d like to hear your thoughts on the morale of the 10th Mountain Community.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of the responses are sobering. Here’s “Disillusioned Captain” posting on November 18th:<\/p>\n

“The Army system coupled with our total lack of honest to goodness “RESET time” is leaving soldiers disillusioned and worn out.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s “Observant NCO Wife” writing on November 14th:<\/p>\n

“As others have said, morale is low. Other wives on here have echoed my very thoughts. I never see my husband; I feel like I am a single mom; I can’t keep needed appointments for my family; Our marriaged is strained to the point of talk of divorce… “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last month, the London Times<\/a> reported on Fort Drum troops in Afghanistan, describing them as “depressed and deeply disillusioned.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe many soldiers who come to see us have a sense of futility and anger about being here. They are really in a state of depression and despair and just want to get back to their families,\u201d said Captain Jeff Masengale, of the 10th Mountain Division\u2019s 2-87 Infantry Battalion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey feel they are risking their lives for progress that\u2019s hard to discern,\u201d said Captain Sam Rico, of the Division\u2019s 4-25 Field Artillery Battalion. \u201cThey are tired, strained, confused and just want to get through.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In his blog, Major General Terry describes a recent visit to his men and women in Afghanistan:<\/p>\n

“I just visited with 3BCT Soldiers and while their OEF mission has been tough I think they are holding up very well.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What’s clear is that the Fort Drum community is still in the middle of a very long haul. <\/p>\n

Whatever one thinks of President Obama’s decision to escalate, the next two years will be incredibly challenging for soldiers and their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a fascinating exchange on the blog being hosted by Fort Drum commander James Terry. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}