{"id":2054,"date":"2010-05-07T14:10:56","date_gmt":"2010-05-07T18:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=2054"},"modified":"2010-05-07T14:32:27","modified_gmt":"2010-05-07T18:32:27","slug":"drum-commander-as-busy-as-its-ever-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/05\/07\/drum-commander-as-busy-as-its-ever-been\/","title":{"rendered":"Drum commander: &#8220;as busy as it&#8217;s ever been&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2056\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/05\/07\/drum-commander-as-busy-as-its-ever-been\/img_0214\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2056\" title=\"IMG_0214\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2010\/05\/IMG_0214-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2010\/05\/IMG_0214-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2010\/05\/IMG_0214-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2010\/05\/IMG_0214-450x337.jpg 450w, https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2010\/05\/IMG_0214.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>I&#8217;m just back from a media briefing at an uncharacteristically charming little building at Fort Drum.\u00a0 Major General James Terry and some brigade commanders spoke about a pretty extraordinary deployment pace at the Army base near Watertown.<\/p>\n<p>Tune in Monday on The 8 O&#8217;Clock Hour for a more complete report.\u00a0 But here are a couple takeaways&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Fort Drum is deeply involved in the war on both fronts.\u00a0 To wit:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2nd Brigade is in Iraq until the fall.\u00a0 1st Brigade just shipped to Afghanistan this winter.<\/li>\n<li>The 10th Aviation Brigade, which returned from Iraq last October, is pivoting to Afghanistan this fall &#8211; a rest time of just 12 months.<\/li>\n<li>10th Mountain Division Headquarters will take control of the Kandahar region of U.S.\/NATO operations this fall.\u00a0 Kandahar is currently the main theater in the fight against the Taliban.\u00a0 &#8220;That&#8217;s where we want to be,&#8221; said Gen. Terry.<\/li>\n<li>3rd Brigade, which came home from Afghanistan in January, will turn around and return there in spring 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fort Drum&#8217;s soldiers&#8217; performance will play a substantial role in how quickly the U.S. can start drawing down troops levels in both countries.<\/p>\n<p>The second takeaway is that Fort Drum&#8217;s leaders are talking a lot about the epidemic of mental health problems soldiers have been experiencing Army-wide for several years &#8211; everything from suicide and PTSD to high divorce rates and drunk-driving.<\/p>\n<p>General Terry said the biggest challenge is that high-level officers have bought into the need to remove the stigma of seeking mental health help.\u00a0 But it remains difficult to penetrate the rank and file.\u00a0 <a href=\" http:\/\/www.northcountrypublicradio.org\/news\/audio\/screwdriverweb.mp3\">Here&#8217;s Terry talking about new &#8220;brigade resilience teams&#8221; trying to burrow down.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The issue&#8217;s particularly sensitive right now on the heels of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/05\/04\/us\/04warrior.html?scp=3&amp;sq=warrior%20transition&amp;st=cse\">a New York Times report<\/a> about problems at a Warrior Transition Unit (for injured soldiers) at Fort Carson.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d love to hear from active duty or retired Fort Drum soldiers or their families.\u00a0 Have you seen Fort Drum&#8217;s approach to combat trauma and other mental health issues improve over the years?\u00a0 Was it fine to begin with?\u00a0 Are there still problems?\u00a0 Have at it over the weekend&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m just back from a media briefing at an uncharacteristically charming little building at Fort [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054"}],"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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}