News stories tagged with "10th-mountain-division"

(03/19/12) Fort Drum recently notified several businesses that they will be put off limits to soldiers if they continue to sell synthetic marijuana, products marketed as "herbal incense" and sold under names like Spice and K2. more

(03/07/12) President Obama has proposed a new mortgage relief program for membres of the military and veterans. Major lenders will review forecolusres or denials of re-financing. if wrongly foreclosed on, service members will be paid back their equity, and get extra compensation.

Service members are vulnerable to scams, bad deals, and complicated financing. Many are young and inexperienced in managing their finances -- and frequent moves can make them easy prey when they're feeling financial strain.

The problem is serious enough that an entire federal office is now devoted to protecting military families from financial fraud and abuse.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand brought Holly Petreaus, wife of CIA Director General David Petraeus, and head of to the new Office of Servicemember Affairs to Fort Drum last week. The office is part of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
About 200 people turned out to hear about the office's work.

Joanna Richards was there and has the story. more

(03/01/12) A unit at Fort Drum charged with helping wounded soldiers transition to civilian life was given a scathing review in a report by the Department of Defense Inspector General's Office. According to the report, the Warrior Transition Battalion was seen as a "dumping ground" rather than a place to help soldiers heal. Medical recommendations were ignored, and morale was low, with some soldiers saying they'd rather be in jail or being "shot at in Iraq" than in the battalion. Joanna Richards reports. more

(02/09/12) Fort Drum's 3rd Brigade Combat Team is beginning to come home after a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. The brigade, about 3,500 soldiers, was sent to an area just west of Kandahar City in southern Afghanistan, where few troops had been before.

They were deployed as part of President Obama's troop surge in the country. As the mission winds down, brigade commander Colonel Patrick Frank says his unit did a good job in a difficult setting. He spoke from Afghanistan with reporter Joanna Richards.
(CORRECTION: We originally reported that these troops were the first US soldiers in that region. Many comments on our story have challenged that assertion. We've contacted our sources at Ft. Drum for clarification and are still waiting for a reply. To the best of our understanding now, Col. Frank's unit was the first brigade level force to deploy there.) more

(02/03/12) Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced last week that the military wants to close some installations as its reduces its force size and winds down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The process is called BRAC, for "base realignment and closure."

A spokeswoman for Fort Drum said the post isn't commenting on the announcement, but reporter Joanna Richards spoke with Carl McLaughlin, executive director of the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization in Watertown, about how Fort Drum may fare as the BRAC process takes shape. more

(10/21/11) A ceremony was held recently at Fort Drum to mark the deployment of the 10th Sustainment Brigade. The brigade is made up of units with many different specialties, so it deploys in pieces rather than as a brigade to support war efforts wherever the units' different skill sets are needed. Joanna Richards attended the ceremony and has the story. more

(09/12/11) Ten years since the September 11th attacks, Fort Drum's home of Watertown is, in some ways, a very different place. It's certainly a bigger place with 19,500 troops now based at Fort Drum-- almost double pre-September 11th numbers--and many soldiers have brought their families.

Housing is more expensive and scarce, and yet, thanks in large part to Fort Drum, Watertown has been somewhat insulated from the recession.

It's also been the site of an endless cycle of deployments, homecomings and painful losses; 290 soldiers from the 10th mountain division have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. more

(04/11/11) The history of the 10th Mountain Division runs deep in the North Country. On Thursday of last week, Keene Valley's Jim Goodwin passed away at the age of 101.

Goodwin was a celebrated teacher and mountaineer, who first started guiding in the Adirondacks at the age of 12. He later trained many of the 10th Mountain Division's soldiers. He later served as a medic during the Italian campaign. In 1997, Brian Mann sat down with Jim Goodwin to talk about his life in war and his life in the mountains.

NOTE: A memorial service is planned for Saturday, April 23 at 3 pm at the Keene Valley Congregational Church with a reception to follow.

(09/06/10) Last week, we began a new on-going series called the Hospice Path.

North Country Public Radio is looking in-depth at the way hospice programs across the region are changing people's lives at a time when they're forced to confront the certainty of death.

We're telling that story in part by spending time with the Gallagher family in Saranac Lake.

Bill Gallagher is 87 years old and his lungs are slowly failing.

But with the help of High Peaks Hospice, he's been able to stay at home with his wife Tomi.

In order to better describe their experience, our reporter Brian Mann decided to first spend some time asking about Bill's long life before he got sick. more

(12/03/09) As David Sommerstein reported today (see related story), the revolving door of deployments is taking its toll at Fort Drum. David joined Martha Foley during the Eight O'Clock Hour to talk more about how continuing deployments are affecting morale.