Oh you are absolutely correct Ron ........ I forgot Jump School up above and a few other things. He is following in my deceased brothers footsteps, hopefully he stops following before the deceased part.
My brother was in a special forces unit part of the Airborne Rangers. He was amazing he qualified in rifle marksmanship and explosives the same day, which few do. My brother excelled at so much and his photo on the wall was always an inspiration to my son. We seldom seen Scott my brother he was always away from the time my son was little but he grew up knowing all about him and seeing all his medals and is really trying to achieve to be on the top.
We are a very patriotic family ......... many service members, but Scott was the only one who had ever chosen this field in the family and now my son is going to be an airborne graduate. I really am proud it takes so much to achieve what he is achieving.
I was there back in 1985, I am sure that alot of things have changed since then. The winters there are very, very, very cold!!! The summer months are nice. This is a great location if you are an outdoor type of person. They had great white water rafting there years ago...
Digi,
You have every reason to be proud of your son!! :D
My father was 10th Mountain Division in WWII. They are now rangers.
They trained the the rockies in Colorado at Camp Hale, near Vail. They trained in the mountains in the cold - it was greuling. Sking, mountain climbing, etc. They were trained to fight the Nazis in the alps. They were the mountain "ski troops." They fought in the Italian alps. One of their big battles in Italy is where they had to silently climb up the mountian using ropes and take out the Germans on the top of the ridge. Can you imagine moving an army up a moutain silently in the dark? Their history is fascinating. Most of the ski moutains and resorts in Colorado were started by enterprising 10th Mountain men after the war. The 10th is now a Ranger unit.
My father is very proud of his service. Your son should be proud too.
Holy moly, what a bunch of emotions for me, I can't even imagine actually being any of you parents of our Military. My prayers and appreciation are with them all and you all.
Wow guys and gals you all have me in tears. I am so proud of you too.
Galen ...... My two Granduncles were both Navy and my Grandfather. They always saw the best of the world and had the greatest stories. Love the Navy.
Sunesis ........ My son is happy to be in the 10th Mountain Division. Seeing as he was raised in Alaska he is fairly use to the cold. It has been the heat at Benning that has been grueiling for him. But he has kept really hydrated and never once ended up in the infirmary thank God. I read an old book sometime ago about a tale that was similar to the one you are explaining. I wonder if the book was copied from a true story. I will have to go back to the library and get that book now, it was a classic and my brain is drawing a blank on the name. My librarian will have record of what I read tho. I would love to here your fathers story in full. Anyway your Father must have been one hell of a guy to do that during wartime and with so many men it would have trampled down all snow and caused even icier conditions than what existed.
Fort Drum has been used as a military training site since 1908, however the Army's presence in the North Country may be traced back to the early 1800's.
In 1809 a company of infantry soldiers was stationed at Sacket's Harbor to enforce the Embargo Act and control smuggling between northern New York and Canada. Following the outbreak of the War of 1812, Sackets Harbor became the center of United States Naval and military activity for the Upper St. Lawrence River Valley and Lake Ontario.
During the 1830's and 40's, the Patriots War in Canada prompted a new round of military preparations and Madison Barracks became the home of artillery units.
In 1908, Brigadier General Frederick Dent Grant, son of General Ulysses S. Grant, was sent here with 2,000 regulars and 8,000 militia. He found Pine Plains to be an ideal place to train troops. The following year money was allocated to purchase the land and summer training continued here through the years. The camp's first introduction to the national spotlight came in 1935 when the largest peacetime maneuvers were held on Pine Plains and surrounding farm lands.
Thirty-six thousand, five hundred soldiers came from throughout the Northeast to take part in the exercise. Some soldiers traveled by trains which arrived in town every 15 minutes, coming from as far away as Buffalo and New York City.
For 36 hours, young men from offices, factories, and farms marched, attacked and defended in tactical exercises on the 100-miles the Army had leased for its war games. The maneuvers were judged to be most successful and the War Department purchased another 9,000 acres of land.
World War Two Expansion.
With the outbreak of World War Two, the area now known as Pine Camp was selected for a major expansion and an additional 75,000 acres of land was purchased. With that purchase, 525 local families were displaced. Five entire villages were eliminated, while others were reduced from one-third to one-half their size.
By Labor Day 1941, 100 tracts of land were taken over. Three thousand buildings, including 24 schools, 6 churches and a post office were abandoned. Contractors then went to work, and in a period of 10 months at a cost of $20 million, an entire city was built to house the divisions scheduled to train here.
Eight hundred buildings were constructed; 240 barracks, 84 mess halls, 86 storehouses, 58 warehouses, 27 officers' quarters, 22 headquarters buildings, and 99 recreational buildings as well as guardhouses and a hospital. Construction workers paid the price, as the winter of 1941-42 was one of the coldest in North Country history.
The three divisions to train at Pine Camp were General George S. Patton's 4th Armored Division (Gen. Creighton Abrams was a battalion commander here at the time), the 45th Infantry Division and the 5th Armored Division.
The post also served as a prisoner of war camp. Of those prisoners who died here, one Italian and six Germans are still buried in the Sheepfold Cemetery near Remington Pond.
Permanent Training Site.
Pine Camp became Camp Drum in 1951, named after Lt. Gen. Hugh A. Drum who commanded the First Army during World War II. During and after the Korean Conflict a number of units were stationed and trained here to take advantage of the terrain and climate.
The post was designated Fort Drum in 1974 and a permanent garrison was assigned. In April 1980, B Company, 76th Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy) was reassigned here from Fort Meade, Md. It was followed by the rest of the battalion, less Company D, three years later.
In January 1984, the Department of the Army announced it was studying selected Army posts to house a new light infantry division. On September 11, 1984, the announcement was made that Fort Drum would be the new home of the 10th Light Infantry Division.
The first division troops arrived at Fort Drum on December 3, 1984 and the unit was officially activated on February 13, 1985. The name was changed to the 10th Mountain Division (LI) at that time.
The division reached full strength in 1989. Between 1986 and 1992, 130 new buildings, 35 miles of roads, and 4,272 sets of family housing units were built at a cost of $1.3 billion.
The mission of the 10th Mountain Division (LI) is to be manned and trained to deploy rapidly by air, sea, and land anywhere in the world, prepared to fight upon arrival and win.
On June 4, 1985, the identity of a Roundout Brigade was announced. The brigade was composed of New York Army National Guard battalions from central and northern New York under the 27th Infantry Brigade.
A little History really cool info about this post, couldn't help but post it Sunesis.
Wow! Color me very impressed! Congratulations, Digitalis. You have absolutely every reason to be a proud Mama. Thank you for sharing the news with us!
I have the utmost respect for our military and I'm so thankful men like your son and our wonderful posters here sign up to serve in the USA military.
Sounds like he's extremely skilled and talented and doing great things with it. Isn't is awesome to see your loved ones doing well at something they love to do?
Most of my career, I had no exposure to any reservists. But during my last tour, and now since then, I have met many part-timers.
To your son, I would have one word of advise to consider. If a servicemember can 'withstand' serving [the military is just not for everyone], then they should really be in active duty and NOT the reserves.
A reservist has to serve for 40 years to accumulate enough 'points' to qualify for a pension. then they still will not be on a pension until they reach 65. and in the interum years they have few other benefits.
On active duty it only takes 20 years to qualify for the pension, and your pension starts immediately. Plus the medical coverage continues, and dental, and free 'Space-A' travel, and shopping on base.
Of course my son is active duty .. and his dad , my hubby has taught him about the reserves and the gaurd.
My husband spent a couple of tours in army and then went into the gaurd to finsih off his time and absolutely didn't like being in the gaurd. The rules change for the gaurd and reserves ............
Active duty is the way to go, especially for my sons career. Alot of guys going into his field who don't stay in, come out and can't seem to make it in the civilian world. I truly hope my son stays as active duty and long enough for retirement and makes a career of it. This is his goal but he is 20 years old and young still.
Jim ........ my husband felt the same way as you .......... he felt the gaurd was playing at being a soldier. Its hard to be fulltime active military and then go to the guard or reserves. Like I say the experpience for my husband went from completely active army to the army national guard.... he didn't like the weekend warrior businees.
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Oakspear
...and you should be proud!
My own son is in the military...thankfully far away from Iraq.
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Ron G.
Ft. Benning? Mountain climbing? Sniper? .50 cal.? Advanced Individual Training?
Sounds to me like he's qualifying to be more than just an ordinary 'grunt'. I could be wrong, tho.
My prayers are with you all.
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Digitalis
Oh you are absolutely correct Ron ........ I forgot Jump School up above and a few other things. He is following in my deceased brothers footsteps, hopefully he stops following before the deceased part.
My brother was in a special forces unit part of the Airborne Rangers. He was amazing he qualified in rifle marksmanship and explosives the same day, which few do. My brother excelled at so much and his photo on the wall was always an inspiration to my son. We seldom seen Scott my brother he was always away from the time my son was little but he grew up knowing all about him and seeing all his medals and is really trying to achieve to be on the top.
We are a very patriotic family ......... many service members, but Scott was the only one who had ever chosen this field in the family and now my son is going to be an airborne graduate. I really am proud it takes so much to achieve what he is achieving.
Digi
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ChattyKathy
You should be proud. We have some outstanding men making such decisions all the time and for me that speaks pretty dang loud!
My prayers will be with him and with your family as well.
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Galen
That is really great!
ET1(SS) - USN retired
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Zshot
If I remember correctly...
Fort Drum... 10th Mountain Division.
I was there back in 1985, I am sure that alot of things have changed since then. The winters there are very, very, very cold!!! The summer months are nice. This is a great location if you are an outdoor type of person. They had great white water rafting there years ago...
Digi,
You have every reason to be proud of your son!! :D
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Sunesis
My father was 10th Mountain Division in WWII. They are now rangers.
They trained the the rockies in Colorado at Camp Hale, near Vail. They trained in the mountains in the cold - it was greuling. Sking, mountain climbing, etc. They were trained to fight the Nazis in the alps. They were the mountain "ski troops." They fought in the Italian alps. One of their big battles in Italy is where they had to silently climb up the mountian using ropes and take out the Germans on the top of the ridge. Can you imagine moving an army up a moutain silently in the dark? Their history is fascinating. Most of the ski moutains and resorts in Colorado were started by enterprising 10th Mountain men after the war. The 10th is now a Ranger unit.
My father is very proud of his service. Your son should be proud too.
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bowtwi
Holy moly, what a bunch of emotions for me, I can't even imagine actually being any of you parents of our Military. My prayers and appreciation are with them all and you all.
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Digitalis
Wow guys and gals you all have me in tears. I am so proud of you too.
Galen ...... My two Granduncles were both Navy and my Grandfather. They always saw the best of the world and had the greatest stories. Love the Navy.
Sunesis ........ My son is happy to be in the 10th Mountain Division. Seeing as he was raised in Alaska he is fairly use to the cold. It has been the heat at Benning that has been grueiling for him. But he has kept really hydrated and never once ended up in the infirmary thank God. I read an old book sometime ago about a tale that was similar to the one you are explaining. I wonder if the book was copied from a true story. I will have to go back to the library and get that book now, it was a classic and my brain is drawing a blank on the name. My librarian will have record of what I read tho. I would love to here your fathers story in full. Anyway your Father must have been one hell of a guy to do that during wartime and with so many men it would have trampled down all snow and caused even icier conditions than what existed.
You guys are really great.
Digi
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Digitalis
FORT DRUM HISTORY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10th Mountain Division History
Past 12,000 Years: Archeology of Fort Drum
Fort Drum has been used as a military training site since 1908, however the Army's presence in the North Country may be traced back to the early 1800's.
In 1809 a company of infantry soldiers was stationed at Sacket's Harbor to enforce the Embargo Act and control smuggling between northern New York and Canada. Following the outbreak of the War of 1812, Sackets Harbor became the center of United States Naval and military activity for the Upper St. Lawrence River Valley and Lake Ontario.
During the 1830's and 40's, the Patriots War in Canada prompted a new round of military preparations and Madison Barracks became the home of artillery units.
In 1908, Brigadier General Frederick Dent Grant, son of General Ulysses S. Grant, was sent here with 2,000 regulars and 8,000 militia. He found Pine Plains to be an ideal place to train troops. The following year money was allocated to purchase the land and summer training continued here through the years. The camp's first introduction to the national spotlight came in 1935 when the largest peacetime maneuvers were held on Pine Plains and surrounding farm lands.
Thirty-six thousand, five hundred soldiers came from throughout the Northeast to take part in the exercise. Some soldiers traveled by trains which arrived in town every 15 minutes, coming from as far away as Buffalo and New York City.
For 36 hours, young men from offices, factories, and farms marched, attacked and defended in tactical exercises on the 100-miles the Army had leased for its war games. The maneuvers were judged to be most successful and the War Department purchased another 9,000 acres of land.
World War Two Expansion.
With the outbreak of World War Two, the area now known as Pine Camp was selected for a major expansion and an additional 75,000 acres of land was purchased. With that purchase, 525 local families were displaced. Five entire villages were eliminated, while others were reduced from one-third to one-half their size.
By Labor Day 1941, 100 tracts of land were taken over. Three thousand buildings, including 24 schools, 6 churches and a post office were abandoned. Contractors then went to work, and in a period of 10 months at a cost of $20 million, an entire city was built to house the divisions scheduled to train here.
Eight hundred buildings were constructed; 240 barracks, 84 mess halls, 86 storehouses, 58 warehouses, 27 officers' quarters, 22 headquarters buildings, and 99 recreational buildings as well as guardhouses and a hospital. Construction workers paid the price, as the winter of 1941-42 was one of the coldest in North Country history.
The three divisions to train at Pine Camp were General George S. Patton's 4th Armored Division (Gen. Creighton Abrams was a battalion commander here at the time), the 45th Infantry Division and the 5th Armored Division.
The post also served as a prisoner of war camp. Of those prisoners who died here, one Italian and six Germans are still buried in the Sheepfold Cemetery near Remington Pond.
Permanent Training Site.
Pine Camp became Camp Drum in 1951, named after Lt. Gen. Hugh A. Drum who commanded the First Army during World War II. During and after the Korean Conflict a number of units were stationed and trained here to take advantage of the terrain and climate.
The post was designated Fort Drum in 1974 and a permanent garrison was assigned. In April 1980, B Company, 76th Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy) was reassigned here from Fort Meade, Md. It was followed by the rest of the battalion, less Company D, three years later.
In January 1984, the Department of the Army announced it was studying selected Army posts to house a new light infantry division. On September 11, 1984, the announcement was made that Fort Drum would be the new home of the 10th Light Infantry Division.
The first division troops arrived at Fort Drum on December 3, 1984 and the unit was officially activated on February 13, 1985. The name was changed to the 10th Mountain Division (LI) at that time.
The division reached full strength in 1989. Between 1986 and 1992, 130 new buildings, 35 miles of roads, and 4,272 sets of family housing units were built at a cost of $1.3 billion.
The mission of the 10th Mountain Division (LI) is to be manned and trained to deploy rapidly by air, sea, and land anywhere in the world, prepared to fight upon arrival and win.
On June 4, 1985, the identity of a Roundout Brigade was announced. The brigade was composed of New York Army National Guard battalions from central and northern New York under the 27th Infantry Brigade.
A little History really cool info about this post, couldn't help but post it Sunesis.
Digi
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jardinero
Great news, Digi!
My niece's hubby I told you about is Special Forces - - Mountain division also.
J.
P.S. So glad he's not having to go over to the sandbox right now :)
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Jim
He'll do fine.
-jim
Basic - Fort Jackson, SC
AIT - Redstone Arsenal, Al
Duty - Regular Army, Neu Ulm, Germany, 579th Ord Co.
Washingto State National Guard
California Army Reserve
1970 - 1973
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Belle
Wow! Color me very impressed! Congratulations, Digitalis. You have absolutely every reason to be a proud Mama. Thank you for sharing the news with us!
I have the utmost respect for our military and I'm so thankful men like your son and our wonderful posters here sign up to serve in the USA military.
Sounds like he's extremely skilled and talented and doing great things with it. Isn't is awesome to see your loved ones doing well at something they love to do?
Congrats to both of you!
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Digitalis
Thanks Jar, Jim and Belle.
I am happy in this day and time that he went in ....... military recruitment is down because of war.
There are still those who are willing to protect our people and country.
I would go myself if I could ........ I really would .... but they won't have me ... something about my hair starting to gray.
DIGI
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Galen
Most of my career, I had no exposure to any reservists. But during my last tour, and now since then, I have met many part-timers.
To your son, I would have one word of advise to consider. If a servicemember can 'withstand' serving [the military is just not for everyone], then they should really be in active duty and NOT the reserves.
A reservist has to serve for 40 years to accumulate enough 'points' to qualify for a pension. then they still will not be on a pension until they reach 65. and in the interum years they have few other benefits.
On active duty it only takes 20 years to qualify for the pension, and your pension starts immediately. Plus the medical coverage continues, and dental, and free 'Space-A' travel, and shopping on base.
:)
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Jim
I agree with Galen. I've been regular army, reserve and national guard. The reserve and NG, unless they've been called up, are just playing soldier.
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Digitalis
Galen wonderful point you brought up.
Of course my son is active duty .. and his dad , my hubby has taught him about the reserves and the gaurd.
My husband spent a couple of tours in army and then went into the gaurd to finsih off his time and absolutely didn't like being in the gaurd. The rules change for the gaurd and reserves ............
Active duty is the way to go, especially for my sons career. Alot of guys going into his field who don't stay in, come out and can't seem to make it in the civilian world. I truly hope my son stays as active duty and long enough for retirement and makes a career of it. This is his goal but he is 20 years old and young still.
Jim ........ my husband felt the same way as you .......... he felt the gaurd was playing at being a soldier. Its hard to be fulltime active military and then go to the guard or reserves. Like I say the experpience for my husband went from completely active army to the army national guard.... he didn't like the weekend warrior businees.
Digi
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dmiller
On this anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I'd like to say thanks to your son for continuing the defense of our country.
(And mom's with gray hair are no less a patriot!) :)
My prayers go with him.
David
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