WATERTOWN DAILY TIMESM6 Sunday, September 7, 2014

C M Y K

Global duty for 10th Mountain Division

BOSNIA: Multiple units deployed to the country in March 1997 for construction and defense missions, with follow-up missions running from 1998 to 2000.

FORMER YUGOSLAVIAN REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA: Division members aiding in efforts in Kosovo joined with elements of Task Force Falcon operating in the country. Among those were the 3rd Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, which guarded the airport at Skopje used by peacekeepers.

FORT IRWIN, CALIF.: Multiple training stints at the National Training Center.

FORT POLK, LA.: Multiple training stints at the Joint Readiness Training Center.

SOUTH FLORIDA: About 6,000 division soldiers deployed in August 1992 to aid in the recovery from Hurricane Andrew. Division soldiers were there for about two months.

NEW YORK CITY: About 250 personnel and 50 2,500-gallon fuel tankers from units throughout the division were dispatched in November 2012 to aid in the recovery from Superstorm Sandy.

CANADA: Multiple training missions occurred over the years between American and Canadian forces, such as Exercise Ghost Dragoon in the Ottawa River Valley in August, or the Operation Guerrier Nordique on Baffin Island in March.

WALES: Soldiers from 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, trained with British Army members at Brecon Beacons in July 2014.

KOSOVO: Division members were in the country for some of 2001 and 2002 as a part of Operation Joint Guardian, where they performed multiple peacekeeping roles.

IRAQ: Division units first deployed to the country in March 2003, where they supported the 10th Special Forces Group. They also secured airfields and oil transfer sites, and trained Kurdish militants. Division forces operated there during the Gulf War.

CUBA: Division soldiers were staged at Guantanamo Bay in September 1994 prior to Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti.

HONDURAS: Among the division’s operations in the country was its training under Joint Task Force Bravo in summer 1993. About 120 and 150 members of the 1st Brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry, took part in the operation.

HAITI: About 8,600 division soldiers went to the country in fall 1994, securing areas of Port-au-Prince and elsewhere to set up a return of exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as a part of Operation Uphold Democracy.

PANAMA: Multiple division units have sent soldiers to the country for operations and training exercises, including multiple operations at the former Jungle Operations Training Center at Fort Sherman, Panama.

EGYPT: Multiple division units were dispatched to the Sinai Peninsula during a peacekeeping effort during the Gulf War.

DJIBOUTI: Members of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, deployed to the country in April 2003 to support the global war on terror.

SOMALIA: Division forces deployed to the country from 1992 to 1994 to aid in Operation Restore Hope and Operation Continue Hope.

PAKISTAN: Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, trained with Pakistani and other U.S. forces in summer 1997 as a part of Inspired Gambit 97.

AFGHANISTAN: Division units have deployed to the country regularly since Sept. 11, 2001. Currently, the 10th Mountain Division’s headquarters is leading operations in the country’s Regional Command-East.

UZBEKISTAN: Division soldiers, primarily from 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, deployed to Karshi-Khanabad, a former Soviet air base in Uzbekistan, where they were joined by soldiers from the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, to secure the airfield and provide humanitarian support in October 2001.

SAUDI ARABIA: Division elements operated in the country during the Gulf War, and in 2000, members of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, served there.

KUWAIT: Among first deployments to the country following the attacks of 9/11 were soldiers of 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, who secured coalition equipment, facilities and personnel here and in Qatar in October 2001.

QATAR: Division soldiers responding to the attacks of 9/11 to secure coalition equipment, facilities and personnel were sent here and to Kuwait in October 2001.

WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES FILES

A Fort Drum soldier patrols the streets in Homestead, Fla., where

Hurricane Andrew devastated the area in August 1992.

NORM JOHNSTON n WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES

A girl watches a U.S. patrol drive by in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, while

marking the 1994 return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES FILES

10th Mountain Division and Russian soldiers meet in Bosnia during

a NATO joint peacekeeping mission in May 1997.

WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES FILES

1st Lt. Adam M. Malson, 4th Battalion, 31st Regiment, walks

through a market near Baghdad in 2005.

WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES FILES

A soldier from the 10th Mountain Division waits for an open phone

to call home on Christmas Eve, 2004, at Camp Liberty in Baghdad.

COMPILED BY GORDON BLOCK, WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES

GRAPHIC BY LAUREN HARRIENGER

NORM JOHNSTON n WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES

Military police conduct searches at the Bagram Airfield post

entrance gate in Afghanistan in 2002 as local civilian workers enter.

By JAEGUN LEETIMES STAFF WRITER

FORT DRUM — When U.S. troops are on the ground in unfamiliar territory, it’s vital to have eyes from the skies track-ing enemy movement.

“Our focus is to support our ground troops and keep them safe overseas. That’s what we’re here for; that’s what we train for,” said Maj. Sandra D. Stoquert, spokeswoman for the 174th At-tack Wing, Syracuse, which flies MQ-9 Reaper aircraft at Fort Drum’s Wheeler-Sack Army Air-field.

Joining the Reapers at the airfield, an MQ-1C Grey Eagle — a smaller, 3,600-pound un-manned aircraft that can carry as many as four Hellfire mis-siles — recently reported for duty at a unit activation cer-emony for the “Valkyries.”

The aircraft is one of nine Grey Eagles that will join the Delta Company of the 1st Bat-talion, 10th Aviation Regiment, aka Valkyries.

Commonly referred to as drones, remotely piloted air-craft (RPA) are operated by a team of two — a pilot and a

censor operator.“It (unmanned aircraft) fits

in everywhere. It really pro-vides the needed situational awareness for proper decision-making on the battlefield,” Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ryan J. Owen, the company’s execu-tive officer, said at this past Ju-ly’s activation ceremony.

Takeoffs and landings are handled by a ground-control station, but once the drone reaches flying altitude, control can be handed over to pilots and censor operators in the United States through satellite links.

When training, the 174th Attack Wing’s 10,500-pound Reapers are flown out of Fort Drum’s airfield by airmen at the base, who transfer control to remote cockpits in Syracuse.

“It’s just like a typical cock-pit. They (pilots) are in control of the speed, everything. It’ll have a throttle, everything that a typical pilot would have in an aircraft,” Maj. Stoquert said.

And like any other aircraft, accidents can occur while op-erating drones.

Most recently, a $10 million Reaper crashed Nov. 12 into

Lake Ontario — about 12 miles off the coast of the lake’s east-ern shore — due to navigation-al software failures.

The U.S. Air Force has since remedied the software problem.

Some people also are con-cerned that military RPAs could be used to spy on U.S. citizens, but Maj. Stoquert said federal law prohibits such use of drones.

“We cannot break U.S. laws and conduct surveillance on U.S. citizens. We know people worry about that, but there are laws in place to prevent that from happening,” she said.

Although the Army will be drawing down its active-duty forces from about 520,000 sol-diers to fewer than 450,000 in 2020, it plans to launch a Gray Eagle company for each of its 10 active-duty divisions across the country, and for a few spe-cial operations units.

Pending approval by Con-gress is a proposed $27 million project to build a new han-gar for the Gray Eagles at Fort Drum. Construction for the project could begin as soon as next spring, and would take two years to complete.

Drones offer ground troops support, safety from above

30 Years at Fort Drum WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES

KYRGYZSTAN: Division soldiers trained on peacekeeping methods here and in Uzbekistan in 1998 with military forces from Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey.