10th Mountain Division commander discusses soldiers’ roles in Europe, Middle East

FORT DRUM, New York (WWNY) - Deployments are what the 10th Mountain Division does and right now, hundreds of troops, usually home in the north country, are away, some in harm’s way. We spoke with the commander, Major General Gregory Anderson, to learn where soldiers are and what they are doing.

General Anderson says the sun never sets on a soldier from Fort Drum. Troops are currently stationed across the globe. A majority of the deployments are broken up into two major theaters: eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

“The first is the Division Headquarters. We got about 350 to 400 soldiers deployed across eastern Europe to Operation Atlantic Resolve,” he said.

He says the purpose of the operation is to assure the U.S.’s allies and to deter the spread of the conflict in Ukraine.

“The conflict in Ukraine and Russian aggression in Ukraine is the reason why we’ve been tasked to come here to do a host of things,” said Anderson. “Building operational level war-fighting capability. As we’ve learned from lessons in Ukraine, and where modern warfare is and where it’s going, we are preparing alongside our allies to master it and it’s been very fruitful.”

While the Division’s Headquarters is stationed in Europe, the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Brigade was recently deployed to the Middle East.

“The Commando Brigade has deployed to the Central Command theater of operations in Iraq, and Syria, and Kuwait, and other places in the Middle East,” said Anderson. “They’re there really for a host of reasons, predominately to continue to support the efforts to keep ISIS from coming back.”

Anderson says the average length of time for a deployment is around nine months. However, that number can change based upon the objectives of the mission.

On Wednesday on 7 News This Evening, we’ll have more of our conversation with General Anderson.

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