Cadet Basic Training: Fort Drum, New York

Fort Drum is located in Jefferson County, on the northern border of New York right below the border of the US and Canada being only miles away from Lake Ontario.

Being home to the 10th Mountain Division of the army, the new cadets are offered training from all specialties. Owning an outstanding 107,265 acres, rigorous training can be conducted in many different locations of unique areas. The new cadets would begin their training on August 31 and to September 14. With training being in the summer, this offers the new cadets to be trained in a nice time period of summer and with high vegetation. In addition, since Fort Drum has similar geography of West Point, the new cadets will conduct a more detailed oriented Basis Training since they are used to the terrain.

Fort Drum has many major roadways and interstates that lead into and lead out to of the base. This allows anyone that stays in Fort Drum easy travel and many locations to go and visit or explore with simple directions. Some major roadways include I-8 and I-781 that both lead into Lake Ontario, and to states that surround NY. With these major interstate highways, this allows easy transportation for the new cadets and as well as equipment for training sites. Fort Drum also includes lots of terrain of mountains, hills, woods, rivers, and much more when all four seasons come in. In addition, Fort Drum has housing, medical, schooling, and training facilities that are all needed for a great place for cadet Basic Training.

With Fort Drum being located North New York, it experiences all four of the seasons to the extreme with the summers being hot with partly cloudy, and little participation while the winters are very cold, freezing with lots of snow. On average, Fort Drum has warm weather lasting about four months from May 25 to September 18 with the overall average temperature being 69 degrees. With July being the hottest month of the year in Fort Drum, having the basic training from the end of August to the middle of September gives the cadets the best weather to train in. On the other side, Fort Drum cold season is about 3-3.5 months lasting from December 4 to March 13. The overall average temperature is 38 degrees but the coldest is 12 degrees that occurs in January but there have been temperatures recorded in the negatives in the winter.

The weather is very consistent with each season with clouds and precipitation. Cloud coverage is very high in the winters with January being the cloudiest time of the year with overcast being 72%. On the other hand, cloud coverage in the springtime all the way to the beginning is very clear which is from May 24 to October 31. The clearest time of the year is August with it being partly cloudy 64% of the time.

Moving to precipitation, wet days varies a lot throughout the year in Fort Drum. The wetter season is about 8-9 months ranging from April to December. June is the month with the most precipitation throughout the year having about 11-12 days with .05 inches of rain which isn't that much. The most common of precipitation varies throughout the year with it being from rain to snow. For example, rain is the most common form of precipitation with it lasting about 9 months from February to December. Snow on the other hand only lasts for about 2 months which is from December to February with January having an average of 4 days of snow having about 8-9 inches of snow.

Moving on, Fort Drum is based in the Eastern Time Zone which allows the cadets to be used to the hours of training and not being affected from the time zone. In addition, the length of daytime is of course affected by the time of the year. The longest amount of sunlight of the year in June 21 with about 15-16 hours of sunlight. On the other hand, the shortest time of daylight is 8-9 hours which is on December 21. Earliest sunrise is in June with the sun rising around 5 in the morning and the latest sunrise being around 8 in November.

Fort Drum weather and climate in the time that the cadets will begin their training offers them a great experience. The weather will be warm but not too hot with great number of hours of day light to train. This offers cadets a mix of all-weather types with a chance of rain, cloud, clear skies, and an addition of high vegetation.

Fort Drum gets more snow than average places around that surround the area. This is due to the lake effect with the gear lakes being near the base. The snow falls that the base receives is so severe that Fort Drum has their own unit that offers help around the whole Fort to remove the snow. For example, Strasser explains after a severe snowstorm that the, "10th Mountain Division (LI) and Fort Drum engineer units also contributed to the snow removal operations, digging out barracks and the access control points at the height of the storm." (Strasser). Due to the heavy amounts of snowfall, having the cadets train in the summer will allow them to get the best experienced and most effective training for their time at Fort Drum.

With sunrise beginning early of the days in August and the sunset being late in the day will allow the cadets have the most amount of time training in August. In addition, when the weather cools down during the night, the cadets can also train patrol bases in a cool climate without being too hot or too cold.

The different types of soils in New York can range in the hundreds but in Fort Drum, there are only a few that are the main concern that will affect cadet basic training. To begin with, Fort Drum as a whole has three main types of soils that include alfisols, spodosols, and mollisols. Alfisols soil is where it consists of forest type soils and have high fertility that are high in the subsurface with clay being accumulated. This type of soil is very good for agriculture and silviculture. Spodosal soil is where there is a low fertilization level that consists of aluminum and iron that are found in moist forest climates. Lastly, mollisol soil are found in grasslands with the soil being thick with plant roots being the best for agriculture. All these soils will affect the training for the cadets since it will be what they are used to back at West Point. This will allow them to be comfortable moving and training in soils that they have been for the past few years. In addition, the soils are healthy and will provided good plant and vegetation during training. The good soils were used to farm as well when the base was first made. Strasser explains that, "land on Fort Drum was used to grow grist -- wheat, corn, barley, buckwheat and other grains -- for the mill. Local farmers transported their grain to nearby grist mills, which communities were dependent on since bread was a staple part of their diet" (Strasser). The time of the year will also affect how the soils will be depeding on how they will react the weathering.

In addition to the soils, tectonic setting of Fort Drum is also very important to the training in Fort Drum. With New York being located on the North American Plate, the nearest plate boundary is the Juan de Fuca Plate that converges with the North American Plate.

Vegetation of Fort Drum includes, "coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forests; oak savannah; grasslands; shrublands; and wetlands" (Welcome). Most of the training will be conducted in the mixed forests and grasslands since Fort Drum is highly dense with forests and flatlands with high vegetation. In addition, Fort drum has a unique characteristic of, "...more than 70 kinds of tree varieties – fir, maple, birch, pine, spruce, ash, willow and elm, to name a few." (Strasser). This will allow cadets get the best experience of training. It will give them different scenes of training and different vegetations. This is because they can maneuver in tight quarters with high concealment with the help of the thick forests. In addition, in relation to the wetlands, they will affect how planning out transportation of equipment and the cadets themselves. Ultimately, allowing cadets to exercise skills of logistics and terrain analysis.

Fort Drums highest elevation is about 300 meters. The terrain is mostly flat which will affect the cadets land navigation, rucking, shooting, and movement in general during their training. In addition, some important terrain features include lakes, ponds, reservations, swamps, streams, rivers, hillocks, and some small mountains. This will all affect training with the cadets in unique ways. The ponds, swamps, and lakes will teach the cadets how to move around or through obstacles that involve high amount of water. The hillocks will let the cadets learn how to bound with different terrain features. Lastly, the small mountains can let cadets move through them and learn how they can use it for different points of views in a movement. Lastly, the streams and rivers can be used to teach cadets how to use them in land navigation and different types of movements in their favor.

With Fort Drum being one of the biggest military bases in the country for years, the training in the past years have been polluting some of the soils, water, and air. Most affected has been the water and there has been testing to make sure it becomes the safest to use. Drinking water for the cadets must not be polluted since it will have some health risks if it is. Luckily, the army has been doing missions to help save the area of Fort Drum from more polluting including management of waste, recyclables, water sources, storm water, and other toxins that affect the area. For example, "protecting the environment is the responsibility of everyone on post, the Fort Drum Environmental Compliance Branch has the unique role of coordinating the installation’s overall pollution control programs" (army.mil). This will also allow the cadets to help with the process as well and teach them how important it is to take care of the outdoors and not ruin it.

Fort Hood was established in the year of 1908 but was not originally a military base. Pine Camp was run by Brig. Gen. Frederick Dent Grant and trained about 2,000 soldiers and about 8,000 militia men. Before the name Fort Hood, it was first named Pine Camp and was described as, "a military base in Jefferson County, started in 1908. It was renamed Camp Drum in 1951, and finally Fort Drum in 1974. At all stages it was used for winter military training and was home to the 10th Mountain Division" (North County). Originally, Fort Drum or Pine Camp was meant to be just a training site but eventually through all major wars, it became a well-known military base. It wasn't until 1974 when Fort Drum officially changed its name from Pine Camp and became an official garrison for the army. In addition, during World War II, about 75,000 acres was purchased and, "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." (army.mil). With this major development, it began to make Fort Drum a permanent base instead of just a temporary training facility. Overall, it was named Food Drum after Lt. Gen. A. Drum, who led the first group of soldiers in World War II which shows the importance of the history behind Fort Drum

Moving forward, on February 13 of 1985, the light infantry unit known as the 10th Mountain Division became the official division of Fort Drum. "It was the first division of any kind formed by the Army since 1975 and the first based in the Northeast since World War II. Since then, it has been one of the most deployed units in the U.S. Army. The division commander after reactivation was Brig. Gen. William S. Carpenter" (army.mil). Today, the 10th Mountain Division is the most well-known division across the army and are known for their intensity and wide range of soldiers that can complete a mission anywhere, anytime.

Fort Drum offers an outstanding amount of training facilities, but the cadets will be training at the ranges and live firing ranges. There are 47 live-fire ranges and an additional 18 other training facilities for the cadets. All the different ranges offer the cadets different versions of firing and different versions of their training. This will allow the cadets to not do the same training repeatedly and will be able to go to a variety of ranges. In addition, "Range Branch supports training on a 24/7 schedule to ensure our Soldiers and leaders get the best possible training experience" (army.mil). The people who run the ranges will be training the cadets and will give them the best experience they possible can.

Fort Drum, NY, home of the 10th Mountain Division with almost 15,000 personnel and over 100,000 acres of land to offer would be the best place for cadet training. Cadets will begin their training on August 31 and to September 14. With training being late in the summer, this offers the new cadets to be trained in a nice time period of good weather and climate conditions and with high vegetation. In addition, Fort Drum offers a variety of terrain with mountains, hills, valleys, flatlands, woodlands, and much more for the cadets to train in. The cadets will also be used to the terrain since it is much similar of West Points. These different types of terrain will let the cadets train in all different kinds of environments and will let them learn different ways to attack these different elements of land varieties. Moving on, Fort Drum has warm weather lasting about four months from May 25 to September 18 with the overall average temperature being 69 degrees. This weather will give the cadets good conditions to train in, and precipitation is low compared to the other months of the summer in Fort Drum. With sunrise beginning early of the days in August and the sunset being late in the day will allow the cadets have the most amount of time training in August. Adding on, the personnel is at a high amount and is always happy to train future leaders of America and can wall the cadets through their training. Lastly, Fort Drum is the backbone of the army and has great history to offer cadets to learn about the profession they are in. Fort Drum has been a major facility in all the wars we have been in and will continue to help train the soldiers of the United States of the Army.

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