THOUGHTS FROM FORT DRUM

Well, we just returned from a week up in the NORTH COUNTRY. For all of you who don't know what that is, refer to 44N, 76W on your handy US Road Atlas. You'll find a little area around Watertown, NY where FORT DRUM, the most deployed base in the US Army, is conveniently nestled in the SNOW BELT of the United States.

The majority of the troops at Fort Drum are still deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq, but we spent some time with a few participants up there on the first warm, blue-sky sunny weekend they've had all year. A couple of our participants are patiently waiting for their husbands to return, while a couple others are transitioning to life as civilians after serving out their times in the Army. Watertown seems chalked full of such stories.

Flags and yellow ribbons hang in just about every storefront and adorn the bumpers or rear-windows of every car. Women wearing wedding rings do their business alone or hang out in small packs of wives. Phones frequently ring late at night and always without warning. Half finished houses are on the verge of sale, waiting for new servicemen to arrive, and veterans to leave. Camouflaged men nonchalantly walk around town, in and out of stores and homes – a sight that would give pause to passers-by in most any other town in the US.

Clearly, something is going on in Watertown that isn't going on in the world that 99% of Americans live in. The war is visible here through the people who support it, and the people who fight it. It is visible on virtually every streetcorner, every storefront, and every stretch of road. The elephant in the living room of most all American homes walks around noticeably up in Watertown, and the people, though weary and strained by the pain its caused, are proud of it.

If nothing else, our trip up north reminded us that we live in a country where most people do not really understand what it means to be a soldier. Most people don't know what it's like to hang a yellow ribbon or a flag, look at it, and wonder if the person they love the most is going to make it back home. Most people don't know what it's like to uproot their family and spend a perpetual winter alone in one of the coldest places in the country because they married someone who swore an oath to his or her country. It's a volunteer Army now, and as a citizen who never considers the military as an option it's easy to forget that it even exists, or to pretend like it can be understood.

So, in closing, we hope that those who pass through a place like Watertown take the time to reflect on what it truly means for many people to live there. We salute the people who do, and wish that the rest of the country made decisions with a greater understanding of their sacrifices.

Come home safe.

- Unfiltered and Real