WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories
August 12, 2025
8/12/2025 | 25m 14sVideo has Closed Captions
Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Fort Drum & what this military installation means to the community
Forty years ago, the 10th Mountain Division arrived at Fort Drum. We celebrate this important milestone with a look at how the division has become a treasured part of our community. And we sit down with Advocate Drum Executive Director Michael McFadden to learn about the positive impact fort drum has for the North Country. Also, what happens when you take a tiny kayak into a giant Erie Canal lock?
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WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories is a local public television program presented by WPBS
WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories
August 12, 2025
8/12/2025 | 25m 14sVideo has Closed Captions
Forty years ago, the 10th Mountain Division arrived at Fort Drum. We celebrate this important milestone with a look at how the division has become a treasured part of our community. And we sit down with Advocate Drum Executive Director Michael McFadden to learn about the positive impact fort drum has for the North Country. Also, what happens when you take a tiny kayak into a giant Erie Canal lock?
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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40 years ago, the 10th Mountain Division arrived at Fort Drum.
We celebrate this important milestone with a look at how the division has become a treasured part of our community.
And we sit down with Advocate Drum executive director Michael McFadden, to learn about the positive impact Fort Drum has on the North Country.
Also, what happens when you take a tiny kayak into a giant Erie Canal lock?
We'll show you one couple's amazing experience.
Your story is your region coming up right now on WPBS weekly.
Inside this storm, - WPBS weekly inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.
The Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you, located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School, comfort and Healing close to home when you need it.
Most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.
With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.
Your health matters to us North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.
- We are the North country.
We're protecting one another like family.
Family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.
Find out how we keep the North country Strong, at claxtonhepburn.org.
Today, - Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide Community re-grant program, a re-grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.
- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories, I'm Michael Riecke.
In 1985, Fort Drum became the new home of the newly reactivated 10th Mountain Division Light Infantry.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of this significant event in North Country history.
Since its activation, the 10th Mountain Division has become the most deployed unit in United States history.
The arrival of the division turned Fort Drum into an economic powerhouse that pumps nearly $2 billion into our local economy.
The story of Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division all started with a place known as Pine Plains.
- So what happens in the late 19th century is that the Army realizes they need more land for training soldiers.
And so they approach the Watertown Chamber of Commerce and they say, do you have a space somewhere in the county with more land where we could do larger military maneuvers?
We'd like to bring the cavalry, for instance, and that involves horses and men and big guns.
And actually the Chamber of Commerce says, do we have the place for you?
It's the Pine Plains.
And so you have this very, very sandy land form, which is essentially the ancient glacial sand deposits from the earlier iterations of Lake Ontario.
And it's not any good for farming.
There's even a great quote.
The only thing the Pine Plains are good for is raising hell in huckleberries.
- The area known as Pine Plains would eventually be changed to Pine Camp and then again to Camp Drum in 1951.
The name change was an honor of Lieutenant General Hugh Drum.
General Drum served as the first United States Army's chief of staff during World War I.
He was also commander of the first Army during the initial days of World War ii.
In 1974, the Army assigned a permanent garrison and Camp Drum was renamed Fort Drum.
On September 11th, 1984, the Army announced Fort Drum would become the new home of the 10th Mountain Light Infantry Division originally activated in 1943 as the 10th Light Division Alpine and renamed the 10th Mountain Division.
In 1944.
This group of Hardy cold weather soldiers fought in the snow covered mountains of Italy and Austria.
They faced some of the roughest terrain in World War ii.
After the war, the division was deactivated only to be reactivated and re-designated as a 10th Infantry Division In 1948.
At first, the division mostly trained soldiers, but in 1954, it was converted to a full combat division.
The division was stationed in Germany until 1958, when it was once again deactivated.
27 years later, the 10th Infantry Division found a new home at Fort Drum, newly reactivated and newly renamed.
The 10th Mountain Division Soldiers officially began training at Fort Drum on February 13th, 1985, 40 years ago, - We'll simply put, it made Fort Drum, a global power projection platform.
So in February of 85, when the Army reactivated the 10th Mountain Division here, it was really about creating a new fighting force, a new type of formation for our army.
And you gotta think back to the context.
So this is coming out of the Vietnam War.
We're in the buildup in the 1980s, and it was a bipolar world between the Soviet Union and the forces of the West United States leading that.
And you needed to have a formation that could go anywhere in the world at a moment's notice without being encumbered by a bunch of equipment.
And that was the genesis of the 10th Mountain Division.
Light Infantry built for speed and strategic flexibility to go anywhere in the world.
- Unlike other military installations, the Army intentionally designed Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division to fit into the local community seamlessly.
- So 40 years ago, when the Army reactivated the 10th Mountain Division here, they really made a conscious decision to be completely integrated and dependent on this wonderful North country community.
So nearly $1.93 billion of economic impact into the North country community and Fort Drum.
When you think about the number of soldiers that live here, the families that live here, the civilians that are employed here, and the retirees who because of this wonderful environment decide to stay here and make it their home.
There's nearly 65,000 people who stay in the area and continue to contribute to the economy and the wellbeing of the North country.
And that's shown in respect from the community back to the Fort Drum soldiers and our entire division and units here.
This is just a great place to live.
- The Division's mission is to train to rapidly deploy by Air, sea, and land anywhere in the world and be prepared to fight upon arrival and win.
- We'll simply put, when our nation calls, we must be ready to answer and believe it.
We are ready to go.
We are the most deployed division in the United States Army at this moment in time.
We're serving all over the globe.
That won't change.
And it's because this incredible installation, the incredible community that our war fighting skills are honed, that our families are taking care of.
And again, when the nation calls, we will be ready to answer.
- Having Ford Drum in your backyard also comes with significant economic and cultural benefits.
Organizations like Advocate Drum have helped drive job creation, invest in infrastructure, and strengthen community partnerships, playing a vital role in the future of the North country.
WPBS producer Luke Smith, sat down with Advocate Drum, executive director Michael McFadden to find out what's happening now and what's ahead for the organization.
- Thank you Michael.
And folks, I am super excited about who we have in the studio here today.
Folks, this is Mike McFadden.
Michael, you, first of all, thank you for coming to the studio today.
It's a pleasure having you here.
- I appreciate you having me.
- And you know, I was looking at, I was, when I read, read into you, you have quite the resume.
You are a 32 year veteran, 10 assignments on Fort Drum.
In 1990, you were a flight medic and you led a bunch of operations in Afghanistan.
And today you're here to talk Advocate Drum.
- Yes, sir.
- So what is that?
I've, I've, this is new to me.
- Yeah.
So Advocate Drum is a nonprofits membership organization.
We're a community group type of organization.
And our mission is to protect, enhance for drum's, military value, and sustain and leverage it's economic and cultural significance and foster effective communications between the installation and the community.
- And with your background in military service, you know, about what the military provides to the communities that they inhabit.
So educate me a little bit, what is, what's, what does Fort Drum bring to this local North country community?
- Sure.
Fort Drum is a very unique military installation, and having moved 22 different times with the Army, I've seen a lot of different military installations.
Uniqueness of Fort Drum is, there's no hospital on Fort Drum, so it relies on our local community for any major medical care.
It also, there's no educational facility.
So all of our military children who reside on Fort Drum and off of Fort Drum, who are military associated attend local schools.
And so with that, Fort Drum brings almost $2.6 billion in economic impact Wow.
To our local area, $39 million in educational aid to our schools, and about $140 million is infused into our healthcare system each year.
- That is huge.
And I just, and you know, I, I gotta know what made you want to be, you've been a, you've been the executive director now for just about a year, and I just wanna know what made you want to, what made you wanna to sign onto this organization?
- So I, I retired in Savannah, Georgia, and after my wife and I traveled the country for about a year, looking for that perfect place to live.
And we realized that our time at Fort Drum was our best time in the military.
My wife happens to be from Lowville New York, and so her mother still resides here.
So we decided to come back this way.
And I wanted to do something that I could fully ingrained myself into the community.
And I saw this opportunity and I said, what a better opportunity than to support both Fort Drum.
And I'm a combat veteran of the 10th Mountain Division, as well as the local community - Where I live.
It's so great to hear you coming back to the community and giving back.
Now, you know, I wanted to ask you, what is, what is Advocate Drum doing this year?
I know you guys are on your 40th anniversary of Advocate Drum.
What are you guys doing this year to commemorate that?
- So again, 40 years we've been around since the division where we stood up.
Right.
The organization back then realized both the community and the division realized that needed an organization to help 'em with the significant challenges.
The population of Watertown was about 17,000 in 1985.
And here we were gonna activate a division of about 15,000 soldiers.
So you can imagine the significant challenges that comes over that, whether it's housing or healthcare and all the infrastructure issues.
So we're really proud to still be around 40 years later, still advocating for the installation.
Our major initiative this year is a initiative called Next Move, New York.
- Ooh.
- And that's a state initiative, a $10 million state initiative.
And we're partners with the, the North Country or DANC Development Authority of the North country as well as JCC.
And the mission of Next Move New York is to encourage those soldiers who are adding, ending their military service at Fort Drum to stay in the local area.
As we know there's a significant work workforce gap here in the north country, and we want to entice those soldiers to stay in the local community, be part of our community, and, and fill that workforce gap.
- And do you see those military veterans coming back to volunteer for organizations like Advocate Drum?
- We do.
We have quite a few who are veterans that volunteer within our organization.
We're about a member organization of about 250, and we have multiple retired service members or former service members that sit on our board or volunteer in our different committees.
- What about for non-veterans?
For people who wanna just, who are, who are watching this right now and wanna get involved somehow, but don't know where to get started, can they get involved?
- Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Advocatedrum.com or fdrlow.org are all places that they can go to.
And again, we have multiple opportunities for different committees, whether it's our membership committee or spousal employment committee.
We have multiple committees that they can volunteer their time to help one, support our mission, ensure that Fort Drum remains a viable in insulation, not only for Fort Drum, but for the community.
- You've been the executive director for just about a year at this point.
I wanna look back a little bit.
What's it been like this past year seeing, helping with Advocate Drum, being the executive director and giving back to the community?
- It's been exciting.
It's been, it's been eye-opening again, get getting to learn the organization.
We have a very diverse board of directors that come from a lot of different disciplines throughout the community.
Former and current CEOs of organizations, non-profit for-profit organizations, educational institutions, the leaders of those.
So it's been exciting getting to learn the personalities of our board of directors as well as learning, learning how to advocate both with our state, local, and federal representatives.
- You mentioned earlier in the interview that you came back to the North country.
What does, what does the North Country mean to you altogether?
- Well, I think one, it, it's a tremendous sense of community.
So, you know, the, the North Country is a military defense community.
And Fort Drum provides us that opportunity where the people and the insulation are, are really cohesive based on the uniqueness of Fort Drum and the services that we provide as a community to Fort Drum.
But there's a lot of pride in the community.
There's a lot of opportunity.
We have phenomenal educational system, we have great healthcare system, and we have beautiful recreational activities, especially if you like the outdoors.
We're a four season community, so you can enjoy all four seasons and there's plenty to do through each one of those seasons.
- Looking ahead, going into 2025 and 2026, is there anything you're looking forward to for Advocate, drummer things, big goals that you would like to achieve this year?
- Sure.
I would love to see us expand our membership.
Our membership really is our strength.
So when I sit down with our federally elected representatives or our state elected representatives, and I talk about issues that impact Fort Drum, our membership shows them that the community is invested in the organization, they're invested within their own community.
They're invested in the future of Fort Drum, and ensuring that that installation remains a viable partner within the community.
- The big thing I'm curious about is why should more people know about Advocate Drum if they don't know about it already?
- Well, one, I think that the Advocate Drum gives them an opportunity to support the mission of ensuring that Fort Drum remains a viable military installation and remains a viable economic powerhouse, not only for the North country, but for the entire state of New York.
Fort Drum is the largest single side employer in the state of New York.
And our goal is to ensure that it remains that.
- Can you remind me where people can go and to learn more about Advocate Drum aside from this interview?
- Sure.
Advocatedrum.com is our website and, and they can get information there about how to volunteer for the - Organization, how can other organizations even get involved?
- Sure.
They, they can contact Advocate Drum to help champion issues that we think are important to the community in Ford Drum.
- Well, Michael, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for coming here.
And thank you for your service.
I, I mean, I, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to overstate your service to the community, but you know, for your service to the community, your service to the military and this and this great country, we couldn't be more grateful.
So thank you so much for your time, both in the military and taking the time to come to WPBS to talk to us today.
It was certainly a pleasure.
- I really appreciate it.
Thank you.
- For more information, visit advocate drum.com.
Well, 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal.
We're celebrating this technological marvel with a multi-part special series.
Tonight we discover what it's like to take a kayak inside Lock two on the Erie Canal in Waterford, New York.
The Erie Canal was once a major commercial transportation highway.
Today the canal is still used for commercial traffic, but also provides free recreational opportunities for boats, kayaks, canoes, and other vessels.
- Ugh, what a great day.
So where are we going today?
- Today we are going to the lock in Waterford, New York.
- The lock in Waterford, New York.
It's, is it one lock or a system of locks?
- This is one of the locks.
- One of the locks.
- One of the locks.
It's a whole system.
- And we're gonna, I think we're gonna rent kayaks and we're gonna go in the lot.
Yeah, right.
That's the plan.
- And we're bringing you along.
- Awesome.
- Oh, here we are.
Oh, look at this.
- I am Bill Schweitzer.
I work for the New York State Canal Corporation, and we operate and maintain the Erie Canal and a big part of the Canalway Trail.
And I'm the marketing director.
So we're in Waterford, New York.
It's the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson, and it is the first lock on the Erie Canal.
A lock is really just an elevator for boats.
It's 2000 year old technology, the gravity lock.
All our locks are gravity locks.
That is a Leonardo da Vinci invention.
The terrain of New York state goes up and downs a lot of hills and valleys.
What I tell the kids is, you know, if you see a waterfall, you can't really go up a waterfall by boat, and you certainly don't want to go down one.
And a lock is that lift or that elevator that lifts you over the white water.
So whenever there's an elevation change, a lock, you pull into a lock shut the gates, you fill it up with water, and it's the water from the higher elevation.
The gravity fills the lock, and then they open the gates and you can move on.
So it moves you up and down by water.
It is, it is nothing more than an elevator for boats.
So I think we should get in a kayak and do a little paddle and go in and just see how the lock works from inside.
So we're approaching lock two.
- It feels very intimidating.
Are you nervous?
Yeah, - I'm not nervous.
Are you?
- Yeah, - I'm excited.
We're gonna go in a giant bathtub.
- Yeah, he said elevator.
Let's call lock two and see if they're ready for us.
- I would say just kind of hug towards the side here and then just keep ourselves steady.
Okay.
So underneath us, there's the lower valves and the upper valves.
And again, those are just like big, huge drains and they drain underneath the water into the canal, or they connect the water that's above us here.
Right.
So he is gonna fill us up.
He's gonna make sure the lower valves are closed.
He's gonna open up the upper valves, and that's really just taking the cover off that big, huge drain.
And the water from the higher elevation will fill up from the bottom.
Look at the things.
- Oh my gosh.
It's happening.
Bye, Ken.
Oh my God.
How you feel, Matt?
Give your testimony.
- I feel great.
- You always say, I feel great.
I'm terrified.
That's terrifying.
- Well, we're doing it now.
No turning back.
- Literally.
Yeah, no turning back now.
Now.
So the gates are closed now.
The next noise you will hear is the big huge valve covers that will lift up and start letting in the water from the higher elevations and will fill from the bottom and will slowly lift up.
Nicole, you look nervously excited.
- I am nervously excited.
He said there were almost 200 kayaks in that lock at one time.
That's crazy.
- Cole's talking to herself.
- Talk about a partake.
Alright, shall we - Oh, just turn around.
Is that what we're doing here?
Yeah.
We gotta go down now.
I guess.
- We have a, a yellow light.
- Well, red.
- Red.
- There's only two.
You - Kayak buddies.
- You'll always know your neighbor.
You'll always know your pal.
And if you've ever navigated the Erie Canal, you did it.
Aw, that's cute.
If you know folks have never come to the Erie Canal or any of the canals, you know, I said Come, come down and try it.
It's, it's a really cool different boating experience and there's no time to do it.
No better time to do it than our 200th birthday.
- Thank you for joining us on this episode of Field Trip.
- For more information, go to wmt.org/field trip and tell us where you think we should go next.
What's going on?
Field trip free spring.
- I enjoyed that.
- I did have a lot of fun.
I think does.
- Yeah.
Cool.
Don't tell anybody about I like that better than the Mohawk Harbor Kayak situation.
- He's recording.
- I know - That does it for this Tuesday night next week.
The New York State Fair is almost here.
We'll tell you what's new and how New York's farmers remain.
At the center of the fair's mission and in two weeks, Sean Hennessy joins Johnny Spezzano in the kitchen to make some traditional wood-fired bagels with a North country twist.
Also, Laura Tiberiu is back.
Her review of the book, homecoming by Yaa Gyasi, might just convince you it's your next must read.
Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we'd love to learn more.
All you need to do is drop us an email at wpbs weekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.
That's it for tonight.
Everyone.
Take care.
We'll see you next episode.
- WPBS Weekly.
Inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.
A Carthage Walk-in clinic is here for you.
Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.
Comfort and Healing, close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.
With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.
Your health matters to us.
North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.
- We are the North country.
We're protecting one another.
Like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.
Find out how we keep the north country Strong at claxtonhepburn.org.
Today, - Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide Community Regrant program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council - To the lock in Waterford, New York.
- The lock in Waterford, New York is, is it one lock or a system of locks?
- This is one of the locks.
- One of the locks.
- One of the locks.
It's a whole system.
- And we're gonna, I think we're gonna rent kayaks and we're gonna go in the lot.
Yeah, right.
That's the plan.
- And we're bringing you along.
- Awesome.
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