10th Mountain Division News Roundup

Fort Drum Training for NY National Guard Aircrews
New York National Guard Aviation Soldiers will train to prepare themselves for the newly formed Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Explosive (CBRNE) Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF. This training of Soldiers and aircrwes will certify three of New York's aviation units to be called to Federal Active Duty if needed to deploy in support of federal missions for any natural or man-made disaster beginning in the new fiscal year, starting October1.

Country superstar at the county fair
Opening for Mr. Jackson will be Timothy ("T. J.") Murphy, a soldier at Fort Drum who is a native of Kittery, Maine.

Mr. Murphy has served his country for almost 25 years and will retire from the military this year to become a full-time country music artist. He's been involved in the business for a long time, performing with his band on and off for the past 17 years.

The Badlands of Kandahar: Counterinsurgency Testing Ground
The Dand-district center is a novelty in the badlands of Kandahar province. As the seat of both the top government official and the U.S. forces based in the area, it's a seductive target for Taliban militants looking to make a statement. Yet its walls lack the extra defenses found at other district centers across Afghanistan's embattled south. On any given day, half of the guard towers are unoccupied and the front gate is left open, manned by a single police officer who casually waves visitors through. So calm is the surrounding area that U.S. Army officers living there are lobbying for permission to go outside the wire without body armor. "If there's an ink spot [of stability] forming in southern Afghanistan, I would say it's this district," says Major Edward Ash of the 1-71 Cavalry, 10th Mountain division.

Training to tackle the Taliban - and cooperate with allies
The Afghan policemen do not seem overly excited by the prospect of going on tour with their American trainers this afternoon.

Outside in Imam Sahib, in the Kunduz province of northern Afghanistan, it's 45 degrees celsius. The local police chief delegates one of his sergeants and two patrolmen to go out, vastly outnumbered by their US counterparts.