10th Mountain has been on front line of war against terrorism - WatertownDailyTimes.com

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Sept. 23, 2001: C Company, the 10th Mountain Division's 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment is ordered to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., to guard sensitive materials.

Oct. 5, 2001: Task Force 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, made up primarily of soldiers from 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, deploys to Karshi-Khanabad, a former Soviet air base in Uzbekistan and is joined later by elements of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment. The units secure the airfield, form a quick reaction force and provide humanitarian support.

October 2001: Elements of 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment secure coalition equipment, facilities and personnel in Kuwait and Qatar.

November 2001: Task Force 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment touches down at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, guards the airfield and provides security for humanitarian relief.

Nov. 26, 2001: Company C, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment assists Army Special Forces and Northern Alliance in retaking a fort captured by al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners at Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Nov. 29, 2001: The division suffers its first death when Pvt. Giovanny Maria, 19, of Queens, dies reportedly of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Uzbekistan.

December 2001: Soldiers of 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment process al-Qaida/Taliban captives at Shebergan Prison, Afghanistan.

December 2001: 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment guards Mazar-e-Sharif, where John Walker Lindh, a 20-year-old Taliban recruit from northern California, is being held.

December 2001: Maj. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, commander of the 10th Mountain Division, deploys to Bagram Air Base as commander of coalition forces.

March 2, 2002: 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment and 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, with elements from other 10th Division units, fight the battle of Shah-e-Kot, in eastern Afghanistan. Operation Anaconda drags on until March 19 as al-Qaida/Taliban holdouts mount spirited resistance in rugged mountains near the Pakistan border. Victory costs eight American lives while several hundred enemy troops are killed (estimates continue to vary). Several soldiers from Fort Drum are injured in the fighting, but none killed.

March 14, 2002: 2nd Brigade and 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment mounts Operation Harpoon at Shah-e-Kot, and clears caves and bunkers of surviving al-Qaida and Taliban and collects arms, ammunition and notebooks.

April 2002: Task Forces 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment and 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment return to Fort Drum.

April 11, 2002: Task Force 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment holds an awards ceremony, attended by Gen. Erik K. Shinseki, Army chief of staff.

April 15, 2002: Task Force 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment holds its awards ceremony, attended by Army Secretary Thomas E. White, U.S. Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rep. John M. McHugh and Gov. George E. Pataki.

March 2003: 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry and elements of the 41st Engineer Battalion make their way to Iraq, where they support the 10th Special Forces Group. The infantry battalion also secures airfields and oil transfer stations and trains Kurdish militias.

April 2003: Members of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment deploy to Djibouti to support the global war on terror.

June 12, 2003: The division suffers its first death in Iraq when Spc. John K. Klinesmith Jr., an infantryman assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, drowns in a lake in Fallujah, Iraq.

July 24, 2003: 1st Brigade deploys to Iraq.

August 21, 2003: Brig. Gen. (promotable) Lloyd J. Austin III takes command of the division.

Sept. 2, 2003: The 10th Division's first set of combat deaths in Afghanistan hit home when a Potsdam native is killed. Two snipers, Spc. Chad E. Fuller, 23, and Pfc. Adam L. Thomas, both of the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, are killed by enemy fire while patrolling the eastern border of Afghanistan. Spc. Fuller had been a star athlete at Potsdam High School.

Oct. 6, 2003: The division suffers its first death from an improvised explosive device in Iraq when 2nd Lt. Richard Torres, 25, Clarksville, Tenn., is killed in Baghdad.

June 8, 2004: Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, visits Fort Drum to award Purple Hearts to Spc. Victor Thibeault and Sgt. Daniel Swank. In 2003, Spc. Thibeault allowed a grenade to explode inside the vehicle he and Sgt. Swank were in instead of throwing it back onto the road where civilians would be hurt. For that action, Spc. Thibeault receives a Silver Star and Sgt. Swank receives a Bronze Star.

July 2004: The 2nd Brigade Combat Team deploys to Iraq to secure the area west of Baghdad.

August 2004: 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment fights a high-intensity battle against Moqtada al-Sadr's militia in Sadr City, Baghdad.

Sept. 27, 2004: The 10th Mountain Division adds its 3rd Brigade Combat Team and marks its transformation into modular brigades, which are intended to deploy independently. The transformation of the Army brings more than 5,000 additional soldiers to post.

Jan. 19, 2005: The division adds a 4th Brigade Combat Team, which is based out of Fort Polk, La.

Feb. 2005: Eight 10th Mountain Division soldiers are demoted following a December 2003 incident in Afghanistan in which the soldiers took pictures of themselves pointing unloaded weapons at a bound and hooded detainee.

Aug. 12, 2005: The 1st Brigade Combat Team deploys to Iraq to conduct combat operations in western Baghdad.

Aug. 23, 2005: Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley takes command of the division.

January 2006: The division headquarters element, along with the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade and the 10th Sustainment Brigade, assume command of Combined Joint Task Force-76 in Afghanistan.

March 2006: The 3rd Brigade Combat Team deploys to Afghanistan and conducts four significant combat operations within a year.

March 2006: The 4th Brigade Combat Team's 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment deploys to Afghanistan with elements of the Brigade Special Troops Battalion.

May 5, 2006: A CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashes, killing 10 soldiers in Afghanistan including the commander of the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, Lt. Col. Joseph J. Fenty, who had led soldiers in clearing fighters and finding caves in Gardez, Afghanistan, in 2002.

August 2006: The 2nd Brigade Combat Team deploys to Iraq.

September 2006: The 4th Brigade Combat Team's 3rd Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment is deployed to Iraq.

November 2006: The 4th Brigade Combat Team's 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment deploys to Afghanistan.

April 1, 2007: Five soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team are killed by an IED blast in Baghdad.

April 4, 2007: Brig. Gen. (Promotable) Michael L. Oates takes command of the division.

April 11, 2007: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announces that unit deployments were being extended from 12 to 15 months, immediately affecting the 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

Nov. 28, 2007: Fort Drum reactivates the 3rd Battalion, 85th Infantry Regiment as the Warrior Transition Unit. The battalion serves as a place for soldiers suffering from physical and psychological injuries to heal and transition back to a unit or to civilian life.

Sept. 6, 2007: The 1st Brigade Combat Team deploys to perform security operations in Kirkuk, Iraq.

November 2007: The 4th Brigade Combat Team deploys to Iraq and in January assumes command in Baghdad.

January 2008: The 3rd Brigade Combat Team deploys to Logar and Wardak provinces in Afghanistan to guard the southern approaches to Kabul.

Sept. 3, 2009: Maj. Gen. James L. Terry takes command of the division.

Sept. 18, 2009: Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama for running into enemy fire repeatedly in an attempt to rescue a fallen comrade. The intense Afghan firefight took place on June 21, 2006. On June 30, 2010, the Pines Plains Fitness Center on post is renamed the Monti Fitness Center.

October 2009: The 2nd Brigade Combat Team deploys to eastern Baghdad to train national security forces. The deployment bridges Operation Iraqi Freedom to Operation New Dawn. Its achievements — which include a 59 percent decrease in insurgent activity in its sector — contribute to its early return home.

March 15, 2010: The 1st Brigade Combat Team deploys as part of President Obama's Afghan surge.

May 18, 2010: Two field-grade officers on a reconnaissance mission to Afghanistan for the division's headquarters unit are killed when their convoy is hit by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Lt. Col. Paul R. Bartz, 43, of Wisconsin and Lt. Col. Thomas P. Belkofer, 44, of Ohio are two of the 18 people killed in the attack.

June 2010: Army officials announce the arrest of Fort Drum soldier Spc. Bradley Manning in connection with sensitive information being disclosed to the website WikiLeaks.

July 28, 2010: Vice President Joseph R. Biden visits Fort Drum to welcome the 2nd Brigade Combat Team and congratulates its 3,500 members on being among the last units to serve a combat mission in Iraq.

October 2010: The 4th Brigade Combat Team deploys to Afghanistan. Maj. Gen. James L. Terry assumes command of Regional Command South in Afghanistan the following month.

March 2011: The 3rd Brigade Combat Team deploys to Afghanistan and meets up with the division headquarters battalion in Kandahar.

May 2, 2011: Osama bin Laden is killed in Pakistan by American forces.

June 22, 2011: President Barack Obama announces that 33,000 soldiers of the 101,000 soldiers will be brought home from Afghanistan by summer 2012.

June 23, 2011: President Obama visits about 150 soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team and tells them the division will keep on fighting in Afghanistan. He later holds a closed door session with families who have lost a loved one overseas.

Aug 4, 2011: The Department of Defense announces Maj. Gen. Mark A. Milley will take command of the division.

Aug 13, 2011: Five soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team are killed by an IED blast in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Aug. 9, 2011: The Department of the Army announces nine month deployments for most units.