ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson will visit Fort Drum on Friday, where he will address approximately 1,100 10th Mountain Division soldiers and their families at a deployment ceremony at 11 a.m. The soldiers are slated to deploy to Iraq in the near future.

The trip marks the governor's first visit to the north country since assuming the state's highest office on March 17.

The governor will also meet privately with Gen. Richard A. Cody, the vice chief of staff for the U.S. Army, and Maj. Gen. Michael L. Oates, commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division.

During an interview aired Wednesday on North Country Public Radio, Gov. Paterson said he would also address at least one non-military topic during his north country visit.

"One of things I'm going to do when I get there on Friday is talk about the way that we're going to expand the Samaritan hospital — the emergency facilities," the governor said.

During the radio interview, Gov. Paterson generated more questions than he could answer in an hour.

"We had a lot of calls," North Country Public Radio News Director Martha Foley said. "We had probably 15 to 20 e-mailed questions and probably a dozen people called in."

Gov. Paterson announced last week a statewide "radio town hall" tour that would allow New Yorkers to ask him questions directly over the airwaves and hear their concerns as he pulls together a policy agenda. NCPR was among the first stations to broadcast the show.

"There were more questions about the economy than anything," Ms. Foley said. "There were a lot about the Adirondacks. We had a couple of e-mailed questions about people with disabilities. We were not able to get to all of the questions."

During the show, which ran from noon to 1 p.m., Gov. Paterson was in New York City while Ms. Foley moderated from the station's headquarters in Canton.

The broadcast might have attracted more callers except it was rescheduled a number of times to adjust to the governor's duties. However, he might become a regular on the airwaves.

"He indicated he'd like to," Ms. Foley said. "He said a couple of times he'd like to do this again."

The coming trip is not the governor's first trip to the north country. As lieutenant governor, Mr. Paterson was the keynote speaker at the inauguration of John F. Schwaller, president of SUNY Potsdam, in April 2007.

Gov. Paterson also visited the north country last May, accompanying former Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer for meetings at Fort Drum with Army officials and to Massena to meet with members of the United Auto Workers Local 465 in the wake of General Motors' announcement that it would close its plant there, eliminating 500 jobs.