Before John McHugh became the Secretary of the Army, he was a longtime Congressman who represented the north country.

On Friday, he came home.

It's only the second time McHugh has visited Fort Drum since he took the job as Secretary of the Army in 2009.

"I think having Secretary McHugh here speaks volumes to his view of the importance of Fort Drum and the Fort Drum community," said Congressman Bill Owens (D. - 23rd District).

McHugh is very good friend to have - especially now.

The Department of Defense is facing the threat of massive budget cuts - $600 billion if the so-called super committee can't agree on how to trim the federal budget.

That's on top of the $489 billion or so already in the works.

McHugh says if that happens, nothing will be off the table.

"Hopefully it won't, but if it does, we're going to have some tough, tough choices to make," said McHugh.

He says minimizing the impact on our troops' ability to fight will be his top priority.

Coming in a close second is preserving the Army's ability to take care of those soldiers' families.

"We're going to do everything we can to protect family programs because this is a family based Army," said McHugh.

During his visit Friday to Fort Drum, McHugh met with wounded warriors and other soldiers, as well as family readiness group leaders to find out if all the money spent on family programs is really money well spent.

"There's not much I'd like to see cut. There are things I think we can do better," said McHugh.

McHugh said there's a lot of savings to be had in finding efficiencies across the Army.

Whether that will be enough will depend on the decisions made on Capitol Hill in the coming weeks.