10th Mountain Division on NPR

[JayB]

I just listened to a great audio-history piece on the early history (through WWII) of the 10th Mountain Division on NPR's all things considered.

 

Here's the link:

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14594652

 

Sounds like the audio should be available as of 4:00 PST.

[chucK]

just heard it on broadcast

[111]

me too. Those guys were badass. Climbed a granite mountain fixing ropes with pitons and cloth wrapped hammers for stealth. Oh, yea, and huge packs too.

 

[canadug]

I just finished reading a book about those guys....It was quite good.

[canadug]

Called, "The Last Ridge" by McKay Jenkins

[Couloir]

On a related note, The War is going to be on PBS Sunday night. This should be an excellent film.

 

Link to The War main page.

 

26 Minute Video

[Mal_Con]

Heard it too, the original hard men.

[Alpinfox]

buncha pansy losers.

 

Highest casualties (% wise) in the US army during WWII.

 

Thatz what you get for training a bunch of climbers to do a man's work.

 

 

 

[plexus]

One of the few highlights at my current job was getting one of these daring soldiers for our show. Talked with him for 30 minutes afterwards and the stories were amazing. It puts things into perspective, especially a comment he made about how the best times were traveling in the mountains. They would be in these beautiful places and could mentally escape while trudging along. But then the sounds of war would bring him back to reality of why they were there.

[ScaredSilly]

Speaking of the Mtn Division: Bob Bates who spent much of the war testing cold weather gear that was used by those boys and got the third ascent of Denali of it passed away this month:

 

http://obit.brewittfuneralhome.com/obit_display.cgi?id=458140

 

 

[sobo]

Great piece. Caught it on the way home from work last night.

For those not in the know, The Wall of a Thousand Pitons at Seneca Rocks, WV, was created by the 10th Mountain as part of their training prior to their shipping out to Europe in WWII.

[sobo]

On a related note, The War is going to be on PBS Sunday night. This should be an excellent film.

 

Link to The War main page.

 

26 Minute Video

 

Anything by Ken Burns is gonna be excellent. The guy just has a gift.

Too bad our TV doesn't receive dish or cable, and we don't have rabbit ears (it's a young kids thing, ya know).

I'll have to wait for the DVD release. I'm really looking forward to this series.

[climbnsparky]

i went to the 10th mountain yearly picnic this summer. there were some amazing stories to be heard.

they are the origional hard men.

the guy that i want with was one of the fouders of ski patrol at timberline. he just turned 95 and to hear the stories he has is amazing!