Oral History 1980-1999 [sound recording].

ArchivalResource

Oral History 1980-1999 [sound recording].

Discusses quitting college to learn to ski, about learning about the ski troops after Pearl Harbor, and about reporting to duty in June with the 87th Infantry Regiment at Fort Lewis. Sent to Camp Hale when it had just opened and had high altitude training as a rifleman. Talks about arriving in Naples and being injured from a shell impact on Belvedere. Discusses Po River and the flat land fighting, then moving north, capturing German troops and the fight at Lake Garda. Talks about the support they had in the field. He talks about finding a German liquor warehouse, about Nazis hiding in resort hotels, and about spending the occupation in Northern Italy, which included going to the Yugoslavia border. He gets Hepatitis and goes home where he eventually works on a ranch in Wyoming, then as a wilderness guide, and then joins the Ski Patrol. Some of his poems are published in the New Yorker and other magazines. Talks about the need for alternatives to military service in light of Viet Nam, and talks about the 10th Mountain Division Memorial and trail.

4 sound cassettes: analog, mono ; 3 7/8 x 2 1/2 in. + numbered tape synopsis (2 pages).

Related Entities

There are 3 Entities related to this resource.

United States. Army. Mountain Division, 10th

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rf9s76 (corporateBody)

The 10th Mountain Division, a full division of the United States Army, specializing in mountain and winter warfare, trained at Camp Hale, Colorado, during World War II. Experienced in skiing, mountaineering and cold-weather survival as well as military tactics, the soldiers fought enemy forces in the Italian Campaign of 1945. Dubbed the "ski troops" by the press, the 10th Mountain Division remains the only military division recruited by a civilian organization, the National Ski Patrol. Many 10th...

United States. Army. Mountain Infantry Regiment, 87th

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6034dbt (corporateBody)

Parker, Robert W., 1922-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tq6mxb (person)

Born July 9, 1922 in Evanston, Illinois. Began skiing age 12. Joined 10th Mountain Division in 1942. Served with the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment. Participated in Kisaka invasion and combat in Italy. Received two Bronze Stars. After war, worked with Pete Seibert to establish Vail (Colorado) ski resort. Served as Vail general manager, publicity director and senior vice president. First national editor Skiing magazine. At age 63, studied archeology at the University of New Mexico. At the age 68...