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  • World War II

    FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN

    Jun 04, 2019 5 minutes
    STORY AND PHOTOS BY JESSICA WAMBACH BROWN

    IN THE EARLY EVENING SHADOWS of Colorado’s Sawatch Range, I pull off the stretch of U.S. Route 24 known as the 10th Mountain Division Memorial Highway and step out to survey a mountain valley a half-mile wide by five miles long. Flat and seemingly empty save a few lonely roads and one suspiciously straight river, this was once Camp Hale, the highest-elevation U.S. Army post, where 15,000 adventurous young men were sculpted into the only American military division dedicated to mountain warfare.

    As World War II raged in Europe, reports of ski-clad Finnish troops warding off Soviet invaders in late 1939 led U.S. officials to consider fielding their own specialized mountain warriors. The War Department activated the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment at Fort Lewis, Washington, in November

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