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David Mitchell
Times have changed.
Today I have been thinking about how my love of skiing caused me to learn about an intersting little piece of American history - and the heroism of one young Army Liutenant from Kansas in Italy in April of 1945.
In 1962 I badgered my father into taking my older cousin Jim and I to go skiing in the exotic new place called Vail in the Colorado Rockies. Vail was so new, there were still construction vehicles all over the place. There was a bit of the original village with a Gondola and only two chair lifts in that first season. One of the ways down the mountain was a trail called "Riva Ridge". It was a catchy name but I did not know for several years what the name came from. It was, in fact, the name of a famous and heroic battle in the mountains of Italy in WW2.
Riva Ridge was a battle where the famed 10th Mountian Division (the "ski troops") had climbed a steep ridge and surpised the German gun emplacements from behind. The ski trail was named by the developers of the resort who were all members of that same 10th Mountain Division.
(It so happened that members of that same legendary combat unit were responsible for the eventual development of about 60 American ski resorts.)
As time passed, I began to pick up pieces of the story of the heroics of that surprise attack, which helped The U.S. troops overcome the German's positions on nearby Mt. Belvedere, one of many mountaintop positions that controled the Apeninne Mountains of central Italy.
One of those brave young soldiers was a young Army Lieutenant Bob Dole, who was hit in the arm and spine by a German bullet. After considerable therapy, he recovered enough to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
He died yesterday at 98.
I can't help but reflect on the heroism and honor with which he carried himself. And the contrast with the cowardly, dishonest, conspiracy nut cases who have somehow found their way into his party.
Times have indeed changed.
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