Burett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.

In the winter of 1940, a group of civilian skiers was sitting by a fire in a ski lodge

for months, shooting the breeze about how the US Army needed an Alpine division like

the militaries in Europe had.

That conversation transformed into a concerted effort to turn their idea into reality,

and the creation of the army's 10th Mountain Division, a unit which played a vital role

fighting in the mountains of Italy during World War II.

My guest today has written a book on these skiing snowborne soldiers, his name is Morris

Iserman, he's a professor of history in the author of the Winter Army, the World War

II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division of America's Elite Alpine Warriors.

We'll be in a conversation discussing why the US Army didn't have an Alpine division

before World War II, and how a group of civilian skiers led by a man named Mini-Dole,

spearhead of the movement to create one.

Morris then shares why the 10th Mountain Division heavily recruited from top to your colleges,

and how the unusual makeup of the division influenced its unique culture.

We then discuss how the military figured out what new equipment this new mountain division

needed, and the vigorous training its members undertook high in the mountains of Colorado.

Morris then digs into the 10th's involvement in the war, whether they actually got to

use the skills they trained for years to hone, and we inter-conversation discussing the

legacy of the 10th Mountain Division, including their role in America's post-war boom in

recreational skiing.

After shows over, check out our show notes at a-wim.is slash mountain division.

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