The Drumbeats of War: Episode 3 explores the 10th Mountain Division’s backstory in the lead-up to America’s entry into World War II.

The episode includes abridged interviews with Chris Juergens, PhD, the Anschutz Curator of Military History at History Colorado, on the history of Germany’s mountain troops, and Sepp Scanlin, the former director of the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum Museum, on the resistance the idea of an American mountain division faced from within the War Department.

The episode also includes an overview of Minnie Dole’s Herculean efforts to establish a ski division, as well as the way world events—and America’s climbers—helped persuade military leaders that maybe we really did need a mountain division after all.

See here for show notes and resources. 

Available only to patrons, the Unabridged episode of Episode 3 also includes:

• Unabridged versions of both interviews
• A complete chronology of events leading up to General George Marshall’s decision to conduct exploratory ski patrols in the winter of 1940-41.
• A narrative account of the involvement of The American Alpine Club members H. Adams Carter, Bob Bates, Bill House, Walter Wood Jr. and Dr. James Grafton Rogers in the lobbying efforts for a mountain division.