I heard of the Tenth. The way I heard it, which is probably bullshit, it was actually partly modelled on the Alpini and some of the people who forged it were Italian mountain veterans from the First World War. It really does look likely that your grandfather may have served somewhere I knew.
Well, my grandmother claimed that the skiing part came about because someone pointed out to the guys in charge that a when you're trying to get around an area, it's generally a good idea to see what the locals do.
Looking around, apparently there's a good chunk of truth to the story: at least one of the instructors was a WWI vet, although he was Austrian, so there may have been other vets who were Alpini. There's LOTS of stories about the Alpini interacting with the 10th--some very sweet. http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/travel/escapes/10ski.html
Yeah, I found the website(mentioned below), but Grampa didn't join these kind of things-- too practical, I think; he loved his guys, not any organization-- and they don't seem to have any lists of the enlisted guys. Ah well. Bet my dad knows...he learns a lot by being quiet and listening.
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Re: Your grandfather
Date: 2008-04-16 07:57 pm (UTC)Re: Your grandfather
Date: 2008-04-16 08:52 pm (UTC)Looking around, apparently there's a good chunk of truth to the story: at least one of the instructors was a WWI vet, although he was Austrian, so there may have been other vets who were Alpini. There's LOTS of stories about the Alpini interacting with the 10th--some very sweet.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/travel/escapes/10ski.html
Yeah, I found the website(mentioned below), but Grampa didn't join these kind of things-- too practical, I think; he loved his guys, not any organization-- and they don't seem to have any lists of the enlisted guys. Ah well. Bet my dad knows...he learns a lot by being quiet and listening.