CHAPTER NEWS COORDINATOR
We gathered some announcements of upcoming events for everyone to be aware of. Please feel free to share stories and images of past events with the Descendants’ Chapter Coordinator, Phebe Davol (phebe.davol@gmail.com).
Armadillo Chapter
We invite you to our annual reunion to be held in Hot Springs, AR. Below are the details and registration form. If you know of someone not on this list, please forward to them if you think they would be interested.
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The Midwest Chapter
The Midwest Chapter is sponsoring a screening of the Italian mini-series about the exploits of 10th Mountain Division in Italy in WWII. This screening of “Mountainmen” will be held on June 20th at 7:30pm at the Des Plaines Theater in Des Plaines, IL. Admission is free, but you must register for this event at: www.1945mountainmen.tv/en-us.
Rocky Mountain Chapter
10th Photos donated to Soldier Hollow Olympic Venue
The 10th Mountain Descendants from Utah presented four historic photographs of WWII 10th Mountain soldiers to the Soldier Hollow Olympic in the Heber Valley of Utah. The presentation was made as part of the festivities surrounding the World Cup Biathlon event that was hosted by Soldier Hollow from March 7th to the 10th. Athletes and their support staff from around the world were in attendance at a rare North American stop for the Biathlon World Cup. The US Men’s team made their own history that day by landing in the fourth spot in the 4×7.5km relay!
The sole living Utah WWII veteran of the 10th, Bill Christensen (87th, E Company), made the presentation along with Ron Sawdey, Senior Vice President of the 10th Mountain Division Descendants. Bill’s son, Todd Christensen also made the trek to the venue to help in this endeavor.
The production and presentation of these historic photographs grew out of a brief conversation a few years ago between Ron and the Head Biathlon coach at Soldier Hollow at that time, Zach Hall. In that conversation it quickly became apparent to Ron that Zach and the biathlon community in general were keenly aware of the influence that the 10th had on the sport of biathlon. To move efficiently over mountainous terrain, and to “shoot straight” were the hallmarks of the 10th, and are present today with modern biathletes.
Following that conversation, Zach and Ron worked to select images from the Denver Public Library’s archive and then to have those images printed to near poster size, then matted and framed.
The presentation to Soldier Hollow was made between races on Friday, March 8th, and those photographs will become part of the legacy wall at Soldier Hollow’s new competition building. This Soldier Hollow venue will be featured prominently when Utah hosts its next Winter Olympics in 2034 (Utah is currently the “preferred host” according to the IOC).
10th Mountain Division Descendants, Inc. 