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Robert W. Parker oral history

 Collection
Identifier: C MSS OH232

Scope and Contents

Discusses quitting college to learn to ski, about learning about the ski troops after Pearl Harbor, and about reporting to duty in June with the 87th Infantry Regiment at Fort Lewis. Sent to Camp Hale when it had just opened and had high altitude training as a rifleman. Talks about arriving in Naples and being injured from a shell impact on Belvedere. Discusses Po River and the flat land fighting, then moving north, capturing German troops and the fight at Lake Garda. Talks about the support they had in the field. He talks about finding a German liquor warehouse, about Nazis hiding in resort hotels, and about spending the occupation in Northern Italy, which included going to the Yugoslavia border. He gets Hepatitis and goes home where he eventually works on a ranch in Wyoming, then as a wilderness guide, and then joins the Ski Patrol. Some of his poems are published in the New Yorker and other magazines. Talks about the need for alternatives to military service in light of Viet Nam, and talks about the 10th Mountain Division Memorial and trail.

Dates

  • Check date

Creator

Language of Materials

Material is in English unless otherwise noted.

Conditions Governing Access

Contact Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright is retained by the author of the items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Biographical / Historical

Parker was born in Evanston, Illinois. Reports for duty in June of 1942 with the 87th Infantry at Fort Lewis. Trained as a high altitude rifleman at Camp Hale, Colo. Combat on Belvedere where he was injured. Receives Bronze Stars for service at Castelfranco (April 21) and at Po Valley (April 21-28). His company was HQ and his rank was T/5.

Extent

4 sound cassettes

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Robert W. Parker, 2005.

General

The numbered tape synopsis briefly records the subjects discussed in the interview at various tape counter intervals.

Linking Entry Complexity Note

Forms part of: 10th Mountain Division Resource Center Collection.

Title
Finding Aid for the Robert W. Parker oral history,1980-1999[sound recording]
Author
Finding Aid prepared from MARC data.
Description rules
Anglo American Cataloguing Rules
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Repository Details

Part of the Denver Public Library, Western History and Genealogy Repository

Contact:
10 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy
Denver CO 80204 United States