Robert W. Parker oral history
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
- Parker, Robert W.,1922- (Person)
- Parker, Robert W., 1922- (Person)
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.
- Camp Hale (Colo.) -- Archival resources. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Oral histories (document genres) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Parker, Robert W., 1922- -- Interviews.
- Ski troops. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 87th -- Archival resources.
- 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