U.S. alpine warfare capabilities?

[Pete]

The light infantry concept of the early 1980s came about when the situation in El Salvador and Nicaragua was going on.

Nicaragua had some light armor but not much, so a light force might have been all that was needed. It could be that the light TO&E was designed for a specific conflict or conflicts in that region, not the proverbial "Full Spectrum of Operations."

We still have variants of the light TO&E in the force structure so I still think attaching heavier battalions to lightly-armed units like that is a good idea. The attached units should be stationed at the same installation as the unit they support so they can train together.

[Fuchs]

I have read stuff about "light division" concepts from the early 80's that rather pointed at a high tech, high battlefield agility force - meant to drive around red hordes in Europe instead of grinding them.

[Steve Blair]

I have read stuff about "light division" concepts from the early 80's that rather pointed at a high tech, high battlefield agility force - meant to drive around red hordes in Europe instead of grinding them.

That was one of the many concepts that floated around about the light divisions. There was the 9th Division, which was intended to be the high-tech test bed, and then there were the others (the 7th among them) that were intended to be more as Pete described. Over time the light concept settled more on the 25th ID and the 10th Mountain, which both provided a good chunk of "expeditionary" Army forces prior to Sept 11 (the 10th was in Somalia, for example).

[ganulv]

I stopped by the recently opened Thunderbolt Ski Museum in Adama, Massachusetts, earlier today. Adams had multiple native sons in the original iteration of the 10th Mountain Division and there are a few items donated by them on display at the museum. I got a few snapshots if anyone is interested.

Overwhites.

Frank Prejsnar's ice axe.

Skis, poles, and rucksack.

Skins.