Col. Matt Braman, deputy commander of the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum, stands with his son Kellen on Friday, June 23 at the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center rededication ceremony. For the first time since 2019, and continuing a tradition dating back to 1958, the venue was rededicated to members of the 10th Mountain Division. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

WILMINGTON — It looked like an invasion — without the military hardware — but it was more like a family reunion on Friday, June 23 at Whiteface Mountain.

Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division’s headquarters at Fort Drum occupied the ski center for the annual rededication ceremony — the first one held since 2019 due to the COVID pandemic — along with officials from the National Ski Patrol and the state Olympic Regional Development Authority, which operates the venue.

When the ski center opened on Jan. 25, 1958, New York Gov. Averell Harriman dedicated the facility to the memory of the members of the U.S. Army’s famed 10th Mountain Division, who fought gallantly in Europe during World War II. Activated on July 15, 1943, at Camp Hale, Colorado, as the 10th Light Division (Alpine), the unit was renamed the 10th Mountain Division on Nov. 6, 1944, according to the U.S. Army. By January 1945, 10th Mountain soldiers were in northern Italy. During almost five months of fighting the Germans, the division sustained nearly 5,000 casualties, with 999 soldiers killed in action.

“The greatest part of this division is its legacy,” said Col. Matthew Braman, deputy commander for the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum, speaking on behalf of Maj. Gen. Gregory Anderson, the division’s commander.

Late last week, Anderson was recalled to 10th Mountain Division headquarters in Europe — located in Romania — where 500 soldiers from the division were deployed in March to support the U.S. Army V Corps mission, reinforcing NATO’s eastern flank, assuring allies and partners and deterring further Russian aggression during the war in Ukraine.

Members of Fort Drum's 10th Mountain Division stand for the national anthem at the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center rededication ceremony on Friday, June 23. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

“We are starting over,” Braman said, “bringing in that expertise to truly make the division the Alpine division again. The Army has told us that’s what we need, and we’re getting after it. So the partnerships with us in 1943 and before as are important then as they are now to us as we continue this legacy.”

The bedrock of this legacy is the partnership between the 10th Mountain Division and the National Ski Patrol — both having origins with one man: Charles Minot “Minnie” Dole (1899-1976).

“Anytime we get a chance to bring the 10th and the National Ski Patrol together in one place, and to commune with one another, is a great thing,” NSP historian Richard Hamlin told the Whiteface crowd on June 23. “It truly is a family reunion.”

Hamlin explained the storied history of the NSP, saying that need for skier safety in the 1930s — as the sport gained popularity — led to the creation of the organization. In 1936, Dole was skiing the toll road up Mount Mansfield in Vermont when he fell and broke his leg. Hamlin described the scene as Dole was dragged down the mountain on an “old piece of rusted corrugated metal” sheet “with his injured leg bouncing in the snow.”

But it wasn’t until Dole’s close friend and skiing partner, Franklin Edson III, died of injuries from a skiing accident in Massachusetts that he thought more about skier safety. After his success organizing the ski patrol for the national races at Stowe, Vermont, Dole was asked to form a National Ski Patrol committee.

From left are Joe Martens, board president of the state Olympic Regional Development Authority; Aaron Kellett, general manager of the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center; Ret. Col. Don Dew; and ORDA CEO Mike Pratt. They posed after the Whiteface rededication ceremony to the 10th Mountain Division on Friday, June 23. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

“So on March 6, 1938, on the side of Mount Mansfield, on the Nose Dive at one of the seven corners — Shambles Corner — Dole said, ‘Yes, I’ll do that,'” Hamlin said.

That was the birth of the National Ski Patrol, and Dole was its founder.

Hamlin explained that later in the decade, after Soviet forces invaded bordering Finland, Dole and his friends would talk about the Finnish soldiers’ success fighting on skis.

“That conversation turns to ‘What happens if the U.S. gets invaded? What do we have of the equivalent of what the Finns are able to do on their terrain? Do we have that here?’ And the answer was a resounding, ‘No,'” Hamlin said.

Thus, the National Ski Patrol played a major role in filling the ranks of the 10th Mountain Division when it was formed.

10th Mountain Division Capt. Matthew Ellow, from Fort Drum, gets ready to open the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center rededication ceremony on Friday, June 23. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

Dole, who was the director of the NSP from 1938 to 1950, is considered the father of the U.S. Army ski troops. The 10th Mountain Division placed a memorial plaque at Dole’s grave in the St. Johns in the Wilderness Cemetery at Paul Smiths on Sept. 19, 1998, saying, “He convinced the War Department of the need for mountaineering trained troops. This unique military unit’s deeds proved ‘Minnie’ to be correct.”

When 10th Mountain Division soldiers came home in 1945, they were instrumental in developing downhill ski centers across the U.S. after it became a mainstream sport, according to Hamlin.

“And that mainstream sport meant more skiers,” he said. “More skiers meant more ski areas. More ski areas meant more National Ski Patrol and providing aid to those people. …

“So your gift back to us,” Hamlin told the soldiers, “back to the National Ski Patrol from your members who went back to the mountains after they left Europe to create the ski areas that we know and ski on today was instrumental in turning the National Ski Patrol from a small organization into what we have today, which is the largest rescue organization in the world.”

On May 2, 2022, the NSP placed a marker at Dole’s grave. ORDA CEO Mike Pratt was proud to be in attendance for the event.

Richard Hamlin, the historian for the National Ski Patrol, speaks at the Whiteface rededication ceremony on Friday, June 23. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

“We feel really lucky to be affiliated with the 10th Mountain Division, and these ties that Rick talked about run deep,” Pratt told the Whiteface crowd.

The marker states that Dole’s “leadership laid the foundation for greater safety and enjoyment for skiing. Because of Dole’s vision, NSP members are world renowned for the emergency care and rescue they provide the mountain recreation industry.”

Dole is in good company at the St. Johns in the Wilderness Cemetery. It’s also the final resting place for Great Camp builder Benjamin A. Muncil (1867-1930), forestry pioneer Clifford R. Pettis (1877-1927), William Avery Rockefeller III (1896-1973), Apollos “Paul” Smith (1825-1912) and three generations of Trudeau doctors: Edward Livingston (1848-1915), son Francis Berger (1887-1956) and Francis Berger Jr. (1919-1995). E. L. Trudeau founded the St. John’s in the Wilderness Episcopal Church in 1876.

Before Gov. Harriman dedicated the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center to the 10th Mountain Division in 1958, he personally requested that Arthur Draper serve as the facility’s general manager, according to the U.S. Army. Draper had been one of the division’s medics during World War II and helped develop ski centers in New York after his service, including Belleayre in the Catskills and Marble Mountain in Wilmington. Draper — who was at the 1958 dedication ceremony with the governor — is the father of Lake Placid’s Caroline Draper Lussi and the grandfather of ORDA board member Art Lussi.

The 10th Mountain Division’s barbershop quartet performs “90 Pounds of Rucksack” on Friday, June 23 during the Whiteface Mountain rededication ceremony to the division. They are also members of the 10th Mountain Division band. From left are Sgt. Andrew Fisher, who plays guitar and bass drum in the band and sings tenor in the quartet; Specialist Gregory Snider, who plays saxophone and sings lead; Sgt. Kevin Mitchell, who plays tuba and sings baritone/bass; and Sgt. Benjamin Pryse, who plays trumpet and sings baritone/bass. They also debuted a song called “Two Boards,” which was based off an Austrian ski song — “Zuoa Brett” — and arranged by Pryse. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

The 10th Mountain Division Band plays music on Friday, June 23 during the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center rededication ceremony, under the direction of First Sgt. Phillip Andrew, far right. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum pose before the rededication ceremony at Whiteface Mountain Ski Center in Wilmington. From left are Specialist Angelo Gonzales, Specialist Kyle Bennett, Staff Sgt. Carrington Gray, First Lt. James Wead, Pvt. First Class Jacob Sargent and Sgt. Stephen Wyatt. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)