• Harris Dusenbery was a co-winner in 2012 of the Community Foundation’s first-ever Lifetime of Giving Award, honoring years of philanthropic generosity by Dusenbery and his wife, Evelyn, who died in 2008. Another award went to Margaret Colf Hepola, who died in December.
• Charles Minot Dole, president of the National Ski Patrol, lobbied Army officials in 1940 to train troops in mountain and winter warfare. His effort led to the creation of what became the 10th Mountain Division.
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Read about Dusenbery’s memories of Armistice Day
When Harris Dusenbery fought for the cause of freedom during World War II, he wanted to remain as free as possible. So he volunteered for the ski troops.
“The lowest-ranking person in the 10th Mountain Division had more freedom and less regimentation” than any other soldier, the 100-year-old Vancouver veteran said. “I figured I was going to be drafted within a year, and I heard (the 10th Mountain Division) was going to stop taking volunteers.”
To ensure he got his preferred slot, Dusenbery enlisted.
He certainly had other options. Born in 1914, Dusenbery graduated from Reed College in 1936 with a degree in political science. He went to work as a Social Security official in 1940 in Portland, where Harris and wife Evelyn started their family. Their son David was already on the way when the U.S. entered the war.
“They were famously called ‘pre-Pearl Harbor babies,'” Dusenbery said.
(Fathers with children born before Sept. 15, 1942, were deferred from the draft pool, until the policy was changed on Oct. 1, 1943.)
Surprised the sergeant
“At Fort Lewis, a sergeant who decided assignments said, ‘With your education, I can do great things for you in the Army,'” said Dusenbery, who got his first skis as an 8-year-old in Montana.
When Dusenbery told the sergeant he wanted to be a rifleman on skis, “He was a little surprised.”
The 10th Mountain Division entered combat 70 years ago, in January 1945.
It took some of the toughest terrain in Italy, fighting its way up the North Apennine Mountains.
While its soldiers didn’t do much skiing in Italy, their grueling high-mountain training in the Rockies during the previous winter definitely paid off.
“As far as mountaineering goes, our training in Colorado made Riva Ridge seem less strenuous,” he said.
During the February 1945 capture of that German-held strong point, 700 mountaineers made a 1,500-foot night ascent up five climbing routes. Two of the routes required fixed ropes that were set up ahead of the assault. Within three days, engineers had an aerial tramway running to evacuate wounded soldiers from Riva Ridge and bring supplies up to the summit.
There were other high-country elements: The division had a cavalry reconnaissance troop that started the campaign on horseback, and mules packed supplies up treacherous trails.
In four months of combat, they suffered the highest casualty rate — 1,216 casualties a month — of any American unit in Italy, according to a division history.
Of its 19,780 men, 25 percent became casualties: 20 percent (3,871) were wounded and 5 percent (975) were killed. The 10th destroyed five elite German divisions, the division history said.
The symbol on Dusenbery’s belt buckle, two crossed bayonets, is a nod to his outfit. The “X” they form is the Roman numeral for 10, his division’s designation.
After the Allies broke through the Germans’ mountain defenses, Dusenbery got another keepsake. He was awarded a Bronze Star during the Po Valley campaign.
It was for several encounters, he said, including a midnight firefight during the race north.
“It was a wild dash,” said Dusenbery, who was a sergeant in an intelligence section at that point. “We were going day and night.”
• Harris Dusenbery was a co-winner in 2012 of the Community Foundation's first-ever Lifetime of Giving Award, honoring years of philanthropic generosity by Dusenbery and his wife, Evelyn, who died in 2008. Another award went to Margaret Colf Hepola, who died in December.
• Charles Minot Dole, president of the National Ski Patrol, lobbied Army officials in 1940 to train troops in mountain and winter warfare. His effort led to the creation of what became the 10th Mountain Division.
Midnight mayhem
Just past midnight on April 22, 1945, he was asleep in a Jeep as an Army convoy raced the retreating Germans to the Po River.
“The first thing I knew, there was a tremendous explosion and a ball of flame 10 feet in diameter,” he said. A panzerfaust — an anti-tank rocket similar to a bazooka — had hit the radiator of the Jeep in front of him.
“It blew me onto the road. My first instinct was to get off the road,” and he rolled into a ditch. After watching the exchange of fire, Dusenbery suddenly realized he was in the wrong ditch: “I was on the German side.”
And his submachine gun was still in the Jeep.
He found 20 other men who’d bailed in the same direction. “We kept low and went 200 or 300 yards, then managed to dash to the other side of the road.”
They found two undamaged trucks and drove off. They caught up with their unit the next day and learned they’d been reported as missing in action.
When he went back to the ruins of the convoy to salvage his maps, “I was amazed at the number of bullet holes in that Jeep.”
Dusenbery details that fight in his 1998 book, “The North Apennines and Beyond with the 10th Mountain Division.”
Military ops and opera
The book includes some unexpected aspects of the war in Europe. As U.S. troops moved through Italy’s cultural centers, he saw Michelangelo bronzes and watched a performance of “La Traviata” in a Florence opera house.
In Rome, he toured the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, as well as old Roman ruins. Then he saw another opera, “Carmen.”
It’s not part of many GI memoirs, but Dusenbery chalked it up to his Reed College days.
“I’d read about ancient Greeks and Romans, and the medieval period, and I was interested in architecture and museums,” he said.
And when it came to showcasing the arts, the locals were very hospitable.
“We had an advantage. The Italian people saw us as liberators,” said Dusenbery, who also wrote a book about the division’s Rocky Mountain training program, “Ski the High Trail.”
Harris and Evelyn saw a lot more of the world after he retired at age 55, visiting 82 countries.
They were married for 67 years before her death in 2008.
Still works out
A month shy of his 101st birthday on Feb. 26, Dusenbery remains active. He enjoys walking from his downtown condo to the Columbia River. He participates regularly in a exercise program with fellow Heritage Place residents.
It’s 40 minutes of tai chi-style exercises that promote balance and flexibility, explained session leader Jackie Nakamura, who is Dusenbery’s neighbor.
With 10 years on the next-oldest participant, the former mountaineer is a good example of staying active, Nakamura noted: “Like Harris says, keep moving.”
