Author Of WWII Book On 10th Mountain Division To Give Talk

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) — The author of a book on the 10th Mountain Division's exploits during World War II is giving a talk at the storied Army unit's northern New York home.

McKay Jenkins will give a lecture at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Fort Drum.

Jenkins is author of "The Last Ridge." The book published in 2003 details the origins of the 10th Mountain Division as an elite combat outfit formed and trained in the Colorado Rockies before being sent to Italy to battle the Germans in the final months of the fighting in Europe.

Jenkins, a professor at the University of Delaware who lives in Baltimore, wrote how the division got its start by recruiting Olympic skiers from Europe and the U.S., along with outdoorsmen, trappers, loggers and mountain climbers who became experts in mountain warfare.