It’s been 80 years since Colorado helped win World War II.
American soldiers who had trained in the state’s rugged mountains stormed an Italian ridge the Nazis thought was unclimbable. The taking of Riva Ridge helped turn the war for the Allies.
Descendants of the 10th Mountain Division returned to Italy in September to follow in the boot steps of their fathers and grandfathers — and a small group attempted that impossibly steep climb again.
Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that many of them were Coloradans.
Riva Ridge is located in a vibrantly green part of rural Tuscany called the hill country, but looking up at the ridge, it was clear to the group of descendants that this is no hill.
Peggy Hall, of Grand Junction, is the daughter of William Parker, one of hundreds of 10th Mountain Division soldiers who trudged up the ridge in the darkness in 1945.
“In his memoirs, he talks about the hike being a nine-hour hike,” she said.
And they had to do it silently, in a single-file line, so the German soldiers wouldn’t hear them coming. Hall’s dad was only 18.
“He never really talked about his emotions, just the comradery that the men had,” Hall said.
The division’s sense of togetherness was passed down to many of their children and grandchildren.
About 100 descendants attended this historic trip, visiting the little towns and grown-over battlefields where their family members once fought.
Only about two dozen attempted the hike, but it was Hall’s second time. Just like last time, she hiked alongside her friend, Rikki Swedhin, of Buena Vista. The pair met on the last descendant trip through Italy in 2023.
As they started up a small road, its pavement worn and rough, Swedhin gestured upward.
“I mean, look at the cliffs in front of us, so imposing. It's no wonder the Germans didn’t think that anybody could come up the front side,” she said. “They left themselves totally defenseless.”
Swedhin’s father, Lloyd Swedhin, worked as a postal clerk here in the 10th, but for many soldiers in the division this attack was their initiation into warfare after honing their skiing and climbing skills in the Colorado mountains near Vail.
As the road transitioned to a gravel-filled trail, it quickly became strenuous and steep. The ridge was so thick with trees that it was hard to see the fields and farm houses in the distance.
To Katie Cassiday, age 19, it kind of looked like Colorado. She grew up hearing war stories from her great-grandfather, Orville Tomky, but never learned anything about the 10th in school.
“I feel like it’s really important to know where you come from and how the world was,” she said. “So it's definitely super cool to see what exactly my great-grandpa did go through, and how hard the conditions must have been.”
The thickly-vegetated landscape was barren and burned when her grandfather was here. Seeing what he saw, and standing where he once fought was, “definitely very impactful,” Cassiday said.
“He risked his life for our country,” she added.
Along the nearly 2,000-foot climb, a local historian, Massimo Turchi, who runs a 10th Mountain museum nearby, encouraged the group, mostly people in their 50s, 60s and 70s, to take ample breaks.
“We are very close to the end,” he said, at some point near the top. With a chuckle he added: “You don’t trust me, I know...”
The hike was arduous, with leaves covering tree roots and other perils on the trail, which had a sheer drop off on one side. Still, no one considered stopping, not even after a few people stumbled. Sempre avanti is the Italian term saying the 10th took as their own.
Always forward.
It took hours for everyone to reach the top, but they all did, scaling the same ridge the 10th did in 1945, taking the Germans completely by surprise. In all those grueling hours scaling the ridge, no American soldiers died.
Kevin Monahan, from Highlands Ranch, could only imagine what it took to execute such a daring assault.
“Courage, it’s absolutely courage,” he said.
Monahan’s father, Thomas Monahan, was here 80 years ago, helping ferry supplies up the ridge for fellow soldiers.
“Putting the mission before the self, and then finding the strength to go and climb it, in the dark, not knowing if you’ll come down the next day,” must have been tough, he mused.
He was on the trip with his brother and two sisters, in honor of their father who died decades ago. Being in the 10th had greatly impacted their dad, even inspiring him to move his family from the East Coast to the West. They eventually settled in Colorado, where his father, a former Bronx kid, had fallen in love with the mountains during his training for the 10th.
Monahan felt connected with his father on this trip, as the kids honored what he did all those years ago. “Very much so,” Monahan said. “More so than I thought I would.”
Peggy Hall, who spent her childhood hiking with her father up steep trails, was one of the first up the ridge. How would her dad feel about that?
“I think he would be proud,” she said, smiling.
Despite going to war, he was a gentle man, someone who always wanted to help others.
“He was my hero. He really was,” she said.
This hike, like this trip, was a way to connect with him again. Almost every soldier who took the ridge — helping end the war within months — is now gone.
The 10th Mountain Division troops trained in the Colorado mountains and helped win WWII in 1945. This story is part of a series that follows a group of their descendants that returned to Italy and retraced their steps.
