17-7-26 Garand Picture of the Day Fort Drum

[Ovidio]

Hello Mark, if you allow me, this is a picture with BM 59 TA, MG 42/59 and lots of Alpine Military School cadets in November 1994 in La Thuile.
The one with the MG and the helmet in one hand is me.
Great troops the Mountain Troops!!!
We still meet many times a year.
That is 2nd Platoon, 1st Company, Officer Cadets Battalion at SMALP (Scuola Militare Alpina).
The second one is a few days earlier, on our way up to a range that was then closed because of enormous snowfalls (we had a disastrous flooding in Piedmont on those days, and up in the mountains we got snow as never seen in the rest of my life).
We then had to make the Company and Platoon assaults close to the village of La Thuile, with great amusement of the kids there, who liked to see us going fresh and happy and come back trashed after hours of running up snowy fields and slopes.