10th Mountain Division veterans share history of Camp Hale

Just outside of Leadville, there's the Camp Hale you'll find today. Very little is left of the military training camp it was when Bruce Campbell was stationed there.

"I got off the train and looked around and thought what have I done, there were all these snow-covered mountains," he said.

Campbell, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, came to Colorado as a member of the original 10th Mountain Division, a mountain warfare unit in the U.S. Army.

Camp Hale was an ideal place for high-altitude military training.

"We would go on little hikes like 20 miles in eight hours that was in the dry land or even with skis," he said.

After 15 months, and a short stint at Camp Swift, Campbell would go on to fight in the Italian alps, during World War II.

"The 86th Regime was delegated to take Riva Ridge, It was the lead observation post for the Germans," he said.

Veterans of the 10th Mountain Division would return to the area where they helped launch Colorado's booming ski industry and even develop much of the equipment that we all use on the slopes today.

"They had been on skis for years and they were all superb," Campbell said about his comrades.

For years local historians, politicians and veterans have been working to get Camp Hale designated as a national monument. 10th Mountain Division veteran Francis Lovett is among them and will be on-site as President Joe Biden is expected to do just that.

Lovett told CBS News Colorado that it's long overdue and shared his thoughts about why in a recent interview for Sen. Michael Bennett's office.

"It's so easy to tear things down. And you can't put them back," he said.

While there has been some opposition to the designation, worried it would limit development and oil production in the area, Lovett says he's hoping this will more people to learn about the history of the 10th Mountain Division.