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and maps of the post, the packet included a history of the Division reaching back to 1916 and the Russian Revolution. The modern 10 th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), “the most deployed unit in the army,” sprouted out of two separate and seemingly disparate roots, the 31 st and 87 th Infantry Regiments, one of which served not a single day stateside for more than forty years.
    As a result of a treaty ending the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States gained possession of the Philippine Islands and established it as a commonwealth. In 1916, the 31 st Infantry Regiment was activated at Fort William McKinley as part of the nation’s defenses. Less than two years later, the 31 st along with its sister regiment, the 37 th , shipped out to the bitter cold of Siberia to fight off hordes of Red revolutionaries, Manchurian bandits, and Cossack plunderers trying to gain control of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
    Sixteen soldiers of the 31 st won the Distinguished Service Cross and thirty-two were killed in a war few Americans knew was being fought. As a result of its service in icy Siberia, the 31 st Infantry adopted a silver polar bear as its insignia and became known as the “Polar Bear Regiment,” a designation it retains today.
    The 31 st returned to the Philippines in 1920 and remained garrisoned in the old walled city of Manila until 1932 when Japanese troops invaded China. The Polar Bear Regiment, reinforced by the U.S. 4 th Marine Division, joined a British international force to protect Shanghai’s International Settlement, after which it returned to Fort McKinley.
    The invasion of tiny Finland by the Soviet Union in 1939 germinatedthe idea that led to the commissioning of the 87 th Infantry Regiment. After Finnish soldiers on skis promptly whaled the Russians by annihilating two tank divisions, American skiing pioneer Charles Minot Dole began lobbying President Franklin Roosevelt to create a specialized mountain unit modeled after that of the Finns. General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, liked the concept and ordered the army to take action.
    Skiers, trappers, muleskinners, and assorted other outdoor types volunteered in early 1940 to begin training on the slopes of Mount Rainier’s 14,408-foot peak. The 87 th Mountain Infantry Regiment was activated at Fort Lewis, Washington, on 15 November 1941, three weeks before Pearl Harbor.
    The day after Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers attacked military installations in the Philippines. A 31 st Infantry soldier at Camp John Hay became the first casualty of the Japanese campaign to seize the islands. Enemy troops landed in both northern and southern Luzon in a rapid pincher movement to capture Manila. The 31 st Infantry covered the withdrawal of American and Filipino forces to the Bataan Peninsula, fighting the invaders to a standstill for over four months.
    Finally, starving and out of ammunition, the Bataan Defense Force surrendered on 9 April 1942. Of the 1,600 members of the 31 st who began the Bataan Death March, roughly half perished either during the march or during the nearly four years of brutal captivity that followed. Twenty-nine Polar Bears earned the Distinguished Service Cross and one was recommended for the Medal of Honor, but the entire chain of command died in captivity before medal recommendations could be submitted.
    In the meantime, the 87 th Infantry Regiment was redesignated as the 10 th Light Division (Alpine) and saw its first action in August 1943 during assault landings against Japanese who had occupied Kiska and Attu in the Aleutian Islands. In November 1944, it acquired its modern designation as the 10 th Mountain Division and entered combat in Italy three months later.
    The division fought its way across Italy, crossing the Po River and securing Gargano and Porto di Tremosine before German resistance endedin April 1945. The division earned fame in climbing unscalable cliffs in order to surprise and assault