12/12/2023
PFC Ralph W. Hulbert was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1920. He attended high school at Proctor Academy in Andover, N.H. and graduated in 1940. Hulbert had completed one year of college before enlisting in the Army on March 5, 1943 at Boston, Massachusetts. He joined the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale, Colorado, where he was assigned to the 86th Infantry Regiment and served with companies A and F. During combat operations in Italy, Hulbert received the Bronze Star Medal during the Po River battle.
This mountain trooper took a takedown longbow to the front lines in Italy. His bow was a private purchase, takedown longbow with a draw weight of 93 #. At one point, Hulbert was concerned because he'd lost or broken his last arrow and so wrote back to his mother in the States for more. When his mother took the bundle of arrows to the post office for shipment she was told that wartime restrictions prevented them from shipping anything that large to an APO. His mother, thinking quickly, showed the postmaster his letter, requesting more arrows for use against the N***s - allowing the postmaster to grant a waiver for the package, classifying it as “war material, ammunition”. He got his arrows.
PFC Hulbert is no longer with us, but his story remains as another fascinating chapter of the legendary 10th Mountain Division.
