Recall that in April 1942 General Hoge had dispatched the black soldiers of the 93rd to Carcross to build a road to the Teslin River for the 340th. He had done so to get the black men out of Skagway and he didn’t propose to leave them long in Carcross either. Making road, getting the supply road built, yesterday if possible, fell to Colonel Johnson, commander of the 93rd.
Conveniently, building that road, would get his men out of town.
Immediately upon his arrival in Carcross, Johnson deployed Captain James Cassano to establish a path out of it. Johnnie Johns, local hunting and fishing guide, and his brother Peter guided Cassano and his detail out into Yukon. By the end of the first week of May, Cassano had laid out a route to Tagish Village, 22.7 miles from Carcross.
Tipped off by the residents of Carcross, we can presume that Cassano’s path provided for good hunting and fishing… We can probably also presume that Cassano didn’t know–or care–about that. Cassano needed a path and he got it.
On the wintry early morning of May 6, 1st Lt. Holtzapple who commanded Company A, Captain Pollock, commander of Company B, and Captain Boyd commander of Company C moved their men out of Carcross to turn Cassano’s path into road. They dragged along two borrowed bulldozers and whatever tools they could get their hands on.
Officially the Corps doubted the ability of black soldiers to operate bulldozers. The Corps of Engineers History of Troops and Equipment stated flatly that, “Negroes lacked the sense of responsibility necessary for the care of equipment. . . and were slow to absorb instruction. The Army expected little.
It got a lot.
Events on that frigid morning outside of Carcross, serve as a case in point. The Corps needed a road in a hurry. The 93rd had two bulldozers with which to build it. The men available to run them were black.
That May morning a thoroughly competent black operator shifted into the lowest forward gear, raised his blade high and moved his mechanical goliath to the first large tree, nestling the blade high against the trunk. The D8’s engine roared and the steel tracks ground heavily into virgin Yukon soil. The tree resisted, bent, finally cracked and then fell, crashing to the ground.
The 93rd Engineering Regiment was making road.