Bad guys came to Skagway sprinkled in among the 1200 good soldiers of the 93rd. Bad guys came sprinkled among the good soldiers of the white regiments on the Alaska Highway Project too. But a bad black soldier got a lot more attention from the Army.
In white regiments bad guys were just that—bad guys. In black regiments, bad guys were proof of the wisdom of the Army’s racist policies.
About 3 pm one afternoon at the end of April, a furious Colonel Johnson ordered a roll call, in formation, for all of his companies. The regiment stayed in formation until every soldier—out on detail, sick in quarters, on guard duty—every soldier was accounted for. Rumors swirled through the regiment.
About 10:00 am the next morning, Johnson summoned Captain Boyd, commander of Company C. In the Colonel’s office a local trapper clutched the dog tags of a soldier who had brutally raped his elderly wife. To Boyd’s horror, the dog tags identified a member of his C Company.
The previous morning the soldier had slipped away and walked up the mountain. When he knocked at the door of the cabin in the woods and asked for a drink of water, the trapper’s wife invited him in. She vigorously resisted his attentions, but he was younger and stronger…
Finished, the bad guy ran through the woods toward the airfield. Following his trail, the trapper found the chain and dog tags hanging on a bush.
The accused soldier was examined by the Regimental Surgeon, tried by a General Court Marshall and sentenced to 40 years confinement.