Disaster loomed in the back of a 2 ½ ton truck parked at the Headquarters Company camp at Big Gerstle, Alaska. A young lieutenant proposed to haul ten soldiers, Sgt James Heard and his squad, 130 miles in the back of the unheated truck. The day’s extremely low temperature, combined with the wind chill effect …
Category Archives: Crime on the Alcan Project
Balmy Above Zero to Thirty-six Below
From balmy above zero the temperature plunged to 36 below at Big Gerstle, Alaska on March 29. Sergeant Heard and his nine men spent that morning loading three deuce-and-a-half trucks with supplies for Fairbanks. Ten shivering black men in worn and ragged uniforms lifting and packing, working around the snow in the truck beds, …
Bad Guys Came to Skagway Too
The good soldiers of the 93rd 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 …