Danger and death confront soldiers at war, and make no mistake about it, the Army dispatched the Alaska Highway builders to war. Two soldiers in the 35th died when they rolled their grader over a bank. 1st Lt. Small of the 18th wrecked his jeep getting around a bridge under construction. His men found his …
Category Archives: Field Medicine
Doctor Stotts, Deep Woods Surgeon
Doctor Stotts, forced to do surgery in the deep woods, cut through his patient’s scalp behind his left ear with a razor blade; drilled a triangle of three holes with a wood brace and a 3/8 inch bit; cut between the holes with a hacksaw blade removed the ‘plug’ and removed a clot. Not a normal …
Flight Nurses
Flight nurses in WWII, took frightful risks and all too often paid for it with their lives. When flight nurse Ruth Gardiner’s plane “mushed” and plowed into the ground on Unmak Island, it exploded and Ruth died. WWII, an equal opportunity disaster, killed women as well as men. Link to another story “Marauding Japanese Forces” …
Thousands Worked Incredibly Hard
Thousands Worked Incredibly Hard Thousands of men worked incredibly hard in cold and then heat and in incessant rain to build the Alaska Highway. They powered over mountains, through and across streams, through deep woods with bulldozers, trucks, saws, axes… They got injured. A lot. They lived in close quarters, especially when the weather turned …
Henry Horn’s Tonsil
Henry Horn’s sore throat posed little problem to an imaginative Alaska Highway Doctor. Henry’s tonsils had been removed years ago, but one grew back. And every winter he suffered from a constant sore throat. A winter along the Alaska Highway did not help the problem. Link to another story “Injured, Sick or Worse on the …
Woke from a Peaceful Sleep
Woke in the middle of the night from a peaceful sleep, John Frieze found himself staring into a flashlight beam and two frightened faces. One of the two men standing by John’s bunk, Quarfot by name, held up a hand with four fingers dangling free and draining blood all over the bunk. Next to him …
Jaundice in Camp—and a Scared Bear
Jaundice, or Serum Hepatitis, whatever you called it Chester and his buddies in the 35th got sick on top of everything else. Interviewer Brown, “Of course, you guys were fighting in the bush, but a whole bunch of you come down with Yellow Jaundice.” Chester, “When we had the yellow jaundice, that was caused from …
Bit and Brace Brain Surgery
Bit and Brace brain surgery came to Chester Russel’s memory when interviewers Brown and Bridgeman asked him about danger on the Highway. When Pvt. Moore walked too near a working dozer, a falling limb crashed into his head. “So this Dr. Stotts”, Chester remembered, “he finally got up there where we had him on… he …
Last Heroic Flight
The last heroic flight for Alcan bush pilot Les Cook came in November 1942. On the north bank of the White River, an enlisted surveyor of the 29th Topo unit suffered abdominal pain. A doctor diagnosed appendicitis. The soldier needed surgery right away. Dropping It In–Les Cook His buddies strapped him to a litter and …
Diphtheria in Nome
Diphtheria antitoxin expires. In the summer of 1924 Dr. Welch, the only doctor in Nome Alaska, discovered that his batch had done just that, and he immediately ordered more. But anything coming to Nome in 1925 came over oceans; and the Port of Nome, just two degrees shy of the Arctic Circle, closed in November; …