Alaskans came—and stayed. Most people came and then left. Legendary Alaskan, Mary Hanson Furs then gold then oil brought waves of people from the outside. Most left as soon as they could to enjoy memories of Alaska’s remote, breathtaking beauty in the comfort of somewhere else. Only a very few Alaskans stayed to make their …
Category Archives: Field Medicine
Communicable Disease and Canadian Natives
Communicable diseases swept the native population of Northern Canada in 1942. And, when illnesses began to appear, the army and civilian physicians who came with the Corps offered their services. At first Canadian bureaucracy made that difficult. Territorial authorities, protecting existing private medical practices, required Canadian licensure for physicians treating Canadian citizens. Sickness from Outsiders …
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Sickness from Outsiders
Indians, First Nations, In the North Country Sickness from outsiders, nothing new to the people of the Great Subarctic North. Outsiders who came to the North Country always brought sickness. The first Nations suffered infectious diseases brought by white missionaries and trappers throughout the 19th century. Myriad bugs and germs rode north in the bodies …
Appendicitis
Appendicitis doesn’t normally amount to a major threat—unless you get it on the North Bank of the White River in Northern Yukon in November 1942. The you need bush pilot Les Cook and his Norseman Monoplane. Comrades place the young soldier on a litter and carry him two miles to the river. The bridge …
The fate of Private Major Banks.
Private Major Banks, a young black soldier in the 97th Engineering regiment reported for sick call on May 20, 1942. The medics sent him to the little hospital in Valdez, Alaska. Port of Valdez in 1942 Banks grew up in New Canton, Virginia. He didn’t enter the Army until January 1942, so he came late …
Keeping Them Healthy
Keeping the engineers healthy was no mean trick. Thousands of men worked through the remote wilderness of Northern Canada and Alaska in 1942. North America desperately needed a land route to Alaska and the soldiers worked desperately hard to get her one. They worked incredibly hard in cold and then heat and in incessant …