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 …
Category Archives: Alaska Highway
Epic Achievement
An Epic achievement, the construction of the Alaska Highway exemplifies a truth about the violent upheaval of World War II. Challenge requires response, and epic challenge requires epic response. The war, the most horrific event in recorded history, presented epic challenges to virtually every person alive. It brought death and destruction, but it also inspired …
Cooperation built the Alcan
Cooperation between soldiers and civilians and between the citizens of two countries made the colossal project, the Alaska-Canada Highway, happen. Canada entered WWII when Great Britain did, two years before Pearl Harbor pulled the United States in. Mackenzie King and Canada’s other leaders recognized the Japanese threat to North America long before leaders in the …
Chappie
Chappie, actually Chaplain William J. Brown, drove as many as two thousand miles a month up and down the Alaska Highway in 1943. He brought spiritual guidance to the men working to straighten and improve the Highway, and they nicknamed him Chappie. During that first year of its existence, the Alaska Highway offered only a …
Getting in Place
Getting in place, for the soldiers of the 35th Engineers, meant getting themselves and their equipment to Fort Nelson before the spring thaw melted their winter road away. The soldiers became the cogs in their commander’s giant conveyor belt. Getting in place via the conveyor subjected the men to an excruciating experience. In a memo …
A Giant Conveyor
A giant conveyor took the soldiers and equipment of the 35th Engineers from the icy crossing of the Peace River to Fort St. John, 300 miles away. Precarious River Ice Resourceful Canadian, E. J. Spinney had worked out the conveyor method for moving material up the rugged winter road. In March 1942 Colonel Ingalls, commander …
Charlie Lake
Charlie Lake saw the deadly consequences of an enormous gamble. In March General Hoge had ordered Colonel Robert Ingalls to race his 35th Engineers over the ice road to Fort Nelson. The road thawed to rivers and gumbo right behind them. The General had gambled that Colonel Joe Lane’s 341st Engineers could build an …
Extreme Geography
Extreme geography awaited the soldiers of the 93rd Engineers when they left Southern Louisiana in early 1942. From hot and humid Louisiana, they travelled north—way north—to Alaska and Yukon Territory. The 93rd came to Carcross Sergeant Albert France, interviewed long after the fact by Donna Blazer-Bernhardt, remembered their time on the Alaska Highway Project. He …
Cameron Cox
Cameron Cox came up by train from Fort Ord, California and detrained with the rest of the 35th Engineers into bitter cold at the Dawson Creek depot. They travelled to Fort St John and started building road northwest from there. Cameron remembered moving constantly, taking down pyramidal tents, moving a few miles, setting them up …
December 25, 1942
December 25, 1942 found the black soldiers and the white officers of the 93rd Engineers deep in Yukon. In our book, We Fought the Road, we shared two memories from that day. For December 25, 2019 my Christmas present to all of you is to share those memories here. Another Holiday Story from Lt. Timberlake …