KP’s, soldiers on what the army called Kitchen police duty, discovered the catastrophe looming ahead of the 18th Engineers first. KP’s had to dig garbage pits, and, as the regiment moved north past the Big Duke River and on toward the Donjek River, they found themselves digging in a vastly different kind of ground. They …
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Two bulldozers met in the woods and the publicity machine launched. Colonels and generals had got bulldozers from the 97th and the 18th in the same place, therefore they had completed the Alaska Highway. End of story. On to a dramatic opening ceremony. Two Bulldozers in the Same Place Secretary of War Henry Stimson …
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Publicity took over the project when, in British Columbia two regiments, the 35th and the 340th, met, in September at Contact Creek; opened the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek to Whitehorse. Heath Twichell explained. “Many miles of filling and grading in both directions from Contact Creek remained to be done, but the Army knew a …
The international border, the border between Canada and Alaska, had everybody’s attention at the end of the summer of 1942. The soldiers of the 18th and those of the 97th would meet there and complete the Alaska Highway. The 18th Combat Engineers–more on the champs Just as the race to the border heated up, permafrost …
Permafrost proves conclusively, if we actually needed more proof, that in the Far North, Mother Nature fights back with endless creativity. The mileage champions of the Alaska Highway Project, the 18th Engineering Regiment, faced and bested every challenge. Then they passed the Big Duke River, and Mother introduced them to permafrost—muskeg on steroids. Slims River …