Most horrific event in recorded history, World War II has no real competition for that title. But horrific events challenge those who face them and epic challenge inspires epic response. The construction of the Alaska Highway offers a perfect example. The words, “World War II”, familiar, prosaic, have long since lost the power to convey …
Category Archives: World War II
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 …
WWII killed women too.
WWII killed women, especially nurses, right along with men—an equal opportunity disaster. The War killed Ruth Gardiner. Ruth entered the world in 1914 in Calgary, Alberta; came with her parents to Eastport, Idaho at age three. The Gardiners wandered a bit through the lower 48—Noyes, Minnesota then Pennsylvania. Twenty-three old Ruth trained as a …
From the Subarctic North to Burma and India
Gouging a Road through Yukon Clyde S. Deal came to te subarctic north to join the 93rd Engineering Regiment in Yukon in April 1942. Through the summer he helped build the supply road from Carcross to Johnson’s Crossing on the Teslin River, learned to deal with muskeg and airplane sized mosquitoes. Through the late summer …
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Food and, Inevitably, Latrines and Garbage
Food topped the list of things every soldier on the Alaska Highway in 1942 absolutely despised. Without exception, the soldiers hated their monotonous and dismal meals. Fresh food supplemented endless field rations, but only intermittently. One company of the 93rd Engineers actually had no cook stove; the mess sergeant made do with an open fire …
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Humble, Vaguely Malodorous Canvas
Humble, vaguely malodorous, canvas, on the Alaska Highway in 1942, supported life in bivouac. Canvas tents provided barracks, mess halls and offices. Men slept on folding canvas cots. Canvas “lister bags” stored treated drinking water. Canvas enclosures became mechanical repair shops. In canvas enclosures, soldiers transformed empty fuel drums into stoves, showers and bath …
Chickens by the Truckload
More about Dawson Creek in 1942 Delivering chickens? The number of jobs that had to be done to build the Alaska Highway staggers the imagination and most of them never occur to us. Leo Perra’s dad delivered food to the soldiers on the highway, and several months ago Leo commented to that effect on one …
Lt. Mike Miletich, Forgotten Hero
A true hero of the Alaska Highway Project, Lt. Mike Miletich has managed to fade into anonymity. Not fair. The ‘go to’ guy for the 35th Combat Engineering Regiment, Lt. Miletich turned up at every challenging point in their work on the Highway. He led, for example, the advance party to Dawson Creek in March …
Daylight Lasted Forever
Daylight lasted forever in July, and the North Country continuing to fight back, revealed a new arsenal. The wet heat of summer replaced the wet cold of spring. Morley Bay averaged highs of 90 degrees, Whitehorse 82. And it stayed wet. According to WP&YT railroad records total rainfall in the week of July 5 broke …
Military Support Network
A vast support network came to the far north in early 1942, right behind the seven engineering regiments. By July the regiments worked in the wilderness building road. The support network had mushroomed, and its parts and pieces worked all around the engineers. Topo Engineers surveyed routes through every kind of terrain the path …