In early May 1942 the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers moved out of Carcross–most in total confusion. The first company out of town, Company A, worked well. Their two borrowed bulldozers cleared a right of way; laid down trees, pushed dirt and brush to the side. Soldiers with hand tools scrambled over it, shoveling dirt, raking it clear, sawing up logs for corduroy.
Anthony Mouton, a 20-year-old Louisiana native who served with H&S Company had grown up listening to plantation workers sing as they plowed and planted the earth. Now, in 1942 he heard his fellows sing the same way on the road—gospel hymns and jazz tunes—their chunking picks and hammering axes establishing the rhythm.
Sgt. John Bollin served with Company F and he remembered, “We eventually had to move out of that base camp [Carcross] and go to our stretch of the Highway that we were supposed to work on.” He continued, “And to see nothing but trees, trees and more trees, and then be told that you’re going to put a road through that was a big deal for us.”
Just a couple of weeks before, in a Skagway schoolhouse, Johnson had presented to his officers and NCO’s an engineer’s plan for how a regiment went about building a road. The plan had no room for confusion. A regiment moves like a train… One company leads out, knocking down trees. Another follows, clearing and grading and cleaning up. One by one the companies follow, each assigned to improve the road by one level, until the last company passes, leaving behind a completed Pioneer Road.
Good plan. But Johnson the Engineer had given way to Johnson the Engineer Corps regimental commander. Efficiency be damned—he needed to get the show on the road. If that lead to confusion, so be it.
Terse company morning reports describe companies working on the road. But, in fact, Johnson had five companies and elements of a sixth on the ground, trying to work on the road—a confused welter of men and equipment piled onto the first ten miles out of Carcross. The men of Company A worked according to plan. The men of Companies B and C worked almost to plan. The rest of the Colonel’s men worked too, but it’s doubtful they accomplished very much during those early days.
Soldiers march in formation. NCO’s and junior officers use shouted commands to control their movement. The commands always come in two parts, a preparatory command followed by a command of execution. A platoon sergeant, ready to march his men in formation, might, for example, shout “Forward”, wait a beat then shout “March”. On the word “March” his platoon steps off in unison.
By my day in the Army, the 1970’s, soldiers had added an unofficial command that summed up their collective understanding of how the Army works. “Mill Around”, wait a beat, then “Mill”.
In May of 1942 the officers and men of the 93rd would have understood completely.