Defending Alaska? In the runup to WWII some senior officers in the United States Army thought a lot about that potential problem. Most did not. In August1941 they called the Alaska National Guard to active duty and moved most of it out of Alaska. Territorial Governor Earnest Gruening had seen that coming and he urged the formation of a new guard organization for Alaska.
Link to Another Story “Retaking the Islands”
Pearl Harbor changed everything. And events in Alaska indicated possible Japanese designs on the remote territory. A Japanese ship reconnoitered the Alaska coastline. Japanese crewmen actually came ashore and questioned the natives.
And then, of course, the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor and occupied Kiska and Attu. Defending Alaska instantly became a much bigger deal.
Responding to my story about retaking Attu Monday evening, Pete J. Peter suggested I investigate the story of the “Alaska Territorial Guard.” So I did.
At the request of Territorial Governor Earnest Gruening the Army assigned Major Marvin Marston to assemble the Unit. Marston spent months, travelling by dog sled through Alaska and assembled a force of over 6,000 Native Americans from virtually every ethnic group in Alaska. His command included 27 women and a few soldiers as young as 12 and as old as 80.
The US Army wouldn’t allow Native Americans in the Army. The “Alaska Scouts” didn’t even get paid. But by any rational measure the Scouts served as soldiers—damned good soldiers. Accustomed to the unique weather and terrain, accomplished hunters and trackers, both the men and the women knew how to handle a rifle. They set about defending Alaska.
They patrolled thousands of miles of frigid coastline, set up cashes of supplies along isolated transportation routes and along the coast. They spotted and shot down incendiary balloon bombs that the Japanese launched to follow the jet stream. They guarded and secured the airfields used to fly lend lease airplanes over the top of the world to the Russians. They built fake cannons out of rocks and logs to confuse Japanese pilots flying overhead.
And they guarded the tiny town of Platinum—the only source of that precious metal in the Western Hemisphere.
The United States Congress finally granted the members of the “Alaska Territorial Guard” veteran status in the year 2000
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