Mild-mannered hero, Staff Sergeant Charles Davis, turned up in a story in the Pittsburgh Courier in early 1944. The reporter actually described him as a “slight and mild-mannered” black soldier and then went on to relate not one, but two incredible stories about mild mannered Sergeant Davis.
Link to another story “Rough Draft of a Highway”
In November 1942, the Corps of Engineers had ‘finished’ a rough and thoroughly dangerous land route to Alaska. Civilian contractors from Canada and the United States swung in behind them, laboring to improve it. But the Army needed it right away; couldn’t wait for improvements. The soldiers who drove it took dire risks.
On January 29, 1944 The Pittsburgh Courier told the first mild-mannered hero story.
On a day when the thermometer registered minus 60 a truck carrying Sgt Davis and two other men broke down 56 miles from their destination. Their base station did not expect them back. Their destination station did not know they were coming. Help was not on the way. They had rations for one day and no tool to cut wood.
Davis ordered his two companions to break branches in shifts to keep a fire going while he worked on the truck, thawing his hands every few minutes. Getting the truck running again took five days.
But the three men survived.
On January 29 the Courier came back with this sequel.
“Old Betsy”, the regimental shop truck, carrying Sgt Davis and three of his men “smashed up”; seriously injured all three of Davis’ men. Davis pulled them from the truck. But the temperature at 30 below, posed a bigger threat than their injuries. Davis built a roaring fire then stripped to his coveralls and wrapped the most seriously injured man in his own winter gear. Then he proceeded to walk 12 miles back to camp for help!
For this exploit, Davis received The Soldier’s Medal—the Army’s highest award for heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy.
Well done and timely. I grew up in Valdez from 1945 on. I remember the “Tok Cutoff” being called the N*** road. It was said descriptively because of the men who built it, not despairingly.as it would be today.
Dennis I remember having this conversation with folks in Valdez and along the cutoff. We were researching the book we hope to release this month and we were introducing ourselves to and questioning everybody we came across. Their respect for the black soldiers who are our heroes was evident a nod genuine.
Don’t kid yourself Dennis Jennings, the *N* word when spoken by whites…has ALWAYS been meant to be denigrating.