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 of the Highway had to offer. Port Battalions and Railhead Quartermaster detachments moved trucks and dozers from ship to rail car. In Skagway, much to the dismay of the WP&YR management, an Army Railroad Battalion came to run the railroad for the duration. Signal Corps companies scattered the length of the way among the field companies, providing communication.
Quartermaster Truck companies worked out of each port of entry—Dawson Creek, Skagway, Valdez—hauling an endless river of food, supplies, parts, and, especially, diesel fuel and gasoline out to the line.
Every part of the road had water to cross. Until a river could be bridged, Pontoon Engineers moved men, trucks and bulldozers over and back. By the end of July, the 73rd Pontoon Engineers had heavy scow ferries working across the Tagish River and cross the Teslin River at Johnson’s Crossing.
Small detachments of specialists in shoe repair, clothing repair, tent repair came attached to every regiment.
In a dangerous place, doing a dangerous job, soldiers occasionally needed repair themselves. The medical corps brought a hospital to Whitehorse, and each regiment had a medical detachment—doctors, dentists, field treatment stations, medics.
