Routine settled in on the Alaska Highway Project in August, but no amount of routine could make it easy.
The details of daily living and working—eating; sleeping; recreating (or lack thereof) and, above all, gouging a highway out of the forbidding wilderness, one mile at a time—had fallen into a pattern that applied to all seven regiments. The road emerged, threading its way through the vast wilderness; and everybody focused on completing it.
Link to another August Story “Little Tok River”
The soldiers relief when the mosquitoes disappeared in August didn’t last long. The North Country had more creatures than one up its sleeve. Swarming Gnats, accompanied by “no-see-ums”, replaced the mosquitoes; made the mosquitoes seem almost gentle by comparison. Small, built for speed, a gnat used its tiny mandibles to attack and eat a man’s flesh, leaving behind a swollen, itching clot of blood. Gnats especially favored ears. But they weren’t picky. One surveyor, eyes swollen and ears bloody, found six more gnats in his navel. Clothing offered virtually no protection.
The North Country finally dried out in August, but that, too, offered the troops only temporary relief. The endless mud dried into endless red dust that swirled to cover duffle bags, pack the creases in fatigues and abrade vital machine parts. Soldiers of the 93rd, convoyed by truck to Teslin Post, arrived unrecognizable, their faces totally obscured by red dust.
More on gnats and north country insects