Smitty Schmitt, early in 1942, received orders to report for duty at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. He and his wife packed up and headed south from their home in Schenectady, NY. In camp, he reported to the regimental adjutant of the 93rd Engineers.
“Do you have a car and are you married?” the officer asked. Smitty, of course replied “yes” to both questions. “Sell your car and ship your wife home, because we are shipping out in two days.”
Thus began Lt. Donald J. Schmitt’s adventure.
With a few other white officers and 1,200 black soldiers, the lieutenant travelled by train across the United States; then by ship through the North Pacific and up the Inside Passage to Skagway, Alaska; and, finally, by narrow gauge rail straight up into the sky—and into Yukon, Canada.
Smitty remembered the 16 foot square tent that he shared with another officer—and a black enlisted orderly, Private Charlie Knowles, who prepared their breakfast, made sure a fire roared in the Sibley stove before they rolled out of their cots in the morning, and generally tended to their creature comforts! Smitty took this orderly business as a matter of course, but, trust me, it’s not. Only a segregated regiment would assign an orderly to two junior officers.
Despite Private Knowles’ efforts, life in the tent could get unpleasant. Smitty remembers mornings when two inches of frost lined the inside of the canvas walls. Two inches might be a slight exaggeration, an old man’s memory can do that.
A local hunting guide, Johnny Johns, guided the regiment through the Yukon woods, confidently led them right past the survey crews that they theoretically followed. Johnny’s wife wore a beautiful pair of handmade moccasins and Lt. Schmitt asked her to make a pair for his wife back in Schenectady.
She delivered a pair as beautiful as her own, made of moose hide cured in human urine. He “found it prudent” to leave them on top of the tent during the day to air out.”
Ultimately the Lieutenant commanded a company, learned to respect and depend heavily on the leadership skills of his black First Sergeant, Sergeant Harris. He also learned to value the skills of a black cook named Mountie Joe Clement who made life a bit more bearable for everybody with his delectable bread.
Yukon presented deep, deep mud. The soldiers responded with corduroy. “We deposited layers of logs, gravel, and dirt, and as each sank out of sight, we added another layer. It took eight or nine layers before it stabilized at mile 69.”
And wildlife. “One night, travelling the road in a weapons carrier, I picked up the reflection of a huge wolf’s eyes.” Since the wolf had possession of the middle of the road, the weapons carrier stopped. The wolf approached to just in front of the headlights. And then he calmly walked away into the darkness, leaving Smitty with a decidedly eerie feeling.