Danger and death confront soldiers at war, and make no mistake about it, the Army dispatched the Alaska Highway builders to war. Two soldiers in the 35th died when they rolled their grader over a bank. 1st Lt. Small of the 18th wrecked his jeep getting around a bridge under construction. His men found his …
Tag Archives: Alaska Highway in WWII
Photographing Alaska Highway Builders
Photographing the soldiers of the 97th on the Highway in Alaska, Sgt. William Griggs had a unique mission. A regiment with 12,000 black soldiers naturally included some with unusual backgrounds and skills. The 97th included Griggs. Griggs father made photography a hobby and growing up in Baltimore, Griggs learned to love it too. After high …
Defending America, Building the Alaska Highway
Defending America. Our two-book series We Fought the Road and A Different Race tell a story you’ll want to read. We Fought the Road on Amazon A Different Race on Amazon In 1942 black and white soldiers built a land route 1600 miles long through the most difficult country on earth in just eight months. The …
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Doctor Stotts, Deep Woods Surgeon
Doctor Stotts, forced to do surgery in the deep woods, cut through his patient’s scalp behind his left ear with a razor blade; drilled a triangle of three holes with a wood brace and a 3/8 inch bit; cut between the holes with a hacksaw blade removed the ‘plug’ and removed a clot. Not a normal …
Fighting Water, Building Alaska Highway in Alaska
Fighting water came next for the soldiers of the 97th coming out of Valdez to the Alaska Highway. Soldiers driving dozers and trucks negotiated the narrow dirt road and the breathtaking cliffs of Keystone Canyon. Beyond the Canyon they passed through the narrow walls of packed snow that choked Thompson Pass. Link to another story …
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There to Meet the Corps
There to meet the Corps of Engineers in 1942, Harold and Anna Engelson had made Ft. Nelson their home in 1939. I promise you will love this video. Click to see the video the story and more photos. Click Link to video The link will take you to an utterly fantastic video their son Monte …
Down the Yukon but Up the Teslin
Down the Yukon River but up the Teslin, steamboats like the SS Nisutlin carried the soldiers and equipment of the 340th Engineers to their starting point at Teslin and Morley Bay deep in the interior of Yukon Territory. General Hoge had ordered the 340th to build highway from there through into the mountains of British …
Heavy Equipment Breaks
For the 93rd Engineers in Yukon in June the motor pool’s first frantic mission, getting heavy equipment through and out to the road, rapidly morphed into an equally frantic ongoing mission—supporting the line companies in maintaining and fixing it once they got it. With heavy equipment, especially the big Caterpillar bulldozers, finally in hand, the …
Swimming in the Subarctic North
Swimming? Not a topic you would expect in a story from the Alaska Highway Project, but here it comes… Near the end of June, with the critical task of getting the 340th to the Teslin River behind them, Headquarters moved up to Squanga Lake. One day, when the air temperature climbed to 80 degrees the …
The 18th, Pride of the Alcan Project
The 18th Combat Engineers, a crack outfit, came early to the Alaska Highway project. They came up the Inland Passage to Skagway, boarded the WP&YR and invaded Whitehorse in April. Their heavy equipment came up from Skagway in May. The only bright spot in General Hoge’s firmament, the 18th immediately headed north out of Whitehorse, …