The “Iowa Expeditionary Force” came to Alaska with the 97th Engineering Regiment. Forced by the shortage of troops to send the segregated 97th to build the Alaska Highway through Alaska, two reluctant generals planned to surround them with white civilian contractors. They found an Iowa management contractor, Lytle and Green; and Lytle and Green went …
Tag Archives: Alaska Highway in WWII
War Machine Makes it Real
The war machine, the Japanese advance across the Pacific inspired the Alaska Highway Project. But the soldiers and civilians who went north to build the Highway, left the rolling catastrophe behind, struggled to keep up with news of the war. If few understood the complex geography of the Pacific, in early 1942 everybody understood …
Dropping It In
Dropping it to the soldiers in the woods, that’s how flying anything to them usually ended. If they happened to work near a lake or river, the incoming plane could land. But more often they worked in deep woods. The flying part worked well, the dropping not so much. Bush pilot Les Cook flew a …
Pushing Over a Tree
Pushing a tree over isn’t a skill most of us need to acquire. But then most of us aren’t working as “catskinners” on the Alaska Highway Project in 1942. If you know which levers to pull and which pedals to stomp, you just line the big cat up with its blade out front, pile in …
Gangplanks and Leonard Cox
Gangplanks punctuated Leonard Cox’s time with the 340th Engineers. A gangplank in Seattle carried him onto the ship that took him up the inside passage to Skagway. He didn’t know it, but his regiment would defend America by helping build the Alaska Highway through Northern Canada. More from the 340th The Army drafted Leonard …
Bad Guys Came to Skagway Too
The good soldiers of the 93rd Bad guys came to Skagway sprinkled in among the 1200 good soldiers of the 93rd. Bad guys came sprinkled among the good soldiers of the white regiments on the Alaska Highway Project too. But a bad black soldier got a lot more attention from the Army. In white regiments …
Segregation came to Skagway in 1942.
Segregation meant that soldiers, at least the black enlisted soldiers, in Skagway in 1942 lived separate, not just from their officers, but from everyone else as well. Six year old Carl Mulvihill spotted black soldiers quartered across the alley from his house. Excited, he waved and called. They ignored him. Only later did he learn …
Defending Skagway
Defending Skagway, Alaska from the marauding Japanese posed more problems than you might think. Luckily, to one young Lieutenant’s eternal relief, it turned out that Skagway didn’t need defending. In June 1942 Lt. Darrel M. Schumacher of the 340th Engineering Regiment cooled his heels in Skagway. He and his men would walk to the Teslin …
The Couple Lives Through an Explosion in Dawson Creek
The couple, Lucky Donald Hall and his new wife, Zellma, moved into an apartment in Dawson Creek—a one bedroom, furnished with a bed and a footlocker. The lovebirds lived there very happily until spring. That, of course, means the spring of 1943, so the couple got to endure the great Dawson Creek explosion and …
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William Booker’s Guest Post from 1945
William Booker served with the segregated 95th Engineering Regiment on the Alaska Highway in 1942, went on with the regiment to the European Theater. In 1945 he wrote a poem about his service and tonight he is my guest storyteller. More on Booker’s Regiment This Place is Reserved for White America is a …