Racism complicated the management of the Epic Alaska Highway Project. Skin color repeatedly trumped every other consideration. In June 1942 thousands of United States Army soldiers and thousands of civilian contractors from the United States and Canada sprawled across Northern Canada and Alaska; struggled to get organized and make progress on the desperately needed land …
Tag Archives: black soldiers
Climax at the Teslin River
The Climax came at the Teslin River. At mid-June 1942 the black soldiers of the 93rd raced, a long train, through the Yukon woods building a road for the white soldiers of the 340th to the Teslin River. Way behind schedule and burning with impatience the soldiers of the 340th had moved in behind them …
Traffic Jam in the Woods
In June 1942 a traffic jam followed the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineering Regiment as they raced through woods and mud toward the Teslin River, building a road to get the white soldiers of the 340th Engineers into the interior. More on the Race to the Teslin River Colonel Lyons, commander of the 340th, …
East of Tagish
East of Tagish work speeded up. Recall that in April 1942 General Hoge had dispatched the black soldiers of the 93rd to Carcross to build a road to the Teslin River for the 340th. He had done so to get the black men out of Skagway and he didn’t propose to leave them long in …
Down in Yukon
Down in Yukon the action in June 1942 centered on the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers. Their equipment arrived. Out on the road just one company, Company C, rapidly acquired nine new dozers, three carryalls, a towed rooter plow, a galleon road grader, a gas operated crane shovel… With each dozer came light and …
Colonel Whipple’s Problem
Colonel Whipple, commander of the 97th in early 1942, understood very clearly that his bosses wanted him to keep his black soldiers away from Alaskans. Once he had his men off the Branch, he focused on getting them out of Valdez. Company E had walked through the snow directly off the dock, out to the …
The Demolished Dock
Port of Valdez in 1942 April 30, 1942. The SS David Branch has partially demolished the Valdez Dock; lashed to it anyway; is about to disgorge the black soldiers of the 97th Engineering Regiment. Anything or anybody coming off the David Branch would come to the narrow wooden dock and the warehouse, would traverse …
June 1942, Yukon
June 1942 in Yukon. What was going on The black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers hit their stride. Moving rapidly east from Tagish, Company A led the three companies of First Battalion on a mad dash through the woods. On June 4 Company A moved to bivouac seven miles east of the Tagish River just …
Seventy Miles of Road
Mid-June 1942, the action in Yukon centered squarely on the seventy miles of road from Carcross to the Teslin River and the men of the 93rd Engineers who fought to build it. Never recorded, long forgotten, the performance of the men of the 93rd—especially the men of Company A—during the first two weeks of June …
Gouging a Road through Yukon
The soldiers of Company A, finally gouging a road out of the wilderness powered through Yukon in May. The soldiers of Company B came right behind. For more on the 93rd On May 19th the North Country threw a curve at Company B when a forest fire flared about seven and a half miles from …