When I last posted about the Alaska Highway Project, I followed the segregated 93rd Engineering Regiment into Carcross and out on the road toward Tagish. In early May, the Line Companies of the regiment mingled in confusion in the ten miles between Carcross and Crag Lake; and Commander Johnson, his staff and his company commanders …
Tag Archives: black soldiers
Mosquitoes
The soldiers of the 93rd met mosquitoes as well as muskeg in the Yukon spring of 1942. The spring thaw got started in May, just as soldiers moved into the field. It turned the muskeg into thick brown soup. And it brought mosquitoes out of the ground in endless swarms. For more on muskeg The …
Confusion and Chaos
In early May 1942 the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers moved out of Carcross–most in total confusion. The first company out of town, Company A, worked well. Their two borrowed bulldozers cleared a right of way; laid down trees, pushed dirt and brush to the side. Soldiers with hand tools scrambled over it, shoveling …
93rd Engineers Making Road
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 Carcross either. Making road, getting the …
A Useful Corrective–Leonard’s Memory
Researcher Chris found Leonard Larkins and his family in 2016. We’ve travelled to New Orleans to visit and interview Leonard, to apply Leonard’s memory to our research. Leonard Larkins on our Research Site Leonard Larkins and the 93rd Leonard Larkins Memories Leonard talks about pup tents and stoves in cold weather—“had trouble with the stoves …
Leonard Larkins’ Memories
For the last two days I’ve posted about Leonard Larkins who served with the 93rd Engineering Regiment in Yukon in 1942. Leonard Larkins and the 93rd Meeting Leonard Larkins Leonard Larkins on our Research Site We have gathered in a large and comfortable room. On a big screen TV in front of us, Researcher Chris …
Meeting Leonard Larkins
Researching and writing our first book, We Fought the Road, our most extraordinary experience came late in the game. I hope you all can live with another trip through an increasingly porous “fourth wall” because I can only tell the story from Chris and my perspective. In late summer, 2016, Leonard Larkins’ son Bert found …
Leonard Larkins and the 93rd
In May 1942, Private Leonard Larkins came up to Carcross with Company A of the the 93rd Engineers. Company A came first and moved out almost immediately. Private Larkins came up and moved out with them. (Read more about Leonard on our research site) Leonard Larkins grew up on Star Plantation in Southern Louisiana; lived …
Carcross Knew There Was a War On
People in Carcross knew, vaguely, that there was a war on. Townspeople even installed black out curtains on their windows—just in case. But the sudden influx of soldiers came as a shock. At first, they simply moved through to Whitehorse, but then, in May, they began to pour off the train and set up camp. …