Chaplain and Lieutenant Finis Hugo Austin came to the 93rd at Camp Livingston and served with the regiment throughout its struggles in the Yukon wilderness. Austin, 35, had grown up in Virginia, earned a B.A. from Virginia Seminary College and an M.A. from Oberlin College in Ohio. Link to another story “Chappie” It’s hard to …
Tag Archives: black soldiers
Racism
Racism, not simply wrong but also incredibly inefficient, visited the commander of the Alaska Highway Project, General William Hoge on a regular basis, but never as dramatically as when he put together his plan to get two of his regiments out of Skagway and onto the Highway. Link to another story about Hoge After much …
The Swamp Claimed a Dozer
Big Devil Swamp immortalized Captain Pollock, Company B commander, in June 1942. Read More about Getting to the Teslin River Racing to the Teslin River early in the month, the soldiers of the 93rd had passed Summit Lake and plunged through the swamp—left a barely passable trail. The soldiers of the 340th had worked through …
We Fought the Road and A Different Race
We Fought the Road and now A Different Race tell an important and fascinating story that too many people don’t know. In early 1942 the rampaging Empire of Japan advanced on America through the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. America couldn’t get enough men and material to Alaska to defend it without a land route from …
Paul Raso–Guest Post
Paul Raso’s father served as a company commander in the 97th Engineering Regiment—appears several times in our new book, A Different Race. And I posted a story about him and a pack mule here just a few days ago. Captain Paul Raso commanded a company of black soldiers who played a major part in constructing …
Bitter Cold Could Kill a Man
Bitter cold could kill a man–softly, even kindly, but very, very quickly. Most of the soldiers who wintered on the Alaska Highway in 1942/43 survived, but the survivors would never forget the miserable experience. Reading their memories today still produces involuntary shudders. A soldier named Boos spent evenings with his four tent mates huddled next …
Two Books
Two books, We Fought the Road and A Different Race, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and your local bookstore will appeal to people who enjoy my stories. Christine and I wrote them. An Epic project comparable to the construction of the Panama Canal, the construction of the Alaska Highway left behind a treasure trove …
Vaccinating
Vaccinating thousands of young soldiers at a frantic pace before shipping them overseas, the army screwed up. During March 1942, a batch of contaminated yellow fever vaccine made its way into the system. Initially ignorant of the contamination, medics vaccinated several thousand young men from that batch. Two months later, in May, soldiers all around …
Tiny Teslin Post
Tiny Teslin Post never saw it coming. In July 1942, the soldiers of the 93rd Engineers, with their bulldozers and trucks and graders suddenly roared out of the woods beside Teslin Lake. The soldiers bulldozed at and around the tiny village and its 130 citizens, dropping trees in every direction. Link to another post …
Menace of Mentasta
Menace confronted the soldiers building the Alaska Highway at every turn. But the black soldiers of the 97th had to conquer the most fearful menace of them all—Mentasta Pass. At the turn of the century the Army had built a pack trail from Valdez to Eagle. Alaskans found the trail dangerous, impossible to maintain and …