The United States Army didn’t create racism in the ‘40’s. The United States had struggled with race for 170 years and, in 1942, thoroughgoing racism and vicious discrimination permeated American society and government. The Army and the Corps merely reflected that sad fact. But its racism stained the story of the Epic Alaska Highway Project …
Tag Archives: Bulldozer
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 …
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 …
Moving Out to Tagish
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 …
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 …