The most colorful soldier on the Alaska Highway Project, Chester Russel, came with the 35th Engineers to Dawson Creek in March 1942.
Colonel William Hoge had come to Dawson Creek, in February. His country, suddenly at war with the Empire of Japan, its Alaska outpost in dire danger, needed a land route from the railhead at Dawson Creek to Alaska through some of the most rugged wilderness in North America and it needed it yesterday! Colonel Hoge had been ordered to make it happen.
Hoge came north knowing he would have to work out a plan on the fly, but he already knew that he would need a regiment at Fort Nelson to build north toward Yukon Territory. Local experts informed him that only ice supported the trail up to Fort Nelson, and it would disappear with the fast approaching spring thaw.
He ordered Colonel Ingalls, commander of the 35th Engineers, to drop everything and bring his regiment up from Fort Ord, California. Chester Russel came with them.
Colorful character? Let’s begin here.
Ex rodeo bronc rider, 6’4” Chester Russel, had, before the war worked the rodeo circuit with his friend, Slim Pickens, a future star of Hollywood westerns. In the Army in 1942 he brought the attitude of a bronc rider to British Columbia and the Alaska Highway.
In an interview with Earl Brown and Hank Bridgeman, Chester explained that he served in the 13th Infantry at Fort Ord. The 35th grabbed him along with a lot of other soldiers on its way out the door. A hurried issue of heavy uniforms as they boarded trains in California told them a much colder place waited for them somewhere.
The trains rolled through Idaho, entered Canada at Kingsgate and rolled on to Edmonton. The little railroad north from Edmonton made things interesting. “They had us break up the train, break up the equipment because it was too heavy… Just as we got into Dawson Creek, I can remember one big curve…”
The curve stuck in Chester’s mind because a freight train carrying heavy equipment had just rolled off the tracks on that curve.
Stand by, I’ve more from Chester…