Uniforms presented the soldiers of the 97th their single worst problem during the awful Alaska winter of 1942/43. Senior commanders, the men ultimately responsible for providing adequate clothing and equipment apparently had other things on their minds—until the Washburn Report landed on their desks and the desks of their superior officers back in Washington.
H. Bradford Washington, climber of arctic mountains and expert on cold weather gear worked with the Quartermaster General Corps to do cold weather clothing experiments. In December 1942 they asked him to travel to Alaska and inspect the uniforms and equipment provided to the soldiers of the 97th Engineers. What Bradford found in Alaska horrified him.
“A thorough survey was made of clothing and equipment of the97th Engineers between Fairbanks and Northway. Temps to sixty-three degrees below zero were encountered in the field, and clothing of this unit was found to be in abominable condition, so much so that specimens of it were brought to Washington, DC to illustrate the extremes under which American troops are operating in the field when their supply has been neglected.”
Washburn summed it up this way. “The pathetically ill-equipped 97th Engineering Regiment on the northern quarter of the Alcan Highway is doing little else but hibernating at present.”
Mary Hanson and her husband, Bert. Ran a roadhouse at Big Delta, and over that winter a hundred young black soldiers from the 97th wintered nearby. An old double cabin served the unit as a field kitchen, but the men lived in frigid tents.
Link to another story “Legendary Alaskan, Mary Hanson”
At Christmas, Bert made up a package—a comb, cigarettes, a candy bar, soap—for each man. Mary went with him to deliver the packages, and the tattered condition of their uniforms horrified her as much as it had horrified the Army’s clothing expert, Washburn.
Bad enough that the men lived in tents through an Alaska winter, infinitely worse that they worked outside in uniforms so ragged that she could see their skin.
Totally interesting
Thank you