Ordinary Men Build A Legendary Road
Black Engineers & The ALCAN Highway
African American, Alaska Highway, Company C. Born: 25 October 1920, Ruston, Lincoln, Louisiana. Died: 7 March 1997, Clearlake Park, Lake, California. Enlisted: 15 April 1941, Jacksonville Army Airfield, FL Education: grammar school. Civilian Occupation: Waiter. He was the orderly and driver for Capt. Robert P. Boyd, Company C Commander. His father was Willie Levester Anding…
Alaska Highway. Surgeon, Medical Corps, First Battalion. Born: 4 October 1904, Lithuania, and immigrated in 1911. Died: 19 October 1981, New York. His spouse was Helen Ocko Altman (1908-1995), a teacher. Jacob and Helen were married on 27 December 1936. Lt. Squires of the 93rd described Dr. Altman as a very short man, shorter than…
Both military and civilian units supported the 93rd and 340th Engineers. They supplied food and clothing, heavy equipment and reconnaissance, transportation over bodies of water and radio communication. Coordinating the efforts of military and civilian specialists in supply, topography, pontoon bridging, and communications was complex. Throw in stevedores, doctors and nurses, bush pilots, and native guides and it is understandable…
The 340th Regiment landed in Skagway on April 25th. One battalion went to Whitehorse and the other battalion stayed in Skagway until after the Dutch Harbor bombing in early June.
The 340th Engineers was a new regiment activated at Vancouver Barracks, Washington on 5 March 1942. The nucleus of this unit was a cadre of seven officers and 72 enlisted men from the 18th Combat Engineers who arrived on 9 March 1942. Another cadre of 62 enlisted men from Ft. Francis E. Warren also arrived…
The rapidly expanding Corps of Engineers, activated the 340th Regiment at Vancouver Barracks in March of 1942, ‘seeding it’ with a small cadre of officers from the 18th Combat Engineer Regiment. On March 9, sixty-two enlisted men from Fort Francis E. Warren joined them and in short order several hundred more arrived from Fort Leonard…
The rapidly expanding Corps of Engineers, activated the 340th Regiment at Vancouver Barracks in March of 1942, ‘seeding it’ with a small cadre of officers from the 18th Combat Engineer Regiment. On March 9, sixty-two enlisted men from Fort Francis E. Warren joined them and in short order several hundred more arrived from Fort Leonard…
On April 12, 1942, the 93rd Engineers boarded five trains and left Camp Livingston, Louisiana in the early afternoon. They arrived at Camp Murray, Washington on April 16. From the 15th to 25th of April, three ships transported the regiment through the Alaska panhandle up the fjord to dock at Skagway Harbor in Alaska. At Skagway the…
The segregated troops of the 93rd Engineer Regiment who built 240 miles of the Alcan Highway felt that their work did not receive any public recognition in comparison with that of other units on the highway.
The armed services of the United States expanded as fast as possible during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Few among the country’s civilian and military leaders doubted that war was imminent. Among thousands and then tens of thousands of new recruits who poured into the Army were thousands of black men, and they presented…