A few weeks ago my email included a nice surprise. Gary Orlando, of Yulee, Florida, found his grandfather’s name, Alfred Cesinger, here on the site and contacted me. A Tech Sgt in the 340th Engineers, Cesinger helped build the ALCAN in 1942.
Today my mailbox contained an even nicer surprise—a CD filled with photos and documents relating to Sgt. Cesinger’s service with the Corps of Engineers. I’ve posted some photos with Sgt. Cesinger’s entry in “340th Personnel”. The rest are here as part of this story. I’ve supplemented Mr. Orlando’s information with data from the 1930 Census.
Born and raised on a farm in Vigo, Indiana, Alfred enlisted at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indiana on 13 February 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, and joined approximately 37,000 other soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Assigned to Company D of the 28th Engineer Training Battalion, Alfred trained as a combat engineer, learning to use tools, to construct fixed and floating bridges, build roads and obstacles, execute demolitions and defend himself against the enemy.
Among the documents Mr. Orlando scanned for me was a training manual for Engineers at Fort Leonard Wood in 1942, and the manual sheds light on segregation in the Corps. Two training groups—the 6th and the 7th—shared the Facilities at the training center. Seven training Battalions of 1000 white soldiers each comprised the 6th. Three training battalions of black soldiers comprised the 7th. Black or white, the trainees fell out for roll call and calisthenics at 5:50 am, spent the day in training and were “checked” in bed at 11:00 pm. But Fort Leonard Wood offered seven Post Exchanges, four for white soldiers and three for black ones. It also offered duplicate movie theaters and duplicate service clubs.
Post training, Alfred found himself assigned to the H&S Company of the 340th Engineers—a mechanic in the regimental motor pool—and April of 1942 found him a Tech Sgt, encamped on the frigid airfield in Skagway, Alaska.
A traffic jam of soldiers and equipment held the 340th in Skagway for weeks, but in early June Alfred’s H&S Company finally took its turn on the WP&YT, climbing through the rugged mountains to Whitehorse. Three days later the army ferried them over the Yukon and Teslin Rivers to base camp at Morley Bay.
As the 340th forged southeast from Morley Bay toward and into the rugged Rockies, Sgt Cesinger forged with them—enduring bitter cold, summer heat and gigantic mosquitoes, servicing and repairing the trucks and dozers and other equipment that went up against the mud, the cliffs and the trees. Gary’s photos make it evident that “Miss Pauline”, a heavy duty truck tractor, had a special place in the mechanics’ hearts. Big “Dragin Wagons” like Miss Pauline, could roar through the steep muddy terrain—slow but steady, carrying a monster D8. When the 340th, working in tandem with the 93rd, completed their section of road from Teslin to Lower Post, Sgt. Cesinger moved on to serve in Australia and the Netherlands’ East Indies.
His two sisters, Pauline and Freda, completed the Cessinger family contribution to the war effort, serving throughout the war in the Signal Corps.