Alaska Highway, Company A, Born: 27 October 1918, Roscommon, Michigan. Died: 6 May 2016, Tennessee. Enlisted in the Army on 15 Jan 1942 at Ft. Custer, Michigan. Education: four years high school. Civil occupation: Foundry Worker. Spouse: Myrtle Curtis, married 14 Apr 1946 in Roscommon, Michigan. Father: James B. Phillips. Mother: Della White.
James’s daughter Mickie Goldsmith, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, contacted me and told me that her father was 97 and living in Pigeon Forge, TN. Mickie has two sisters, Jill and Mary, and a brother. She stated that her father was the regimental photographer for the 340th Engineers on the Alaska Highway Project.
He has traveled numerous times back to Yukon and has found tracks of the original Highway in his sector prior to the PRA straightening it out. A member of Company A commanded by Capt Philip R. Asel, graduate of Colorado School of Mines, with companies B,C,E and H&S spent five weeks in Skagway, AK waiting for their equipment and also waiting for the 93rd Regiment to build a 70 mile supply road.
During that five week period, the 340th with regimental commander Colonel Lyons worked on the Dyea Road and also spruced up the city by tearing down old buildings, running power lines and even planting bulbs for spring flowers.
After a memorable night on alert after the Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor, H&S company entrained on the narrow gauge railroad to Whitehorse and soon after Company A on that same railroad landed in Carcross June 6th of 1942.
They moved out to the grass airfield and bivouacked that night and on the next morning hefted their seventy pound packs over their shoulders and began a 70 mile march to Teslin River, hence forth known as Johnson’s Crossing. James boarded a steam boat and traveled up Teslin Lake to Morley Bay. Some of their regiment had already arrived from Whitehorse.
On June 16th, the H&S company rationed the 162 exhausted and bedraggled men of Company A. Their heavy equipment began to arrive at Morley Bay during the first week of June. James and his company engaged in corduroying, ditching and filling the Battalion supply road through the first of July.
Their motto and also their regimental history was “Lower Post or Freeze”. On September 24th the 340th pushed through to Lower Post and several miles further at Contact Creek two bulldozers met. One with the southern 35th Regiment commanded by Col. Ingalls and the other with Col Lyons and his regiment.
This is my father, he will be 97 in October and he has many photographs documenting road construction. He returned to Alaska on 2 occasions and found most of the sites he worked at.
If anyone remembers him please contact me.
Mickie, the most extraordinary thing for us is when we find a relative–let alone a survivor. My wife, Chris, will be contacting you, but let me say that if you are willing to share copies of photographs or documents, we would be more than happy to post them to this site, so everyone can see.
Has your father seen the site and the material on the 340th?
My father has not seen this site, I just discovered it this week. I sent the link to my sisters who live near him and asked them to show it to him. He loves Alaska and has excellent recall of his experiences. I did receive an email from Chris and will contact her after we speak with him.