The Big Challenges: Mountains and Manpower
Mountains
The Canada and Alaska terrain is forbidding that the road had to cross. Temperatures reach -50 F. Snow, wind, rain, mud and dust make work hard. Rivers, swamps, lakes and mountains are in the way. Permanently frozen ground heaves or sinks with the seasons, and thaws when disturbed, creating muddy marshes. Forests are so dense that it's hard to walk through them. Clouds of blood-sucking mosquitoes are relentless. Bears and moose are always around. Soldiers were sent to Alaska and only told when they got there that they were going to build a road, and some reportedly responded, "Are you serious?" There were native peoples' trails around some of the barriers but not everywhere (one guide was asked how to get somewhere and replied, "We don't go there."). Surveying started from small planes before surveying on land was conducted.
Manpower
The main Army engineer units were in the Pacific. Alternatives had to be considered. The armed services were segregated. There were African American regiments that had been relegated primarily to service and support roles. Those units were sent to Alaska to work along side, but separately from, the main white units. Of the some 11,000 American soldiers that were sent to Alaska almost 4,000 were African American.
Not everyone welcomed the black troops. The head of Alaska defense forces was LTG Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., the son of a Kentucky Confederate Civil War general. He complained that the black soldiers might interact with the indigenous population and produce "...an astonishingly objectionable race of mongrels...." (Later as the commander of US forces at The Battle of Okinawa he seemed to change his view. Buckner ordered a Confederate flag that was flying over one unit taken down, saying that all Americans were in the fight.)
Nevertheless, manpower was needed urgently, the black engineers arrived, and Engineer generals put them to work. But they were not allowed to use heavy equipment because, it was said, they unable to learn how. They had saws, shovels and axes to do the "...low tech high sweat work." Determined to prove their worth, some of the African American soldiers reportedly borrowed heavy equipment at night from neighboring white divisions, worked all night building a section of road, returned the machines by morning, and said, "Look at what we did!" They ended up getting the full inventory of equipment which contributed significantly to the road being completed in eight months instead of the planned two years. |
A newspaper photo ran across the nation that surprised a lot of people and answered a lot of questions.
Black engineer units were working from the north headed south, and white engineers were working from the south going north. The New York Times reported that on October 25, 1942 near Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory:
"Corporal Refines Sims Jr., A Negro from Philadelphia, was driving south with a bulldozer when he saw trees starting to topple over on him....Slamming his big vehicle into reverse, he backed out just as another bulldozer, driven by Private Alfred Jalufka of Kenney, Texas, broke through the underbrush." It is reported that the two soldiers stopped, raised their bulldozer blades and stared at each other for a few minutes, realizing what this meant. It meant that at this moment a road to Alaska existed.
Black engineer units were working from the north headed south, and white engineers were working from the south going north. The New York Times reported that on October 25, 1942 near Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory:
"Corporal Refines Sims Jr., A Negro from Philadelphia, was driving south with a bulldozer when he saw trees starting to topple over on him....Slamming his big vehicle into reverse, he backed out just as another bulldozer, driven by Private Alfred Jalufka of Kenney, Texas, broke through the underbrush." It is reported that the two soldiers stopped, raised their bulldozer blades and stared at each other for a few minutes, realizing what this meant. It meant that at this moment a road to Alaska existed.
Attitudes had changed by the time the road opened. The Army publicized the photo of the Cpl Sims and Pvt Jalufka shaking hands and it ran in papers nationally. They were asked by the then commanding general, Gen. James A. O'Connor, to hold the ribbon the general cut to open the road officially on November 20, 1942. In eight months, the black engineers earned the respect of their fellow engineers and their commanding officers. Six years later, based in part on their work on the The Alaska Highway and the publicity their work generated, President Truman ordered the military services to be integrated.
The Black Engineers
Col Heath Twichell Sr reported on his unit's work to build the Sikanni Chief Bridge
When Col Twichell was assigned command of a black engineer unit he writes that he worried that his career was over. He later wrote that questions about the men's capabilities were resolved::
"...72 hous of ceaseless effort, at times by the light of their truck headlights, the men felled trees, squared timbers, assembled trestles and waded chest deep into the ice-cold river to float them into position. They cut and assembled wood to form the bridge's decking, and built and installed heavy timber cribs to protect its footings from ice and driftwood....The unit had won a reputation on the ground as fast workers who produced sturdy bridges under highly adverse conditions,, and who could operate and maintain their heavy equipment in the Alcan's cold, heat and mud."
When Col Twichell was assigned command of a black engineer unit he writes that he worried that his career was over. He later wrote that questions about the men's capabilities were resolved::
"...72 hous of ceaseless effort, at times by the light of their truck headlights, the men felled trees, squared timbers, assembled trestles and waded chest deep into the ice-cold river to float them into position. They cut and assembled wood to form the bridge's decking, and built and installed heavy timber cribs to protect its footings from ice and driftwood....The unit had won a reputation on the ground as fast workers who produced sturdy bridges under highly adverse conditions,, and who could operate and maintain their heavy equipment in the Alcan's cold, heat and mud."