|
Posted on 06/18/2004 12:00:34 AM PDT by SAMWolf
|
|
 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
|
|
One of America's greatest engineering feats of the modern era, the construction of the Alaska Highway, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. Compared in scale and logistical difficulty to the building of the Panama Canal, the highway was constructed in less than a year. Weather conditions reaching sixty below; short supplies; permafrost; muskeg; and swarms of mosquitoes, black flies, and no-seeums challenged the 11,000 army personnel and 7,500 civilians who blazed a pioneer trail through 1,600 miles of northern wilderness to create what we now call the Alaska Highway.  In the eighty years preceding the construction of the highway, ideas for a route connecting the territory with the lower forty-eight states ranged from a Western Union Telegraph line to William Gilpin's (first territorial governor of Colorado) grand vision of a cosmopolitan railway stretching from the U.S. to Alaska across the Bering Strait through Siberia and finally connecting with European railways. In 1938 President Roosevelt created the Alaskan International Highway Commission which developed two surveyed routes to Alaska. Despite years of debate, the highway project remained on hold until the shock of Pearl Harbor destroyed the American myth of isolationism and a panic-stricken nation and government rushed into action. Fearful that the Japanese Navy would seize control of the shipping lanes in the North Pacific and cut off supplies to Alaska, Roosevelt finally approved the building of a highway on 11 February 1942. Construction began the following March.  Dawson Creek, British Columbia, the beginning of the 1,522 mile road. The sign marks mile 0.0. Ignoring the Highway Commission's recommendations, U.S. Army engineers ran the Alaska Highway along an unsurveyed route from Dawson Creek in British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska. The primary purpose of the highway was the defense and resupply of the "Alaska Skyway," a string of WWII airfields. The army selected the route by connecting the dots on a map marking existing airfields. The highway was built under much protest from the Highway Commissioners who disapproved of the route chosen by the Army. Thomas Riggs, commission member, engineer, and former governor of Alaska, wrote that the route "is so absolutely out of the picture insofar as a highway to Alaska is concerned as to seem utterly absurd." The military justified their choice by pointing out that it was far enough inland to be safe from enemy attack and that pilots could follow the road to avoid getting lost.  Construction of the highway began simultaneously in five separate places with the goal of pushing through a pioneer road in a single season. Through the summer of 1942, engineers driving a fleet of twenty-ton bulldozers covered about six miles a day through the subarctic forest. Speed was the only measure of success. Crews attacked the trail, building without grades or curves, cutting a path wherever a bulldozer could go with reasonable ease and speed. The trail was not built for cars or trucks but for bulldozers. Surveyors using aerial photographs to mark a rough trail through forest and across muskeg (grassy bog) barely managed to keep ahead of bushwackers and bulldozers. The heavy machinery was followed by gangs of soldiers who widened the road, laid culverts, and built small bridges.  The greatest construction hazard occurred during the summer when surface vegetation was removed from the frozen earth. Exposed to the sun, the permafrost melted into a black sludge, turning dry trails into impassable ditches that swallowed trucks and bulldozers alike. The only way to pass over the permafrost was to lay down a road of timber and brush, thus insulating the frozen ground so it would not melt. When the formal completion of the pioneer road was celebrated on 20 November 1942, the road was all but impassable to any vehicle besides bulldozers. In 1943 the trail was developed into a standard highway by the U.S. Public Roads Administration and civilian contractors. Rebuilding nearly the entire trail, workers graded and blasted 25.4 million cubic yards of earth, straightening and shortening the route in the process by nearly 200 miles.  One of the original BSA motorcycles ridden over the proposed Highway route between Fairbanks and Seattle in 1939 to prove that it was a viable passage to the North It took two men seven months to complete the 2,000 mile trip. When the highway was built three years later it took a different route. University of Alaska, Fairbanks Highway repairs were almost nonexistent in 1946, and wartime travel restrictions remained in effect. Only travelers with legitimate business in Alaska or elsewhere along the road received permits to drive the highway. People who used the road were required to carry a supply of tools and spare parts including: two spare tires and tubes, tire chains, tire gauge, car tools, axe and shovel, spark plugs, distributor coil and points, condenser, brake fluid, tube repair kit, tire pump, jack, tow rope or cable, first aid kit, fan belt, light fuses, fuel pump kit, axle, generator brushes, and clutch parts. In 1948 travel restrictions were lifted, and scores of WWII veterans and their families traveled to Alaska to stake out homesteads in the northern frontier. Despite the influx of civilian traffic rugged conditions persisted, and the entire stretch of highway on Alaskan soil wasn't paved until 1960.  The highway forever altered the political, economic, social, and cultural life of America's northern frontier and its construction, linking Alaska with the lower forty-eight states, ended the isolation of the Territory and played an important part in helping transform Alaska into a state in 1959. 10,607 U.S. soldiers built a road 1,522 miles long in 8 months. 3,695 of these soldiers were Black men.  Back Row (l-r): Lt. Rives, Capt. Land, Lt. Rice, Lt. Lavelle Front Row: 1st Pt. Sgt.McGee, Mess Sgt. Salter, 1st Sgt. T.C. Barnes, 1st Pt. Sgt. Spretley, Sup. Sgt. James Smith, 2nd Pt. Sgt. Witmore Military policy during World War II decreed that Blacks would not be sent to northern climes or active duty, but after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the need for an inland route to Alaska appeared vital. Manpower was scarce, and segregated troops were shipped north under the leadership of white commanders... despite protest from the U.S. Army commander in Alaska, Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, son of a Confederate general whose negative attitude toward Blacks was legendary.  93rd Engineers: The first of the three black regiments, the 93rd were led by Colonel Frank Johnson. Beginning their work at Teslin, they helped Lyon's 340th Engineers on the road to Whitehorse.(Picture from Twichell) The construction of the 1,522 mile long road from Dawson Creek, British Colombia, to Fairbanks, Alaska through rugged, unmapped wilderness was heralded as a near impossible engineering feat. Many likened it to the building of the Panama Canal. There was much praise for soldiers who pushed it through in just eight months and twelve days. However, Black battalions were seldom mentioned in publicity releases, despite the fact that they numbered 3,695 in troop strength of 10,670.  Lt. Rice and Sgt. Barnes with Highway Platoon- Company A, 95th Engineers. According to the testimony of their commanders, these men did an exceptional job under duress. Ill housed, often living in tents with insufficient clothing and monotonous food, they worked 20 hour days through a punishing winter. Temperatures hovered at 40-below-zero for weeks at a time. A new record low of -79 was established. The majority of these troops were from the South; yet, they persevered. On the highway's completion, many were decorated for their efforts and then sent off to active duty in Europe and the South Pacific. The veterans of the Army's Black Corps of Engineers were members of the 93rd, 95th, 97th and 388th units.  97th Engineers: Colonel Stephen Whipple led the 97th, the last of three black regiments, who accounted for 10,607 of the workers on ALCAN. The 97th worked in the northern third, helping the PRA and the 18th between Whitehorse and Big Delta, Alaska. (Picture from Twichell) Due to the fine showing of these Black troops and others, the U.S. military integrated all units during the Korean Conflict, becoming the first government agency in the United States to do so.  Temperatures were often 30 or 40 degrees below freezing. A record -79 was set this year. "We wore three pairs of socks at times, with rubber galoshes instead of shoes, because the leather would freeze. We had adequate clothing-- lined parkas, pants, mittens and heavy underwear, but it was still might cold. But I was a young man who felt he had a job to do, and I did it." -Alexander Powel, Crane Operator, 97th Engineers The road, originally called the Alaskan-Canadian Highway quickly adopted the shortened name Alcan Highway. Today, this road, known as the Alaska Highway, still provides the only land route to Alaska. (Black Archives Research Center Museum, Florida A & M University)
|
Uncle! Did I forget any others? ROFL
Hiya snippy, no nothing new on trips. :-(
Ick, wouldn't want to drive on them!
We will be here when you're able to visit. ;-) Sam's mom and sisters are coming in tomorrow for a week. I get to meet Sam's mom!!!! Maybe I'll have some good stories next week. LOL.
LOL. Love the cat cooking pic. And Braveheart....God does talk to the Irish. ;-)
LOL! Love the first picture.
"Beat up" is an understatement. They all took about 50% casualties.
Why the governement keeps trying to push that "Saudi Arabia is our friend" crap down our throats is beyond me.
Train Engineers carry all the materials and finished products. ;-)
Opposition leaders have already swore to put them before the National Tribunal when the next Parliament is elected.
How soon will you get a new Parliment?
That talking weasel Al Jubeir was on the tube...blah blah..the innocent...blah blah we are blocking bank accounts..making sure Fundraising agencies do not support terror.
A Mid east intel specialist was on CNN..his comment was that members of the Saudi Royal family still support AL Qeada.
That the Saudi Press is unwilling as yet to call Islamic Terror .....Terror.
Some members of the Saudi Ruling family commented this week about the Johnson kidnapping....that it was a Zionist/Israeli plot against the nation of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi money still makes it way to Arafat..other cells they agree with.
Iranian money...Egyptian money...Euro money.
No doubt..there must be ATM's in Mosques too.
And the Metallurgical Engineers to make the rails...
Msdrby just received some exam results. She's now certified to teach history in high skrool. Look out libs.
I wish othe Republicans would get some balls and start calling the Liberals what they are. The Democrats don't seem to have a problem doing it to the Conservatives.
This "let's all get along" is for the birds. The Liberals need to be defeated and thrown out.
Fooled em again for another week!
“I’ll not allow it. It is not the business of commanders to be firing upon one another.”
I recall reading that one of the things that outraged the British officers in the revolutionary war was the American practice of targeting officers.
Thanks for the early history of Poland Matt.
From what my dad has told me Russia and Poland have never gotten along. Russia has never been able to abide an independent Poland.
At Waterloo, the brigade was filled out by the 1st Royal Dragoons (Blues) and at Balaclava by the 1st Royal Horse Guards (Royals). Those latter two were amalgamated into the Blues and Royals, who serve with distinction as part of the household cavalry guarding the British Monarch.
I remember as a kid in the 50's watching the "Trooping of the Colours" or the Queen's official birthday and marveling at the cavalry trotting by. There is a special area of Whitehall (Equivalent to the Pentagon) known as "Horseguards." The last time I was in London, in 1998, it was still accessible to the public, and guarded by dismounted troopers in Blue tunics, steel helmets, and above-the-knee boots.
The real mission of the Blues and Royals is Armo(u)red Recon, having served with hono(u)r in the Falklands, GWI, and Kosovo,
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
