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The Alaska Highway Veterans is a group of roughly 4,000 segregated African American soldiers in the United States Army Corps of Engineers who helped build the Alaska Highway in 1942. The highway's successful construction is seen by many as an important factor in the 1948 decision to desegregate the military. [1] [2]
The portion of the Alaska Highway in Alaska was planned to become part of the United States Numbered Highway System and to be signed as part of U.S. Route 97 (US 97). In 1953, the British Columbia government renumbered a series of highways to Highway 97 between the U.S. border at Osoyoos, US 97's northern terminus, and Dawson Creek.
Sign Post Forest is a collection of signs at Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada, and is one of the most famous of the landmarks along the Alaska Highway. It was started by a homesick GI in 1942. He was assigned light duty while recovering from an injury and erected the signpost for his hometown: Danville, Ill. 2835 miles.
In February 1942 a road construction gang working in Northern California are summoned to a meeting. The boss of the gang, Pop Ormsby, has been commissioned as a Major in the US Army Corps of Engineers and signs up the entire crew with his two sons, Woody and Steve, gaining direct entry as Technical Sergeants to build the Alcan Highway.
It was the only military campaign of World War II fought on North American soil. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] At the time of World War II, Alaska was a territory of the United States. The islands' strategic value was their ability to control Pacific transportation routes as US General Billy Mitchell stated to the U.S. Congress in 1935, "I believe that in ...
During World War II the United States was concerned about Japan attacking the west coast and cutting off supply lines to Alaska. They built the Alaska Highway to connect Alaska to the rest of the United States and conceived the CANOL (Canadian Oil) project to ensure a supply of oil from Norman Wells in the Canadian Northwest Territories.
Slim Williams was a strong proponent of the Alaska Highway before World War II. However, officials decided that there was no need for a highway at that time. When they finally did build the highway in 1942, it went along a route east of the trail Slim had blazed in 1932/33.
Leon Crane (August 5, 1919 – March 26, 2002), a native of Philadelphia, [1] was an American Army Air Corps lieutenant who was stationed at Ladd Field [a] in Alaska during World War II. During a routine test flight on December 21, 1943, the B-24 Liberator Crane was copiloting experienced engine failure, causing the plane to crash into a ...