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Building the Alcan by someone who was there....
by Preston WillsonMany years have passed since I was sent overseas to Whitehorse to take part in the building of the Road.
I was a member of the 18th Engineer (c) Regt. that went by ship to Skagway, over the rail road to Whitehorse, and then spent 9 months of construction of the Highway. We were 1400 men (Boys) with no prior knowledge of how to operate heavy equipment to do construction. There were 6 line companies, a Headquarters and Service Company, and a Band. We arrived in Whitehorse before the ice broke on the rivers. We waited for our equipment to arrive and then men were assigned to operate it. Once we left Whitehorse there was no return until the outfit met a colored Engineer unit near the Alaska border. The weather was COLD. An Indian said it was going to be a very cold winter. We ask how he knew? He replied,"The soldiers cut a lot of wood".
It was December when we returned to Whitehorse and Skagway. We did not know where we would be sent next. There was a couple months at Kodiak, then to Adak and on to Attu where we arrived on the day the Japs all killed themselves. We missed out on the second most cruel battle of WWII. We went on to the island of Shemya and spent the next 18 months building an Air Base and other facilities. It was 32 months from the time we left Seattle to our return. Only towns we went through were Skgway, Whitehorse, and Kodiak. The time in the service brought many fellows together for life time friendship. Our outfit had reunions every 2 years and they ended when we became too old to organize the next one. Time in the service made men out of the boys who enlisted or were drafted. Now, some 60 or more years later there is still interest in the construction of the Alcan. Many people have used the highway to make a trip to Alaska. It has provided a way to move many things from the States. Many have been able to enjoy the beautiful places in the Yukon.
There are few members of my outfit left. I am 90 years old and still in good health. I went on to be married, raise a family and have been retired 25 years from 20 years of employment in the Space Program for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Lab. in Pasadena CA. I only have two contacts of members of the Unit I was in.
When I tell people that I took part in the building of the highway there is always a lot of interest. People ask questions wanting to know what our life was like during the construction. As far as the Shemya duty they just ask "Where is that". People do not know that the construction of an Air Base on the island provided a place for Bombers to go and prevent the building of air fields north of Japan that if completed would have given Japan a place to send planes to bomb Alaska.
Thank you for your effort to inform the public of what happened during WWII.
Preston Willson E-Mail
441 Tanglewood Rd.
Arcata, CA 95521-4943
Visitors' Comments:
My Father the Army Sargent
My dad wrote the comments above. He was born in 1918. Last night he died, at the age of 90. It is now 2008.
I have to say that he kept abreast of the times throughout his entire life. He was always learning new things, inquisitive and very intelligent. He had 2 computers, digital camera, HD TV and all the latest gadgets.
He grew up on a farm in Kansas. He lived through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. His family refused to move because their friends and neighbors were staying, so he stayed to aid his parents.
He was drafted into the Army before Pearl Harbor.
As we were growing up we were rarely told stories about his time in the service. Until the last few years I never knew that he played trombone and the bugle. I didn't know that he was a typist. That was one of the major reasons he was able to get promotions in the service. Typing and being smart.
He was honest to the core. He was an honorable man. A father to be proud of. A father who took care of his family and worked hard. He knew how to fix a flat tire, build a cabinet, adjust the antenna on the TV and when the power went out he knew how to fix that too...an all around handy man. He held us when were were hurt and made us laugh when we were sad.
The reason I am writing this is to try and ease your mind about his 'racial dramatizations.' My dad always treated people as people. When he used the word 'colored' in the comments above, that was because it was the polite word for his generation. When he wrote 'Japs' that was how the enemy of our country was perceived, in his youth. I am sure that was not the word he thought, in his mind, about his current Japanese friends.
In recent years my dad was able to see people as people and judge then for their worth. He enjoyed having many friends of all races and religions. He loved Asian restaurants, Latin culture, Greek food and dining out in general.
Even at his age, and understanding the upbringing of a Kansas farm boy, I think you would have to admit that Sargent Preston is one of our true American Heroes. He has come a long way off the farm.
Sending love to my Dad,
Connie Willson, Eureka CA
Sorry to inform Preston passed away today. 9DEC2008.
Service arrangements are pending.
My father (born in 1918) was 23 years old when signed up with Dowell Construction Co. for a 9 month stint on the Alcan highway. Your dad's description sounds like what my own dad wrote me letters about before he died. My father hauled fuel for airplanes and to the outlying work camps. He described the dirt he drove on as a fine dust that never settled & they battled with mosquitoes. As it got cold he was assigned to be a truck driver. The Dowell company had made a deal to use a small native village (Champagne) as a base camp. He worked 18 hour days until the temperatures reached -30 and they had to shut down. It got as cold as -70. My dad's birthday was on Christmas day and he described how the cook made a large stack of four pancakes with a candle in the middle for him. He said all the cash was canadian and it changed hands many times as the guys played poker waiting for it to warm up. At -20 they went back to work.
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