Soldier-Workers: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Northwest Defense Projects, 1942-1946

Abstract

In the early months of 1942, with the shock of the attack on Pearl Harbor still fresh, and the perceived threat ofJapanese attack on the West Coast and Alaska looming large in the public mind, the United States drew up a plan to construct a military highway from Edmonton, Alberta, to Fairbanks, Alaska. In addition, the plan called for building a series of airfields along the same route to support the construction and to ferry LendLease planes to the Soviet Union. To supply these projects and the Northwest in general with fuel, the government also decided to build a pipeline from the oil field at Norman Wells in Canada's Northwest Territories to a new refinery at Whitehorse in the Yukon. Subsidiary pipelines would be constructed north and south along the highway and to tidewater at Skagway, Alaska. Many ancillary projects were also to be built, including a telephone network, a highway connecting the new road to Haines, Alaska, and scores of warehouses, maintenance facilities, dormitories, and administrative offices. Though these projects were built by civilian as well as military workers, much of the initial construction was undertaken by soldiers, particularly the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. While most members of the military today serve in support and technical roles, much of their training and indoctrination