An Alaskan Christmas

Aleutian Christmas

CHIPLEY, Fla. (Tribune News Service) — A 10-inch blanket of snow covered Fort Richardson, Alaska, when Oscar “Buck” Buchanan first arrived in October 1942.

“To some of us Florida boys, this was an experience,” Buchanan wrote in an account detailing his service during World War II that he mailed to The News Herald. “The train was late [to pick us up] and we were told it was due to moose, who would use the tracks for walking through a tunnel made of snow and couldn’t get off the tracks.”

106th Engineers

This is where Buchanan, a private in the National Guard, spent most of World War II with the Company D, Second Battalion, 106th Engineers.

Two years earlier, Buchanan, then 22, left West Bay with his friend Alex Hinote to enlist.

“At that time, I either had to volunteer into the service or be drafted,” he said.

After a brief honeymoon with his new wife, Juanita Sasnett, he started moving around the country, first for his own training, then to train others.

When the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, everything changed, he said. The unit was told to prepare to ship overseas for combat, their time extended for the length of the war, and they were promoted to general engineers.

Troops on Attu

“Our trucks, with a lot of equipment, were loaded onto a train and preceded us to Fort Dix, and sent directly to England. We followed later on Pullman cars — our first train ride — and were scheduled to follow our equipment to England on the Queen Mary,” Buchanan wrote. “While waiting for the boat, another decision was made for us to be sent to Alaska.”

The Japanese had occupied the Aleutian Islands, which fan out toward Asia from the southwestern tip of Alaska, and the U.S. government was worried about the possibility of a mainland invasion from the north.

So Buchanan was sent in the opposite direction of his things.

Along the way, he stopped with a few friends in Olympia, Wash., for 72 hours.

“We visited a ‘service center’ and were entertained by some of the staff. We asked the lady at the piano if she could play ‘Dixie.’ She could and we sang ‘Dixie Land, where I was born’ along with her,” Buchanan, now 95, wrote.

Later in the evening, they tried local oysters, confusing the waitress by asking for them raw instead of in stew.

“When the oysters came, they were the size of a quarter and in a bowl. They tasted like chalk. She said they came from China,” he recalled. “We took the stew.”

Muir Glacier, 1940’s

The dining reportedly did not improve as Buchanan traveled by a freight boat through the Inside Passage to Alaska.

When they arrived north, the men were outfitted with winter clothes, a coal heater and an A-frame tent. It was an adjustment for those who were used to warmer climates.

“Sometimes the food froze on the plates before it could be eaten,” Buchanan said. “On Christmas Day 1942, the temperature was 43 degrees below freezing.”

At the start of the New Year, the men were moved farther north to an Alaskan base with Quonset huts, where the military had to build an airport capable of accommodating a B-24 bomber as well as a hospital, a railroad and roads. As part of the construction, they had to tunnel through a mountain to get to the harbor.

The men were aided by civilians, and Buchanan became a trained surveyor.

As it seemed less likely the Japanese would enter Alaska, the work slowed and the American men began to relax. They skied makeshift slopes, visited Mount McKinley, received furloughs back to the States, visited Anchorage, hunted and fished.

When the war ended, the men went home to “no fanfare,” Buchanan wrote. He returned to his wife in Chipley, continued to work as a surveyor, and raised two children. He still lives in Chipley.

To this day, he said on the phone, he feels the 106th Engineer Battalion should have received a little more credit.

“We were called to a defense duty in Alaska and did it well. Even though there were no fatalities in the unit, no credit was given to them for the casualties — civilians as well as soldiers — that were prevented by preparing the Alaskan front for the invasion of the Japanese forces,” he said. “When the Japanese got ‘cold feet’ and fled to a warmer climate, the Florida boys got cold feet but stood their ground.”

©2015 The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.)
Visit The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.) at http://www.newsherald.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Click on images to enlarge.

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Military Humor – 

Sometimes you just have to keep you equipment on a leash.

Engineer’s priority….

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

James Beavers – Marion, IN; US Army, Vietnam

Vincent Capodanno – Staten Island, NY; USMC, Vietnam, Chaplain, Medal of Honor, KIA

Milton Crenshaw – Little Rock, AR; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Tuskegee instructor

Henry ‘Red’ Erwin – Adamsville, AL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Sgt., B-29 radioman, POW, Medal of Honor

Kenneth Howarth – Chester, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 127th Engineers/11th Airborne

Yvonne Mole – Victor Harbor, AUS; A Army Medical Womans Service # SFX 24647, WWII

Paul Oskolkoff – Ninilchik, AK; US Navy, Vietnam

Frederick Scott – Gainsville, FL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, B-17 mechanic

Harry Shipman – Hamilton, CAN; RC Army, WWII, ETO, 48th Highlanders

Dwayne ‘Doc’ Wise – Storm Lake, IA; USMC, WWII, Korea, Lt. (Ret. 22 years)

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