[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 37 (Thursday, February 28, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1581-S1582]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Tribute To Jean Pollard

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, as you know, I try to come down to the 
floor every week to talk about someone in my State who is making a big 
difference in Alaska, a big difference in their country, and a big 
difference in what I believe is the best State in this country. That is 
just my opinion. I am sure the Presiding Officer thinks his State is 
the best in the country, but that is why we are all here in the Senate.
  Of course, Alaska is beautiful, particularly now as the snow is on 
the ground and the Sun is out. It is back out and high in the sky. It 
is also nearly time for the Iditarod--the last great race--something, I 
am sure, Senator Murkowski and I will be talking about on the floor in 
the coming weeks. It kicks off this weekend.
  We know it is a beautiful and amazing State, but what really makes 
Alaska such a great place are the people--the people who work 
tirelessly for causes they believe in.
  Many people don't know this, but Alaska is also incredibly diverse. 
In fact, Anchorage--my hometown and the State's largest city--is home 
to the country's three most diverse census tracks, racially and in 
terms of nationalities. By the way, the fourth is Queens, NY.
  I will just give you an example. Last week, we had this great event 
called Bridge Builders. It was in Anchorage. There were all of these 
different ethnic communities in Anchorage coming together. I spent a 
lot of time there on Saturday.
  We are very proud of our diversity. We are proud that more than 100 
languages are spoken in our schools. Think about that if you want to 
talk about diversity. We are proud of the foods and the cultural 
events. We are proud of the unique tapestry that makes up Alaska.
  We are very proud of our history, and we are also blessed to have 
people who work diligently for all of us to keep history alive. I can 
think of no better way to cap off Black History Month than to recognize 
someone who, for years, has been fiercely determined to unearth a very 
important part of Alaska's history--actually, a very important part of 
America's history--one that transpired in my State but that greatly 
influenced our Nation during a very critical time.
  I want to introduce you to Ms. Jean Pollard. She is our Alaskan of 
the Week. Jean has brought back the story of the African-American Army 
Engineers of the 93rd, 95th, and 97th regiments who were in the U.S. 
Army during World War II and stationed in Alaska during World War II.
  More than 3,000 of these brave soldiers were integral in Alaska in 
building what we call the Alcan Highway--the Alaska-Canada Highway--one 
of the 20th century's greatest engineering feats.
  Let me tell you about Ms. Pollard. Now a retired schoolteacher, she 
grew up in Georgia. When she was a teenager, her father, who was in the 
Army, got transferred to Alaska. Like all Alaskan students--like our 
good students, our pages in the Senate--she took a class on her State's 
history--Alaska history--in high school.
  During the class, she learned about how the Army built the Alcan 
Highway in 1942 to help defend Alaska and America from invasion by 
Japan. A lot of people don't know this. Yes, Alaska was invaded and 
occupied by the Japanese military during World War II in the Aleutian 
Islands. I am going to talk about that a little bit more.
  She learned about this in high school. It was a good story, but the 
most important element she was taught in high school was actually left 
out. The highway was only able to be finished because of the more than 
3,000 African-American soldiers who built it.
  So after getting a master's degree in education and a minor in 
history and after being a teacher for decades, Ms. Pollard only learned 
the entire story herself when she was sitting home one Friday night 
watching a PBS documentary about the building of this incredible 
highway.

  What did she learn? Again, let's go back in time. It is March 1942, 3 
months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. As the war effort was 
heating up, construction began on a 1,700-mile-long vital link 
connecting the great State of Alaska--it wasn't a State then; it was a 
territory--to the lower 48 for the war effort.
  Soon a massive mobilization followed--about 10,000 Army troops. Huge

[[Page S1582]]

trucks, civil engineers, food, tents, you name it, were deployed to 
start building this road.
  Then, in June 1942, the Japanese invaded Attu and Kiska Islands in 
the Aleutian Islands chain of Alaska, adding a new sense of urgency to 
the completion of the road.
  These soldiers worked day and night--200 bridges, 800 culverts, 
through some of the most rugged terrain on planet Earth, mountains, 
rivers, no rest, hard, backbreaking work--and they were able to 
complete this 1,700-mile road that still exists today--some of you may 
have driven it--in less than a year.
  When the road was being built, the military was still segregated, and 
African Americans in the Army--much like in the rest of the country--
were treated as second-class citizens. They were assigned to the 
toughest jobs on this project, using the worst equipment. In the 
summer, it was full of mosquitoes, black flies, mud, and swamps.
  Winter comes early in Alaska. According to the historian, Lael 
Morgan, the winter of 1942 was considered one of the worst winters on 
record since 1906 in terms of how cold it was--and, trust me, it gets 
cold in Alaska--and how much snow there was.
  The Black troops were required to build winter barracks for the White 
soldiers, while the African-American troops lived in tents. When the 
snow fell, they couldn't get supplies, and some nearly starved to 
death, Lael wrote. It is reported that some even succumbed to injuries 
due to the cold--fatalities due to the cold.
  They did so much of the hard work. However, the contribution of these 
great African-American soldiers and heroes were completely almost 
scrubbed from all of the history books. Nobody that Ms. Pollard spoke 
to--social studies teachers or history professors--knew anything about 
this history.
  In Ms. Pollard's words: ``They stole that history.'' The history 
books wouldn't write it. It was wrong, and she knew she had to make it 
right so she went to work.
  As a teacher herself and a lifelong learner, she knew that bringing 
the story to the school system was key to keeping our history alive--
accurate history. Eventually, she called the historian I spoke about, 
Lael Morgan--a former Alaskan who was then living in Maine and happened 
to be featured in that documentary that Ms. Pollard watched on that 
Friday evening.
  Lael decided to help in a big way. Incredibly, a year later, she sold 
her house in Maine and headed up the Alcan Highway to Alaska. Together, 
and with the help of a team of others Ms. Pollard recruited, they 
amassed enough material to give to the school system to set the history 
right.
  Now schools across Alaska are putting this story--this real story--
into their curriculum, and now she is trying to get it required as part 
of a course that the university students in Alaska who are studying 
education have to take.
  She and her team put calls out across the internet for anyone who was 
involved in or had a relative involved in building the highway. She was 
able to track down three members of the African-American Army Engineers 
who were still alive. She flew to interview one of the soldiers who was 
100 years old. Another one, who lives in Louisiana, traveled to Alaska 
in 2017 for the 75th anniversary of the highway's completion.
  Recently, Ms. Pollard mentioned the names of the soldiers she spoke 
to back then. There was a soldier from Virginia, SGT Reginald Beverly, 
who, unfortunately, has now passed away. The soldier in Louisiana who 
came to Alaska in 2017 is Private Leonard Larkins. He has 10 children. 
The Alaska Highway Project will be bringing him and his three sons back 
to Alaska on August 3 to help him celebrate his 99th birthday.
  I am in the process of drafting a Senate resolution to recognize all 
of the members of the African-American Army Engineers who helped build 
the Alcan Highway, which was so critical to protecting our Nation and 
Alaska.
  Ms. Pollard describes herself as feisty. Others might describe her as 
fiercely determined. When the Alaska State Legislature, at her urging, 
passed a resolution commemorating these African-American soldiers who 
built one of the greatest engineering highways in the world, she was 
sitting behind some of the State legislators.
  She heard one whisper to another: Have you met this Jean Pollard?
  The other said: Yes, she calls me several times a day about this 
bill.
  Julie and I were just with Ms. Pollard this past weekend, as I 
mentioned, at the Bridge Builder event in Anchorage--my wife Julie and 
I. She is very passionate, very persuasive, and we are very proud of 
her.
  Ms. Pollard and the team that created the Alaska Highway Memorial 
Project are on another mission to erect a memorial in a park in 
Anchorage. They have the design, and they certainly have the will with 
her driving it, and I have no doubt they will get it done to 
memorialize this great engineering feat by American heroes who were not 
treated well by their country.
  Like the story of how Ms. Pollard brought important history back to 
our State, the story of building the Alcan and of the civil rights in 
the military also has an uplifting message.
  On October 25, 1942, less than 8 months after they started, two 
soldiers, one African American and one White, shook hands after 
completing this highway. Six years later, President Harry S. Truman 
ordered the Army desegregated, 16 years before the passage of the Civil 
Rights Act. Many historians now cite the work and the experience on 
this Alcan Highway project, and the African-American soldiers and White 
soldiers working together on a really difficult challenge, as also 
helping make that possible--civil rights, 16 years later.
  The Federal Highway Administration calls the Alcan Highway the road 
to civil rights. Isn't that a great depiction?
  So, Ms. Pollard, thank you and your team for bringing that history 
back to us. I am proud to have talked a little bit about that important 
history for Alaska and America on the floor of the U.S. Senate. 
Congratulations for being our Alaskan of the Week.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). The majority leader.

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