[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2195]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARMY ENGINEERS TO THE STATE OF ALASKA

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the immense 
contributions of the African-American community to my State of Alaska 
and to our great Nation.
  I want to highlight in particular a contingent of troops, members of 
the African-American Army Engineers, who were stationed in Alaska 
during World War II, hundreds of men who served our Nation at a time 
when their basic human rights were being denied, some 6 years before 
the military was desegregated. In spite of that despicable injustice, 
they exhibited a great love for this country, even a willingness to die 
for this country.
  These soldiers were stationed in Alaska among several regiments 
assigned to build the ALCAN--Alaska-Canada--Highway. For a State as big 
and diverse as Alaska, infrastructure is critically important to the 
well-being of our communities. And in the 1940s, infrastructure 
assets--roads, bridges, ports--were few and far between. In fact, there 
was no road linking the contiguous United States to Alaska through 
Canada. We were isolated.
  We think of construction projects today, the many tools and machines 
our hard-working crews have at their disposal. But back then, many of 
those technologies and advancements didn't exist, making this enormous 
undertaking all the more daunting. Worse still, the machinery that was 
available was often given to the all-White units, leaving the African-
American servicemembers ill-equipped. Nonetheless, the men of the 
African-American Army Engineers labored on under extreme weather 
conditions, creating a roughly 1,700 mile cross-continental corridor in 
a mere 8 months.
  The project, too, came at a time when our Nation was under imminent 
threat in the Pacific, just 2 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. 
Our country needed to get supplies and soldiers to the furthest 
stretches of U.S. territory. Without the ALCAN, Alaska would not be the 
cornerstone of our national defense in the Pacific and the Arctic, nor 
the prosperous land of opportunity we see today.
  For these enormous contributions and for their selfless service to 
our country, we thank the thousands of African-American servicemembers 
who for too long were dismissed and overlooked.

                          ____________________