Alaska Territorial Guard
The Alaska Territorial Guard, more commonly known as the Eskimo Scouts, was a military reserve force of the US Army. It was organized in 1942 in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the occupation of parts of Alaska by Japan during World War II. The ATG operated until 1947, with 6,368 unpaid volunteers being enrolled from 107 communities throughout Alaska, and 21 paid staff, according to an official roster. For the first time, the ATG brought together members of the Aleut, Athabaskan, White, Inupiaq, Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Yupik, and other ethnic groups in a joint effort. In later years, all members of some native units demonstrated expert marksmanship. Among the 27 or more women members was at least one whose marksmanship exceeded the men. The ages of members at enrollment ranged from 80 years old to as young as 12. ATG members were mainly those who were too young or too old to be eligible for conscription during the war.
One first-hand estimate states that around 20,000 Alaskans participated, officially or otherwise, in ATG reconnaissance or support activities. The force served many vital strategic purposes to the Allied effort during WWII:
- Safeguarding the only source of the strategic metal platinum in the Western Hemisphere against Japanese attack.
- Securing the terrain around the vital Lend-Lease air route between the United States and the Soviet Union.
- Placing and maintaining survival caches primarily along transportation corridors and coastal regions.
Several former members of the ATG were instrumental in achieving Alaskan statehood in 1959, as members of the Alaska Statehood Committee or delegates to the Alaska Constitutional Convention.
In 2000 all ATG members were granted US veteran status by law, acknowledging their contributions, some of whom are still living. Efforts to find surviving ATG members and assist them through the application process are difficult due to a lack of written records, oral cultures, lack of trained staff, passage of time, and unclear bureaucracies and advocates. Nevertheless, active correction of the historical record is proceeding through the Alaska Army National Guard, office of Cultural Resources Management and Tribal Liaison, as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Conditions leading to formation
Before World War II, Alaska was regarded by US military decision makers as too distant from the contiguous United States to effectively protect, and of little strategic importance.
"... the mainland of Alaska is so remote from the strategic areas of the Pacific that it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which air operations therefrom would contribute materially to the national defense."General Malin Craig, US Army Chief of Staff, November 1937
This stands in marked contrast to the attitudes of US military leaders during the Cold War after World War II:
"... as I continue to correspond and to talk with people throughout the United States and the Department of Defense, they too can see clearly the importance of these two battalions which you make up. The real honest-to-God and real-world first line of defense in Alaska ... nearer our opponent, Communist Russia, than any other armed troops in the United States."General James F. Hollingsworth, Commanding General, US Army Alaska, February 1971
True to the earlier viewpoint, the US Army reassigned all Alaska National Guard units out of Alaska to Washington state in August 1941. Alaska was then without military reserves or any form of territorial defense force. In the face of the encroaching Japanese, the defense of nearly of US coastline was left to the best efforts of unorganized local citizens and already overworked seasonal laborers. The Japanese demonstrated a definite interest in taking Alaska. In the early months of 1942, a reconnaissance unit of the Japanese Navy was caught making detailed surveys of the Alaska coastline.
Japanese soldiers strode unopposed onto American soil and made inquiries among the populace about the local economy. Enemy aircraft and submarine sightings were common, inspiring great fear among the locals, and culminating in the raid on Dutch Harbor and the occupation of the Aleutian Islands of Attu, Kiska and Adak that June.
Creation
By the time of the Dutch Harbor bombing, Major Marston had submitted a new plan to defend the entire Alaska coast by enlisting the local citizens. He had conceived this plan while visiting Saint Lawrence Island and contemplating the fate of the locals he had met. Marston's proposal finally met with favor when word of it got to Alaska territorial governor Ernest Gruening. Gruening had sought to organize a new guard for Alaska, including every able man and boy, since he got word that the US Army would reassign the Alaska National Guard.Motivated by the recent Dutch Harbor attack, within days the Alaska Command assigned Major Marston and Captain Carl Schreibner to serve as military aides to Governor Gruening. Shortly after, Gruening and Marston flew a chartered plane to begin setting up units of the new Alaska Territorial Guard. This included one of the most strategically important sites in Alaska, a tiny mining town called Platinum—the only source of the metal in all the Western Hemisphere.
The enrollment drive continued into early 1943, the organizers travelling in all kinds of weather and by every available mode of transport, including airplane, boat, snowmobile, foot, and the most reliable means in the region, dogsled. When a promised plane failed to arrive after a week, Major Marston set out by dogsled on a trip around the Seward Peninsula, during the coldest winter in 25 years. He survived by foregoing standard military survival training in favor of the native methods of his Eskimo and Office of Strategic Services guide, Sammy Mogg.
Due to Marston and Mogg's effort, the ATG stood as a first line of defense for the terrain around the Lend-Lease route from America to the Soviet Union, against an attack by Japan and the Axis powers. This vital lifeline allowed the US to supply its ally with essential military aircraft. This lifeline proved to be crucial to the USSR's survival during Operation Barbarossa.
Organization
Authority
The Alaska Territorial Guard was organized in June 1942 under the authority of the office of the territorial governor, Ernest Gruening, who served as Commander-In-Chief. All members took an oath to obey the Governor's orders. The governor was directly supported by ATG Adjutant General, J. P. Williams. The force's headquarters was in the territorial capital of Juneau.Mission
The mission of the ATG was to play a defensive role for the entire coast of Alaska. Offensive action was the responsibility of the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Ocean Areas, with North Pacific forces operating from large bases at Dutch Harbor, Cold Bay and Anchorage.Explicit within the ATG mission was protecting the terrain around the American terminus of the Lend-Lease air route to the Soviet Union, on which warplanes were flown from Great Falls, Montana to Whitehorse, Canada, then to Ladd Field, Alaska and on to Nome. Soviet pilots flew the planes from there to the Soviet Far East.
By Date
The Alaska Territorial Guard operated from its inception in June 1942 until it was officially disbanded on 31 March 1947.By Geographic Area
The Territory of Alaska was divided vertically by the 156th meridian west into Eastern and Western Areas. To the Eastern Area was added Southwest Alaska, including the Aleutian Islands, which had been evacuated of non-combatants.The Western Area had a Field Headquarters in Nome, with the offices of the Commander, Quartermaster, Instructors, Public Relations Officer and Chaplains. Other field staff were located in Anchorage, Koyuk, Selawik and Gambell.
The Eastern Area was headquartered in Juneau and held the offices of Property Officer and Instructors. Field staff were assigned to Glacier Highway, Douglas, Ketchikan, Palmer, Hoonah and Sitka.
By Ethnic Group
The Alaska Territorial Guard was drawn from 107 communities and from these ethnic groups: Aleut, Athabascan, White, Inupiaq, Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Yup'ik, and probably more.By Rank
The ATG, being organized by US Army officers, made use of the same US Army rank structure, with these exceptions:- Throughout its duration, no member rose above the rank of lieutenant colonel, including the force's adjutant general.
- The designation private appears to have been little used, though most members held the rank of private.
By Workload and Pay