Greetings From the Alaska Highway!

"Dearest Bess:
I've sent you some photos of our life up here on the Alaska Highway project, or as I'm now calling it, 'The Dust Cloud of the North!' A lot of the fellows are horsing around on the very little free time we have; getting a good laugh about how far we are from civilization.




We're making fast progress toward the crew that's working up from the south in British Columbia. Our CO says we should link up by fall. After that I don't know what will happen, but I pray that I can come home to visit you. I've told all the guys about your war work at Boeing, and we're all mighty proud. I only hope your paymaster's a more civilized-looking fellow than ours:




Colonel Hoge's got us working nonstop now, which is probably just as well since we can hardly sleep with the sun up nearly all the time. And the heat! I never would have guessed that that it could get to nearly 100 degrees this far north! Makes the mosquito netting that much more miserable, but if a fellow takes it off his hide will look like hamburger quicker than you can say 'Bob's Your Uncle.' But it is beautiful up here, in a strange and desolate sort of way. The mountains are taller than ours near Seattle, but the trees look spindly compared to our big Douglas firs, cedars and spruces.










Exactly how fast we're working is supposed to be a secret, but one of the surveyors let slip that we were advancing as much as eight miles per day. Whatever the real figure, I just know that every mile south is a mile closer to you.

All my love,
Joe"