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McKinley Expedition
"For outer clothing we wore field parkas, OD wool trousers and cotton trousers, OD shirts, field caps, boot muklucs and wool underwear. The parkas covered the face very nicely. We used goggles with amber lenses. We were plenty warm - no one suffered at all" Grant Pearson. *Temperatures ranged from 10-35 below zero, winds to 50 mph. "Fifty miles in two days? Dick Huff and I started out together with 60-lb packs and made the 24 miles from Toklat to Camp Eielson on top of Cooper Mountain in 7 1/2 hours" From a letter to his mother by Everett Cook |
Because of the difficult and hazardous nature of the proposed expedition, a call went out for volunteers. 44 men stepped forward, among them members of the famed Alaska Scouts, Army Land Rescue personnel and other soldiers who had hunted, fished, trapped and prospected for gold in Alaska before the war. They were joined by Grant Pearson, the chief ranger for Mt. McKinley National Park, and Brad Washburn, director of the Boston Museum of Science. Washburn had 12 first ascents of Alaskan peaks behind him and his pre-war aerial photographs of the McKinley range were some of the most comprehensive ever taken at that time. Captain Americo R. Peracca, Corps of Engineers and 11th Air Force Land Rescue expert headed the expedition and Major John G. Hill was selected as the organizer. James A. Ford, mountain climbing expert from the Office of the Quartermaster General in Washington, DC joined the party as a technical advisor and Sgt. John M. Greany, Signal Service Corps, became the expedition photographer.The rest of the expedition crew is listed below by organization: Base HQ and Air Base Squadron: Lt. Allen M. Dillman, S/Sgt. Donald R. Groll, Sgt. James E. Gale, Sgt. Karl M. Ivanoff, Cpl. Eugene Tetinek, Cpl. Eugene V. Hawkins, PFC William E. Cook, PFC Michael V. Foley, PFC Richard D. Huff, PFC William R. Harvey, Pvt. Elmo G. Fenn, Pvt. Donald E. Riley, Pvt. Stanley J. Huhndorf, Pvt. Andrew A. Wholecheese, Pvt. Howard Wilson and Pvt. David J. Yatlin. Hospital: Capt. George W. Morris and Pvt. Wallace W. Atkinson Infantry: S/Sgt. Richard O. Manuell, Sgt. Michael A. Hanson, Sgt. Jack J. Van Zanten, PFC Samuel Kakik, PFC Tommy Goodwin, PFC Jack N. Yokel. Engineers: PFC Van H. Ballantyne and Pvt. John F. Morrison. Hq. Co. AD: T/4 Woodrow W. Page, T/4 Charles J. Perricone, Cpl. Raymond Conrad, Cpl. Joseph C. Rosenauer, T/5 Jacob A. Stalker, T/5 Fuller S. Thompson, T/5 Aden E. Winkelman and Pvt. Ivar Skarland. AACS: S/Sgt. Harry O. Kruvand Weather Squadron: S/Sgt Harry P. Pierce and Cpl. Howard Hoffman Base Medical Detachment: T/5 James C. Larsen. Rescue Boat Squadron: Pvt. Joseph Britch. Others: T/Sgt. Richard D. Nierstheimer, Pvt. Len F. Fields, Pvt. Joseph Secora |
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