Evening star., 1942-08-22
Engineers Rushing
Stronger Oefenses
OF Panama Canal
MiIitory Positions Carved
From Wilderness in
Widespread Area
By CHANDLER DiEHL,
WIDE Morld.

BALBOA, c. Z-Over an area
fully half the size of the continental /
United States-ranging from steamy !
Jungleland to rocky mountains, !
Army engineers are rushing to COM |
pletion new and greater defenses of |
the vital Panama Canal.
Many thousands of Army en-
gineers and civilian crewmen re-
cruited from all three Americas are
doing an immense iob-working To-
hour shifts seven days a week-but
constructing emplacements for mil
itary secrets at various and wide
spread military secret locations, the
full extent of this job must remain
unpublicized for the present.
1t is possible to state, however,
that the engineers and their bull
dozers and their power shovels have
gone into areas where even Indians
have never lived. where only the
mean black panther and the NOR
tally poisonous bushmaster have
found a habitat, and there the en-
gineers have carved military posi-
tions from the wilderness.
Make Friends With Indians.
And they've gone, too. to jungle
land where Indian tribes hold sway
and there they've made friends with
the aborigines and, trading bright
colored cloth and food for labor,
constructed emplacements in record
time.
Modern warfare, as exemplified
by giant bombing planes, made the
work Of the Engineer Corps neces-
sary. At one time great coastal
guns at the Canal entrances were
adequate protection for the shipping
lifeline between Atlantic and Pa
cific.
Now that war has taken wings.
defense of the Canal has become a
gigantic problem an Army spokes-
man pointed out.
The roads alone, which the enei-
neers have built in recent months to
serve these positions, would make
a two-lane highway from Baltimore
to New York.
Outer Ring of Defenders
But far beyond the Canal Zone.
spread over an area half the size
of the United States, there must be
stationed an outer ring of the Canals
defenders. There, too. there must be
airfields. gun positions, barracks,
warehouses, magazines, roads,
wharves. water supply"
Before the United States entry
into the war, two organizations
were at work on military construc-
ton in the Panama Canal Zone
the department engineers and the
constructing quartermaster.
After December 7. Army authori-
ties decided to fuse the two con-
structing organizations to obtain
the greatest and speediest results
from materiel and manpower on
hand.
Named to head this program was
Col. Gordon r. Young of Washing
ton, D. c., veteran of 20 years in the
Army Engineer Corps.
War developments pointed out
the trend OF our work." Col. Young
recalls 1T showed a need for a
vast increase In airfleld construc-
ton and airfleld dispersal. It
showed a need for additional air
craft warning service locations. and
a strengthening of our close-in de-
lenses"
Some Lives Lost.
AS on any frontier job of such
magnitude, there has been a cost,
too in lives lost. Some men have
died under overturned bulldozers,
others in the wild swing of a giant
shovel. Some few have gone out on
long reconnaissance missions never
to return-victims either of wild
Indian tribes or the jungle itself.
Three men at one camp were vic
tins OF a raid by sharks on a swim
ming party.
But most of these hardy. re-
sourceful men of the Engineer Corps
become more hardy, more resource
tul working on this frontier.
Ray Gum, "cat-skinner" from
Texas, proved his mettle when his
bulldozer, uprooting a jungle tree,
sent a bushmaster angrily Topping
on him from the quivering branches
overhead. Gum grabbed machete
that had been given him and beat
the poisonous reptile to the knock
out blow
Frontier "delicacies" have been
added to the frontier menus. Supt.
Tom Carey of Washington, D. c..
shot an S00-pound tapir, and there
were steaks for all Another party
headed by John j. Hoehl, civil engi-
neer from Chicago, fashioned a har-
poon from large rattail file and
nabbed several large Holsters for
| soups and steWS
And the important military con-
struction goes on-with many prof.
ects completed ahead of already
drastically shortened schedules.
I'd have been surprised six
months ago at the way these men
are rushing these jobs to compile
tion," Col Young states. then adds
| with quiet pride In his men at