The Daily Alaska empire., 1942-10-09


 daylight when the flames were not visible. Even then, the fires had to be kept to mere dribbles ot flame for fear of the smoke being seen.
 They slept in their soaking wet clothes, without tents of any kind and couldn't smoke after dark.
 They had to move always with the idea that some Jap probably was looking down at them from the next foggy peak. Their orders were simply to scout the island and engage and destroy" any ene- mics found.
 Couldn't Use Radio
 They couldn't use radio to sum- mon help. Only to warn of a big concentration of troops, if such warning seemed necessary. Their job was far more than simply tc exist.
 When the Colonel ordered a pri- vate to find a gun position, he meant first, to decide where the gun ought to be from the view point of it's range of fire. con- cealment possibilities, the practica- bility of setting up camp for gun crews, and finally, whether road could be built to the site and how long it would take.
 The Colonel one day told a Scout to locate such position, and when he returned, the Scout was able to trace on map the road route. But it was quite crooked and the Colonel asked why. The Scout said, T dug holes all over the valley and that route offers the best roadbed. It's the right grade so that guns of that caliber can be hauled to position with trucks of such and such power in such and such time.''
 100 Percent Right
 When the guns finally were in position, the Colonel checked and found that the Scout had been 100 percent right on each item, al- though he had spent only few hours looking over the ground, never had been either an engineer or traction expert.
 After more than a week, the first large contingent of soldiers arrived in what they thought was miser- able weather. By then most of the Scouts had been without sleep for at least 48 hours. Nevertheless, each took over the job of guiding some unit to it's new position, some many miles from the landing spot, and then to guide another unit. That went on for days.
 How well its work was done is illustrated by the fact that Cast ner received several protests from commanders of the new troop units that the Scout guides were going across the tundra so fast the troops were unable to keep up
 Others Beefed
 When the job was done, t h c Scouts gathered around for their first fires, took time out to wash their faces, and even enjoyed a few cans of field rations which tasted like steak dinners to them, although the rest of the Army was beefing about the food and the fact that it was hard to heat.
 The Scouts, however, had only one beef. It was that they'd been unable to find any Japs, even medium-size ones, to pick on.
 The Scouts were organized soon after the war began to do ad- vance work for the Army in a country nobody knew much about The backbone of the organization were volunteers from the ranks of residents of the Alaska back country.
 Ask Scout where he came from and he's more than likely to say up Kobuk," or, I've got a mine on the Koyukuk." Many of them are men outside of draft cate gories, not likely to have beer called for early draft service. Others are natives and the remainder of the bunch are conscripts who hap pen to know and like the back country, plus a few white collar workers-accounta and teachers who have shown a surprising ability to adapt themselves to the toughest kind of life.
 Many Applications
 The platoon leader is Robert Thompson, of Mocassin, Montana. The fame of the organization has spread quickly and Castner has been besieged by applications from officers and men.
 The Scouts have had the tough est training couyse in Alaska. Many times during the last few months it has been sent out for two and three weeks at a time with only minimum rations. Between times, the men have been put through rtlooad trairir1o courses in Dracti-