Tundra Troopers

They landed on Adak four days before the infantry. They were on Amchitka long before the main body of troops. On Attu they guided soldiers fresh from the States over trackless, snow-covered mountains. Late in June they led reconnaissance troops on Aggatu to make certain that no Jap was still there. And when the Army goes after Kiska, the Alaska Scouts will surely again be in the vanguard.

These rugged frontiersmen make up one of the most highly specialized groups in the U.S. Army. Their assignments: 1) to explore unknown parts of the Aleutians and the coastal wildernesses of Alaska, with a wary eye for any sign of Japs; 2) to reconnoiter desolate islands and pave the way for landings in force.

The Alaska Scouts grew from a nucleus of four hand-picked infantrymen. Organized a month before Pearl Harbor, they remain a small and select outfit. A few Scouts are Aleuts (see cut, third from right), Indians, or half-breeds. Some, like Larry ("Diamond Jim") Beloff (fourth from right), who operates a gold mine, are oldtimers in Alaska. But most are from the States, are principally Westerners who went to Alaska when they were adventurous boys. There is even one Scout from Brooklyn.

Captain Robert Thompson, who commands the Scouts, picks his men for one chief quality: ability to live for long periods off the barren Alaska land, subzero blasts to mosquito-clotted summer mugginess. Their physical endurance is far beyond the ordinary soldier's; one Scout walked 90 miles over corrugated tundra in three days. Scouts use Trapper Nelson packs instead of the Army's steel-framed rucksack, shun Army K and C rations for dehydrated beef and other foods which weigh less. A Scout's greatest fear is that he may fall through the ice, numb his hands so that he is unable to strike a match.

In the Battle of Attu, Alaska Scouts met Japs for the first time: one was killed, another wounded. But on most missions they operate separately from the Army. One result is that they do not care much about being around people. A Scout went in to see Major General Eugene M. Landrum after a long absence alone in the mountains. The General wondered if the Scout wanted a rest. "No, sir," he said, "I'll get some rations and head back to the mountains this afternoon."

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