Fort Gibbon at Tanana (pronounced ta-na-naw) was the midpoint of the telegraph line between Eagle and Nome. It was also in the center of an important trading area. At the administration building are a team of reindeer, which were used to haul supplies.

When the land lines of the WAMCATS were completed in 1903, the system was connected via Canada to the United States. This did not prove satisfactory, so a submarine cable system was developed connecting the Alaskan land lines to Seattle and serving the towns of south central and southeastern Alaska. The cable ship, BURNSIDE, laid the cable and repaired the line over a period of 18 years.

The dependable old Army mule had been replaced by the automobile in 1927 when a Signal Corps team made a telegraph line inspection along the Richardson Trail.

World War I called many young Alaskans to the colors, and only a few soldiers guarded docks and bridges in Alaska. Among these was Company B, 21st Infantry, which arrived in Anchorage on board the steamship, ADMIRAL WATSON, on November 15, 1919.

The first world war brought the airplane into full flower. Following the war, the Army sent out expeditions to demonstrate the range and utility of aircraft developed beyond World War I standards. The famed Black Wolf Squadron flew from New York to Fort Davis, near Nome, Alaska. This flight and the return trip took from July 15 to October 20, 1920.

Between the world wars, Chilkoot Barracks was the only Army post in Alaska. Situated near Haines, Alaska, it was originally name Fort William H. Seward, but was renamed in 1922. It was manned by 11 officers and 300 men equipped with Springfield rifles.

World War II brought drastic and far-reaching changes to Alaska. Fort Richardson was established in 1940 on the site now known as Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage.

Supplying defense forces in Alaska was an operation that included ocean, rail, truck, air and river arteries. The 878th Port Company at Nenana ran a barge transport of critical fuel down the Tanana and Yukon Rivers to Galena, the site of an air transport command airfield in 1944.

But it was the Aleutian Islands, which became the focus of military action in Alaska during World War II.

From a bleak headland, near Fort Abercrombie, on Spruce Point of Kodiak Island, American observers searched sea and sky for the approach of the foe.