"The United States needed a road to Alaska so they could defend the Aleutians from Japan. They sent soldiers to build the Alaska Highway. The segregated Black 97th Engineers built the road in Alaska, and when their disorganized white officers struggled to make progress, the Army replaced their commander. The new one got the job done but ignored military protocol and discipline, so the army, worried about undisciplined black soldiers, replaced him too. And to put the fear of God into the soldiers, the Army trumped up a mutiny charge against ten of them and sentenced them to long prison terms at hard labor." -- From Amazon.com

List of maps -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Home -- The Army -- The war and the plan -- To Alaska -- Getting off the ship -- Roadblocks -- Lytle and Green -- Disorganization and getting started -- Attack in the Aleutians -- Contractors at Valdez -- Mentasta Pass -- Change of command -- Progress -- Reorganization -- Civilians in uniform and the oncoming 18th -- Beaver Creek -- A miserable winter -- Photo gallery -- Black troops need discipline -- Events at Big Gerstle River -- The purpose of a court-martial -- Setting up the performance -- The prosecution -- Adjusting the story -- The defense -- Summations and the verdict -- Punishment -- The ten back in the world -- Notes -- Select bibliography