azsixshooter
New member
I caught a glimpse of a documentary once on the battle for the Aleutian Islands during WWII and they mentioned a group of elite scouts composed of mountain man trappers, prospectors and Eskimos who carried .22 pistols and lived off the land traveling light and fast. I posted somewhere before (maybe here) asking if anyone had ever heard of these guys and never got an answer. I looked all over the net for quite awhile and still couldn't ever find any info on them.
I finally found a wiki that details this group and gives some other references to further info about them. I thought these guys were fascinating and they accomplished some very impressive things. If anybody knows anything else about this group of scouts I'd love to hear about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castner's_Cutthroats
(intro)
"Castner's Cutthroats was the nickname of a band of Alaskan U.S. Army scouts during World War II. The name Castner's Cutthroats comes from the their leader, Colonel Lawrence Castner.[1] These men often lived a hard and dangerous life in the Alaskan wilderness. This led them to call themselves Cutthroat because they were an irregular unit of the United States Military. The unit was made up of Aleuts, Eskimos, miners, hunters, trappers and fishermen. Their background in survival and hunting made them ideal scouts. These men had names in keeping with their unit's nickname, such as Bad Whiskey Red, Aleut Pete and Waterbucket Ben.[1] Based along the Aleutian Islands, the unit played a key role in the defense of mainland Alaska from Japanese invasion."
I finally found a wiki that details this group and gives some other references to further info about them. I thought these guys were fascinating and they accomplished some very impressive things. If anybody knows anything else about this group of scouts I'd love to hear about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castner's_Cutthroats
(intro)
"Castner's Cutthroats was the nickname of a band of Alaskan U.S. Army scouts during World War II. The name Castner's Cutthroats comes from the their leader, Colonel Lawrence Castner.[1] These men often lived a hard and dangerous life in the Alaskan wilderness. This led them to call themselves Cutthroat because they were an irregular unit of the United States Military. The unit was made up of Aleuts, Eskimos, miners, hunters, trappers and fishermen. Their background in survival and hunting made them ideal scouts. These men had names in keeping with their unit's nickname, such as Bad Whiskey Red, Aleut Pete and Waterbucket Ben.[1] Based along the Aleutian Islands, the unit played a key role in the defense of mainland Alaska from Japanese invasion."