William M. Hoge (1894 – 1979)
William Hoge grew up in Lexington, Missouri. His father was William McGuffey Hoge, principal and superintendent at Wentworth Military Academy. William Hoge graduated from Wentworth in 1912, and from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1916. He was commissioned into the Engineer Branch of the United States Army. He commanded a company of the 7th Engineer Regiment at Fort Leavenworth from 1917 to 1918. Hoge served in the First World War and received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroic action under fire at the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. After the war he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and from the United States Army Command General Staff School.1)
Colonel Hoge was the commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers in the Washington D.C. region when he was assigned the duty of building the Alaska Highway. He was experienced in pioneer roads having built a series of roads across the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. Overall supervision of the Alcan highway construction rested with the pompous and overbearing Lieutenant General Brehon Somervell, Army Service Forces commander. Somervell was unhappy with Hoge's progress and fired Hoge from his post in August 1942. Colonel James “Patsy” O'Conner, who was supervising the section from Watson Lake to Dawson Creek, became commander of the newly created Northwest Service Command. This included the highway, the CANOL project, and support services. Hoge spent the last years of the war as a tank commander and participated with distinction at the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. At the end of the war he commanded the Forth Armoured Division.2)
During the Korean War, Hoge commanded the IX Corps in the United States Eighth Army. He was promoted to major general in 1945.3) Major General Hoge was invited back to the Yukon in 1946 for the ceremony passing control of the highway to Canadians.4) He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1951 and full general in 1953. General Hoge retired from active duty in 1955 and went on to become the Chairman of the Board of Interlake Steel.5)