U.S. At War: Cost Accounting

Army engineer detachments, 65% of them Negro troops, could stand by the Ledo-Burma Road and proudly watch the supply trucks roll up to China. Through two rain-lashed monsoon seasons they had labored, helped string an all-weather pavement over 1,044 miles of mountain jungle, helped build some 600 bridges. Now they could add up the cost: for every mile, an estimated $1,000,000 and a U.S. soldier’s life.