[1] The brainchild of Colonel Lawrence Varsi Castner (1902–49), an Army intelligence officer serving in General Simon Bolivar Buckner's Alaskan Defense Command, the band was organized in order to create a unit that was fully functional with only minimal outfitting.

[citation needed] Castner chose men skilled at flourishing in the tough conditions of the Alaskan wilderness including the native Aleuts and Eskimos, sourdough prospectors, hunters, trappers and fishermen.

I was diving for king crab and eating fresh seafood and fowl – wild ptarmigan, ducks and geese – for dinner.

When the Alaskan Scouts came to 'rescue' me, they started thinking that maybe they'd like to stay with me.Source:[5] In June 1942, the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor and landed troops on the western Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu, which were quickly occupied within a few days.

Reacting to the Japanese occupation, Ephriam D. Dickson III of the Field Museums Branch for the U.S. Army Center of Military History wrote that the American public and leaders were "concerned that Japan might use these islands to launch air raids against the Pacific Northwest, especially targeting the Boeing bomber plant and Bremerton Navy Yard in Seattle".

[6] Castner's Cutthroats were selected to head reconnaissance missions and helped plan landing zones for amphibious assaults on the Japanese-held occupied islands.

In order to shorten the distance between the Japanese and American air bases, an airfield on Adak Island was proposed and Castner's Cutthroats were sent in to scout for a suitable location.

Their mission was to gather information about the Japanese troop strength on Adak and to report their findings to the landing force already on its way from Dutch Harbor.

Their mission: to build an airstrip and troop staging area in preparation for the retaking of the enemy-occupied Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska.

William "Billy" Buck, one of the last three surviving members of Castner's Cutthroats, died on 1 August 2011 in Anchorage, Alaska at the age of 90.