John Robertson
I served with the 2nd Battalion of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada and was the Armourer Sergeant for the Battalion. Our Sergeant’s Mess was two squad tents roped together with a wooden floor which was quite basic and not very comfortable in bad weather. Some enterprising mess member acquired a quonset hut kit, brand new and still in the crates (Canadian soldiers of that era were very enterprising) to replace the tents. In order to erect the hut we needed some nice level ground, which as you well know, Korea is mostly hills and mountains. We all got together and did our best to scrape an area fairly level, but to do a proper job we really needed some concrete to mix and form into supports at the corners and along the edges to make a sort of foundation.
This is where yours truly stepped up to save the day and I told the members that on a recent trip south, down the main supply route, I saw a large stacked pile of filled paper sacks stored alongside the road, which I took to be concrete. It was fenced in and cared for by an elderly Korean man. The plan was for me to take a truck, some strong men for loading, and negotiating material like money, tea and sugar and return with several bags of concrete. Everyone agreed that it was a good plan and would solve our problem. Off we went and arrived at the site to make the deal, of course there was a language problem with the caretaker but we soon learned that the sacks contained fertilizer sent by the UN, not concrete. I gave the man some tea and sugar then headed back north with the crew knowing that I would be in for a proper ribbing by the mess members. It took me quite some time to live it down but the hut was eventually erected.