581st Sig. Co. on Hill 1157 (1951)

Army Engineers Build us a Quonset Hut

After the road was completed the engineers began construction on a Quonset hut for us. It became our mess hall, dining room and recreation room. It was nice to have a warm comfortable place to relax and eat. The station personnel invested in some nice china and some silverware for our meals. We had been using our standard army mess kits. Now it was more like home (away from home, that is). We got some games like Monopoly and others. General Eisenhower had been elected President by now and he had promised to visit the troops in Korea. That meant we had to "pretty" up our station in case he visited our location.

We spent weeks painting rocks and lining the paths. We even had to make crossed signal flags sign in orange (the Signal Corps colors). Of course he didn't visit us and I'll have to admit the sign did look nice. Things were settling down. The truce talks were taking place on our radio link to Panmunjon and then Kaesan and we could follow the progress. Army high command had said the people with 36 points could go home. You got 4 points a month for combat area months and 2 points for non-combat areas. But our entire company had 56 points and they couldn't let everybody go. They held a lottery to let go so many a month. My name was on the first group. I was to go home. It was 3 weeks before Christmas. I finally made it home the evening of 24 December.