N.Z. GUNNERS IN KOREA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27498, 4 November 1954, Page 9

N.Z. GUNNERS IN KOREA

Work Involved In Disbanding Unit (N.Z. Army Information Service) KOREA, November 2. “Boat fever” has struck the 16th N.Z. Field Regiment in Korea. Everyone is thinking and talking of the New Australia on which the men will leave Pusan in a few days after the regiment is disbanded. For some the last few days are long and lingering, for others, among them Captain R. A. Hogg, the Regimental Quartermaster, there seems to be not enough hours in every day to deal with the mounting pile of paper work involved in getting the regiment and its equipment moving. Captain Hogg, who will remain with the regimenrs rear party, will still be working after most of the others have pulled out. On his shoulders falls the heavy task of finally clearing the camp site and ensuring that all the regiment’s stores and equipment are back-loaded.

Although the move to New Zealand has involved a great deal of extra work for all' ranks, the regiment is cheerful. Now the “Home for Christmas” slogan is to become a reality. “As the time draws, near for the regiment’s departure, the face of the camp site it has occupied since the truce agreement is changing. Wooden buildings and Qonset huts are being pulled down to be replaced by tents. Vehicle parks are being cleared of trucks and jeeps, battery areas are being completely cleaned up, and equipment that the men will not.be taking back to New Zealand is being handed into the store. Of course, there is the usual run of parties. Each battery has had its own break-up celebration, and now the officers and men are being invited to camps of friends they have made during the time the regiment has been in- Korea—many of them American units.