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A Noise Nearby

Heroes Remember

A Noise Nearby

Transcript
When we moved to what we call 355, Hill 355, I was there for a day or two. Knowing that I was a skilled radio operator they wanted me down at the support company. Now support company, mortar platoon was just a little ways away from 355, there was another hill. So I went there as a radio operator and one night we lost contact from Charlie Company with telephone. Then we had, our lines were laid on the ground, you see, there's no, there's no poles there. We started to trace the line. We didn't even have to go very far. I found a break, my friend looked for the another part, you know here it was thrown over on the side. It was cut by an enemy patrol. That's when we splice, started to splice, this time say about two or three o'clock in the morning, I heard, I heard a noise. I looked over, you know, and there was a, could be the moonlight, I saw marsh this high moving so we jumped on this side of a ditch in ready position and I know and I must have looked scared too, you know. I was scared and I admit that. Now we, we saw that movement every so often, you know, it made some noise, you know, because it's frozen marsh. So we had to do something before the daylight. We jumped over, we both jumped over on the other side, now we were going to have to face whatever is coming out there. I sat there and I saw the movement from here to the stove and I said, should I open fire now, or should I throw a grenade or what am I going to do? And I sat there for a while. You know what came out? Porcupine (laughter) ... porcupine. I sweat a cold sweat, I tell you. How the hell did he survive in a battlefield, I don't know, but it was a porcupine came out there and scared me more than enemy ever did.
Description

Mr. Simon describes having to perform a wire repair at Hill 355, and an unusual situation that unfolded there.

Stephen Simon

Stephen Simon, the sixth of ten children, was born in Big Cove, New Brunswick on February 19, 1932. After finishing grade eight on the reserve, he attended school off the reserve where he faced a lot of discrimination. He often fished with his father, who was a police officer at Big Cove. Mr. Simon enlisted at the age of eighteen, took his basic training in Camp Borden, and became a qualified paratrooper on December 22, 1950. After arriving in Korea, he trained as a radio operator, and served in that capacity until the end of his military service. In 1958, Mr. Simon’s skills were highlighted when he served in a top security communications centre.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
2:41
Person Interviewed:
Stephen Simon
War, Conflict or Mission:
Korean War
Battle/Campaign:
Hill 355
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Royal Canadian Regiment
Rank:
Sergeant

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