Taking on the Sniper Role

I was what they called officially counter sniper. I guess the best way to explain it is I had put in for the sniper section before we went to Korea but it was filled so they put me in the “I” section. In any case, we came off in our second feature on 355 and the battalion moved off of that and we went in to a four or five week semi-rest area behind the line somewhere down by the B echelon area. And they came forward on the second day and they asked me, “Zuber, did you still want to be in the sniper section? ” And I said, “Yes,” and he said, “Fine, you made it!” Our sniper section had basically been wiped out on 355 with heavy shell fire. The guys had been killed. The colonel was not going to build a new one. A sniper section is probably about six guys, you work in pairs so it would be three, two man teams. In any case, he had been warned by brigade that the next position which will be our final position in Korea, it was called the Hook. It was, I guess, at the south end of the Samichon Valley. And enemy sniper activity by the Chinese had been extremely intensive for the last six months. The British and Black Watch had been up there and the Americans, American marines. They had all suffered from the Chinese sniper activity. So the brigade commander told the colonel you would be wise to put together your sniper section as a counter sniper to hold these bastards back, you know. So that was my job. Al Craig was my partner and we trained intensively. I remember Sgt MacPherson who had been with the Canadian army in Holland during the Second World War, he told us, he said, “Choose one of the fellows that’s going to be your partner. I want you to do everything together, find out what he can’t do for you and you cover each other,” type of thing. So I turned to this fellow and I had never met him before and I said, “Do you want to marry me? ” He said, “Sure!” So that was it, we were partners. We became good friends though and he passed away a few years ago in Fredericton. But Al and I were the most active ones up there.