A little background on the guys who served in the 7th Signal Company during my tour of duty in Korea. I was part of a group of guys who finished basic training at Fort Bliss Texas in December of 1953. Afterwards we were sent to what is now Fort Gordon GA to attend a six month school in radio repair.  Most of us were then sent to Korea and disbursed to units there. There were a dozen or more of us from Texas who were assigned to the Radio Relay section of the 7th Signal Company which was located at Chorwon. Shortly after we arrived the Signal Company moved to Camp Casey. The 7th Division HQ was located there with its support units as well as the 32nd Infantry Regiment. Our primary duty was to provide telephone links by Carrier on FM Radio. We had mobile units mounted on Deuce and halves which were constructed of plywood with a canvas roof. The radio units and carrier bay were mounted in the truck. Two men could sleep in this unit, others slept in a small tent.  The power units, PE75, and antenna mast were carried in a trailer. These units provided four telephone circuits and a service channel for the operators. The carrier bay was about the size of a single sided refrigerator.  See the attached photos.
 
During my tour we set up and operated two communication links. One link to the 7th Division Artillery HQ which was southwest of Casey, and another link to the 17th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Division which was north from Hill 754 on the DMZ. These links were maintained as backup to land lines and were not used as the primary communication channels. Both of these links originated from a site on a hill above Casey. I also served on this site where we ate C rations but were able to eat at Casey if we wanted to walk to the distance to the Company area.  A small Quonset hut  housed the personnel and equipment.
The link to Divarty was completed by a relay site which was  set up in a Quonset hut as well. The crew at the Divarty end were set up on a hill just above the compound. They slept in the mobile unit and a small tent but were able to dine in the compound.
 
The link to the 17th went thru the relay site on hill 754. As you can see by the pictures were were housed in a squad tent of that period. It was located at the place which is designated as the current alternate helipad. The tent had a wooden floor and side frames to support the walls. There was a four man crew assigned to the site. We slept on canvas cots with air mattresses which were aligned along the side walls. We had the standard army issue wool blankets but thankfully we had good sleeping bags. Heat was provided by two small potbellied stoves fueled by heating oil which was fed thru rubber hoses from a 55 gallon drum outside the tent. The stoves kept us comfortable most of the time, but generally if they were hot enough to heat the tent you could not get close to them so you were hot on one side and cold on the other. On very cold nights you would awake cold on the side of you body which was next to the tent wall. On several occasions the hoses feeding fuel froze and shut down our heat source. We ate C ration which was canned food and not very tasty. When we had the money and opportunity we would stock up on items from the Casey PX. The duty was easy but boring. We worked a two man twenty four hour shift which consisted of a daily system check and rotation of power units every four hours. We had no security fence or outside flood lights other than the lights at our open sided power building. Changing power units in the middle of the night when you could hear nothing except the noise of the power units and felt like you were in a spot light was spooky even with a teammate standing guard. We did have prowlers on several occasion and did capture one in the middle of the night. Our other relay site to Divarty was invaded by a couple of armed individuals which they were able to overpower and captured one of them. Were were always very alert especially after a person we knew was killed by intruders at an isolated site near Casey.
 
We did a lot of exploring around that hill and I have walked that road many times. At the time we were there the USAF had a radar sit on the hill opposite our site. We visited them several times walking up and down both hills.
 
I am sure that every one who had been stationed on that hill has stories about the road up the hill. At times while I was there the road was almost impassable from mud or ice. Water would seep from the sides of the hill and form a thick sheet of ice across the road at several location. At times like this our three quarter ton vehicles could not make up the hill even with chains. The two and half ton trucks that we has were great. These were equipped with auto transmissions 6by6 drive with tandem duals on the rear. If you put chains on one set of the rear wheels and on the front they were like a tank and would claw their way up that hill.
 
Five of us who were together thru this time got together last summer for a reunion. Two of the group were from the same hometown and had communicated over the years, the others had not seen each other for more than fifty years. Three of us spent time on the hill.
 

 
J. Rogers