Applejack

May 21, 2018, 4:10 PM

In November, 1950, two of the five tams in the 205th. Signal Repair Company were in Pyongyang, North Korea. One of the teams had just returned from forward duty and among the war trophies was several bushels of liberated apples. We ate apples and we ate apples but the supply seemed to grow rather than diminish. Someone suggested we make some applejack. The idea sounded good but the only thing we had were apples. We needed a container, a stopper and some plastic tubing. So, out went the call, go find these items.

Now there is one thing a GI learns in basic training and it's at the top of the list,----- learn how to scrounge and never ever divulge the source. And scrounge they did. We found a five gallon small-neck glass jug, a stopper and some plastic tubing. We were now ready to go to work. The temperature was about 20F and we had built a fire, gathered around the fire and with our trusty Army knives went to work. We cut the apples into slices small enough so we could push them down through the neck of the jug. When the jug was full we got a piece of steel rod and bent the end just enough so we could get it through the neck. We inserted the other end of the rod in a drill and broke down the apples even more. The mess Sgt. gave us some sugar which we added to the apples. The amount of sugar was guess work because we didn't really have any way of determining the sugar content of the apples. We drilled a hole in the stopper, inserted the plastic tubing and placed the other end of the tubing in a can of water so we would have a seal.

Later on, when the Chinese Army came knocking on the door, we had to take precautions for transporting the jug over some rough roads. We found a few boards and fashioned a crate. We attached some old rags to the inside of the boards for more cushioning. We placed the jug on one of the trucks and instructed the men who would be on that truck to guard that jug with their lives, if needed. What had been a road was now nothing but rubble. All bridges had been bombed and traveling was slow. We left Pyongyang on Dec. 1 and finally arrived in Pusan on Dec. 8. We were busy in Pusan preparing for the arrival of two more teams who had lost men and equipment and no one even mentioned the jug of applejack.

On New Years Eve, someone asked, "where is our jug of applejack"? One of the guys said he knew where it was and off he went to retrieve it. When he brought it back to our tent, that was some of the nastiest looking stuff man had ever laid his eyes on. It looked like someone had dumped about one gallon of Georgia red clay in the jug. One of the guys got some gauze from a first aid kit, placed it over his canteen cup and one of the other guys tilted the jug. All eyes in the tent were on the official taster as he took a small sip. At first there was no reaction but after he took a bigger swallow, a big smile came over his face as he announced, "fellows, we've got some good stuff here".

Out came all of the canteens and we had a grand New Years Eve party. There was a small Korean store near our camp and several of the guys said they would go down to the store to see if they could add something to the party. When they returned, all they had was dried squid. That was the stinkiest stuff one could ever find and it was as tough as shoe leather, but all in all the applejack was a huge success.

Early the next morning, as we celebrated the arrival of 1951, the three of us WW2 reservists were told to pack our gear, we were destined to join a Combat Engineering Company at the 38th Parallel. We were off to experience some of the coldest weather we would ever experience in our life time. That really wasn't the way I wanted to begin the new year but no one asked me about my opinion.

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Applejack

Jesus, Joe what's the word count on that thing?***

735***

Re: Jesus, Joe what's the word count on that thing?***

Thank you for your service and story

Willmo already answered it, 735

Re: Applejack

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