1st Canadian Forestry Group, La Roche-en-Ardennes, 1944

[maple_leaf_eh]

"Drunkenness, poaching, and even murder were not unknown, and there was a huge inter-company brawl in Kincardine O'Neil in 1941."

Again, not vehicle related, but history. The father of a friend of mine was in the Forestry Corps. An officer I think. Ottawa residents might recognize the old Nepean neighbourhood named Henry Farm. That was the family's property once upon a time.

The lumberjacks were a rough lot. Fighting was the main entertainment. Rank and privilege was often determined by sheer brute strength. Whoever won the fight with the Sergeant Major on payday, got to wear the badge until the next payday. How the officers and responsible Senior NCOs ever maintained order is beyond me.

My other story is about the importance of wood and lumber. Illegal logging was a recurring theme in Bosnia after the end of open hostilities with the Dayton Accords in 95, throughout the NATO IFOR and ISAF missions. The Canadian AOR had several lumbermills. I remember looking at one mill and thinking how much material they were losing by cutting nonstandard length logs into random length and width boards. They seemed have the thickness right, even if it looked rather thick. Every single piece would have to be remeasured and cut on the job site, leaving various odd lengths as waste. Standardization would have meant more sales. Jobs could be finished faster and with less slow time. And, the forests could be better managed for the next generation. But I was just an ordinary soldier and no one asked me how to run their country more efficiently.