to Germany, from Alaska to Puerto Rico. All over the world, the United States Army is on the alert to defend our country, you, the American people, against aggression. This is the Big Picture, an official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. The guns are quiet again in Korea. There was no victory in the usual sense of the word, but there was something else. Men fighting under the flag of the United Nations proved for the first time that they were willing to stand and die to halt aggression. The aggressors learned that they can't spread out over the earth without paying a terrible price. The armed forces of the United States, together with our allies in the UN, stopped the march of armed communism cold in Korea. They did it against tremendous odds in manpower and in a land half around the earth from their own. This is a report from the now silent front and how they did it. This is the hill. It doesn't really matter what hill, they were all pretty much the same. A desolate hunk of rugged, sharp-rising terrain in Korea where our men lived too long or maybe died too soon. What was it like toward the end? The same as it had been for months, more than two years. It was a holding operation, probably the last spot on earth they wanted to be, that hill, but nobody was going to push them off it. It was danger, patrol, 9, 10, 20 men going out to contact the enemy, 9, 10, 20 men coming back, because the deal was you all came back or none of you did, whichever way the ball bounced. It was boredom, digging the trenches deeper, piling the sandbags higher, thicker.  Mail call, a letter from home, whether it announced the birth of a new baby son or the death of an old cow, it was bigger news to the address C than the rise or fall of an empire. But mostly toward the end, it was waiting, not too much happening, killing time maybe, but trying to make sure time didn't kill you. A big-picture reporter checked into that at a hill command post. Lieutenant. Lieutenant. Lieutenant. Lieutenant. How's things going out there, Tony? Ain't had no arms instance this morning, huh? No, it had to get them through supply. Okay, then keep your eyes open and keep your eyes out. Right there out. No, they should be in some... Pretty good communications here, though. Tomorrow, the next day, though. Lieutenant, that's pretty good communication. Right, first class. Is that go-off to the squads and platoons? Yeah, the artillery up, oh, French machine over there. OP, OP for our third platoon, OP for our second platoon, and our CP direct line here. The radio communication direct to all rifle platoons and OP, and telephone communications directly to all rifle platoons. Pretty busy up here last night. Oh, they had us going a little bit, but pretty quiet. How much sleep did you get? About four hours sleep. Is that an average? About an average. How do you stay awake? Just keep drinking coffee, I guess. How many cups of coffee do you average a night up here? How many would you say, Sergeant? Oh, I'd say about... Eight or ten? Eight or ten cups of coffee a night. These large cups. What's that up on the wall there right in front of us? This right here. This establishes our MLR approximately, and we have our coordinated fire plans with our support fires. I noticed something else here in the room, a picture over here. What about that picture, Sergeant? That's my girl. 87 days left. That's when I'm going home. You got another picture up there on the wall, too. Who's that? That's Marilyn Monroe. You boys have got some beauties here in the CP. Oh, they keep it alive. What? Anything in particular, any action in particular last night up here? Well, we had a contact patrol out, but no contact, so the enemies stayed awake. But, uh, we hope to, in the future, to contact them so we get more information. Okay, thanks a lot. And then the truce negotiations that had dragged on through two years of communist stalling bore fruit. The enemy finally agreed to a ceasefire. July 27th, 1953, General Mark Clark signed for the United Nations. We have stopped the shooting. That means much to the fighting man and their families. And it will allow some of the grievous wounds of Korea to heal. Therefore, I am thankful. It is, however, only a step toward what must yet be done. The task now is to put the ceasefire agreement into full effect as quickly as we can and get down to working out an enduring settlement of the Korean problem. I cannot find it in me to exalt in this hour. Rather, it is a time for prayer that we may succeed in our difficult endeavor to turn this armistice to the advantage of mankind. If we extract hope from this occasion, it must be diluted with recognition that our salvation requires unrelaxing, vigilant, and effort. And there wasn't much of a celebration with the coming of the truce, unless you'd call Operation Big Switch that the liberation of thousands of United Nations personnel would become prisoners of the enemy. Maybe you found some exaltation there in the tired eyes and drawn faces and sometimes tortured minds and bodies of the men who were freed. A lot of them told their stories before going on to medical treatment and home. In the roadblock at Coonaree on the night of November 30th, there was a sharp engagement and I was to bring in the administrative train and we never did get through and after we abandoned vehicles we started out on foot to walk through. My name is Major John Dowager. I'm from California. I was captured on 1st of January, 1951. When were you captured then, Sergeant? December 1st, 1950. What unit were you at that time? C-Battery, Favol 3rd, feel out here at Baccax. What division was that? 2nd Division. Where were you at the time? Just north of Coonaree. My name is 1st of Dwight E. Cox, Fresno, California. I was captured on December 1st, 1950 near Coonaree. Could you tell us where you were captured and how it happened? Well, the place I don't know. It wasn't a patrol. Wonsan, Taishan, Bloody Ridge, Seoul, Hamhong, Incheon, the Yellow, piece together their stories and you have the war. We got in there first. Same day the U.N. called for help in South Korea. Together with bombers stationed in Japan we helped slow them down a bit till ground troops could hustle over to Korea. I was with one of the first U.S. Army combat outfits to arrive in Korea. The 1st of July, 1950. We hardly took time out for coffee before we were on the road headed for action. It didn't take long to catch up with it. The front was moving our way. It didn't take us long either to find who had armed the Reds. Captured tanks, vehicles, guns, made in Russia. We just didn't have enough stuff in Korea yet to stop the advance. But after they overran us at Osan to reinforce the key city, Taishan, to try to hold its defenses, stall for time, took a terrible beating. We were forced to withdraw. Almost back to Busan. With a small beachhead left around Busan and the whole North Korean Army pressing hard, American forces staged a major maneuver. The amphibious assault at Incheon. The Navy gave it to them good and assured so much left to argue with. We caught the enemy there almost completely by surprise. And then we hit the road for Seoul, the captured capital of South Korea. The whole idea was to hit hard and fast. Keep moving so the North Korean Army couldn't readjust itself to the Incheon and run. Nine days after the first landing, we were at the Han River just outside Seoul and crossing in force against rough resistance. We approached the city from three sides. The closer we came, the more fanatical the resistance. Then we fought our way through the suburbs and on into the streets of Seoul itself. Battle for Seoul was about as tough as street fighting comes. We had to blast them out in barricades, the tops of roofs and basements. But just 11 days after we landed at Incheon, we finished up the liberation of Seoul. After Seoul, we linked up with forces that pushed all the way from Busan. It was hard going at first. The enemy was stubborn. Then we slammed across the 38th parallel and started to pick up speed. We were moving so fast by the time we hit the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. Part of our supplies had to come by air. Communist Army that had driven across the 38th parallel, less than five months before, was just about smashed and we shoved right onto the Yalu River. Borderline between Red North Korea and Manchuria in Red China. Yeah, on the banks of the Yalu we figured the war was over. A little mopping up and that would be it. The Korean prisoners we rounded up seemed to think so too. The fight was all gone out of them. Yeah, we even had a Thanksgiving dinner flown up to us. And we're wondering if we'd eat Christmas dinner at home. A whole new war started. The Chinese struck from Manchuria about a quarter of a million of them. Withdrawal, we had to pull out. The troops on the eastern flank around the Changchun Reservoir headed back for the seaport of Hongnam. Even though six Chinese divisions were trying to bust it up, the withdrawal rolled right along. One Marine Corps commander kind of set up for all of us when he commented, retreat hell, we're just attacking in the opposite direction. And the evacuation at Ham Hong went off like clockwork. With an iron ring holding off the enemy around the perimeter of the port, 105,000 troops and 91,000 civilian refugees were taken off. We saved more than 17,000 vehicles and 350,000 tons of equipment. And while we were at it, there was nothing usable to the enemy. Fuse is set and the last man out. And that was the end of Hongnam. The back of the 8th Army from the western sector of the front was another masterpiece of withdrawal. Pressed by six full Chinese communist armies with four more in reserve, UN troops pulled back a full 150 miles, protecting its own flanks and fighting a rear-guard action most of the way. Across the Chongchon River, from Unsan to Kunuri, a lot of heartbreaking miles and going the wrong way. Puck Chong to Sun Chong, Sun Chong to Pyongyang, falling back past the red Korean capital over hard-won ground. An exhausted army, but an unbeaten one, it held together through one of the longest sustained withdrawals in history. An orderly pullback was managing to move faster than the pursuers, fighting them off when they came too close, costing the enemy huge casualties, holding them up when necessary to allow a reserve to build in back for a stand. And they burned their bridges behind them, the hardest pill of all to take. Back across the 38th parallel, the line the aggressor had violated to plunge the United Nations into an unwanted, ruinous war. Seoul, the capital of a free Korea, evacuated in the path of the enemy, bringing further tragedy to a stricken people who only wanted their liberty and peace. On back, south of Seoul, and then with the threat of being swept from all of Korea, the UN forces faced around at Wonju. The long withdrawal was over. The enemy had failed to turn it into a rout, and our army had escaped from the trap in fighting shape. Guns, armor to make a stand. They took everything the enemy had to throw at them, and then they were ready to hit back. The middle of February, 1951. Counter-offensive. I was in on that. We punched forward. It was only then we got some idea of what our withdrawal had cost the enemy in the way of losses of men in materiel and overextended lines. Not that it was easy, but we found that a lot of the sock had gone out of them, and I don't mind admitting it was a lot better feeling going the other way due north. Everybody felt it, and the attack moved up, coordinated like it was a maneuver and training camp. They used to call this back in the training manuals. The team on the ground calls the shots. The Air Force delivers it, and it worked just fine. The artillery gave it to them round the clock, blasting the reds where the observers thought it would hurt worse, and clearing the path in tight spots for the infantry. By the end of March, 51, we were back across the parallel and retaking our positions in the hills north of Seoul. The Chinese were to make one more real try. Their biggest of the war. April 22, 1951. 21 red armies hit the UN positions. 630,000 men against our 230,000. They had announced on the radio that they were going to take Seoul back, and in the face-saving way of the Orient, that literally meant to do it or die. They came at our troops with blaring bugles in human waves regardless of cost. No force on earth could have withstood that initial shock. But at Seoul, we held. Our defense position in the battle had the code name Golden Line. It was 24 karat. The capital had been taken for the last time. The UN command mounted its own offensive a few days later. Army was again forced back across the 38th parallel. We hid into the hills again, this time to stay. On 10 July 1951, red officials met with the United Nations representatives to talk about a truce.  The men of the UN command broke down their fortifications and moved back, back from the positions where they never wanted to be, but from which they wouldn't be pushed. General Clark had spoken for all of them. We have stopped the shooting. That means much to the fighting man and their families. And it will allow some of the grievous wounds of Korea to heal. Therefore, I am thankful. It is, however, only a step toward what must yet be done. The task now is to put the ceasefire agreement into full effect as quickly as we can and get down to working out an enduring settlement of the Korean problem. I cannot find it in me to exalt in this hour. Rather, it is a time for prayer that we may succeed in our difficult endeavor to turn this armistice to the advantage of mankind. If we extract hope from this occasion, it must be diluted with recognition that our salvation requires unrelaxing, vigilant, and effort. You have seen how our own armed forces and our allies of the United Nations have answered aggression in Korea. Maybe the aggressor will take the lesson to heart. Maybe not. But at least now he should know that there will never be another Munich. Maybe they'll recognize the fact that though the free peoples of the world want to live in peace, they are ready to fight where freedom is threatened. Now, this is Sergeant Stuart Queen inviting you to be with us next week for another story in The Big Picture. The Big Picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the Army at home and overseas, produced by the Signal Corps Pictorial Center, presented by the U.S. Army in cooperation with this station. You can be an important part of The Big Picture. You can proudly serve with the best equipped, the best trained, the best fighting team in the world today, the United States Army.


Mandatory entry level training for truck drivers in Canada. It's the new required prerequisite for truck driving and getting your license in Canada. Melt for short or as the acronym. Mandatory entry level training.  What did you think of it? How expensive was it if you don't mind me asking? How many hours did you complete? The minimum in Manitoba of trucking school that you have to go through, the minimum is 121 and a half hours, but there's a lot of private schools that offer double that at close to double that at 244 hours. This is the result of the Humboldt Broncos crash in Saskatchewan. Anyone in Canada knows exactly what I'm talking about, and those abroad probably have heard about it too. There was a truck driver who blew a stop sign on a highway in Saskatchewan and collided with a hockey bus carrying a young hockey team. And almost everyone on board died. It was tragic. It was a huge tragedy and everyone in Canada knows about it. They were the Humboldt Broncos from Humboldt, Saskatchewan. You'll see a lot of bumper stickers in Canada that says Humboldt strong on it with their logo. My sympathies again go out to them. I know it was three years ago already, but I'm sure that's a wound that will never fully heal. Now because of this crash, there's new federal requirements for getting your truck driver license in Canada. And I agree with it. Our training systems in Canada needed improvement badly. So this is a good thing for me in my mind. However, it's a much more expensive course now. It's about $10,000, though you could get government grants and insurance and stuff that will pay for it in some cases, not all. But what do you think of it? I'd like to know if you went through this course. Was it good? Because I got my license before all of this. Like way back in 2006 is when I got my commercial license. So what's your thoughts on this mandatory entry level training program? I know it's a lot more of a rigorous training program than what's offered to drivers in the US. Do you think it's an advantage for us to have to go through such intense training? And do you think it's going to cause an even bigger truck or shortage than we have now? And is it worth it? Is it worth it to have better skilled drivers on the road, but have less of them? It's a hard question to ask. We need truckers really bad, but we want them to be properly trained. And what can we do to encourage young people to make them see it as a worthwhile investment and a worthwhile career? What can we do? Because we need to convince more young people that this is a good career that you can get into. But anyways, that's the question for today. How was the training that you went through? Where did you take your training? Was it in a different part of the world? How long was the training? How much did it cost? If you don't mind me asking. Let's have a conversation down below in the comments section. I'd like to know what the different training standards are in different parts of the world, especially in different countries outside Canada and the US. Even in the US. I'd like to know what was the training requirements? What was it like? All right, we got the two gone. The sun is going to be up right away. Oh, there it comes already. Okay, we got to get trucking. Let's grab our coffee, our keys and just grab my jacket in the back. It's a little bit of a cold one today. We're going to go hook up to a flat roll tight. We're going to get to trucking. This is what we're dealing with today. 602 again. This has been our trailer of choice. I've already walked around to the back. I can't get between here and this trailer. We got to go around the other way. The sun is joining us today for this beautiful Wednesday. I always like it when the sun shows up because that means the earth is still turning. It's always a good thing. I want to make sure as you're walking down here that all these bins are locked in properly. I've already checked all the tires, but going around again for double check and for your benefit. This tire is lifted. There's nothing touching the tire here like that. It's good. I want to keep that all out of the way. The brake lights worked. I did check them before. We're all set and ready to rock and roll. The trailer is empty, but not for long. Those of you that are new here, we call these trailers roll tights. Their official name is called Conestoga trailer. They got the name Conestoga from the Conestoga trailers like the covered wagons that the pioneers used as we moved westward into the interior and to the west coast of our continent and settled the west. They traveled those covered wagons that were called Conestoga. That's where those trailers got their name from. It's a covered wagon. Well, today's a little bit of a shorter day. We're going to go home a little earlier. I've got to be here early in the morning. I've got to be up in Arberg. It's 7 30 a.m. That's a two hour drive from here, which means I've got to leave this nice yard of ours here at 5 30 in the morning, which means I've got to be here at 5 a.m. to get the truck ready and warmed up, which means I've got to leave home at about 4 20, which means I've got to get up like 3 30 in the morning. Usually I get up at 5. So I'm going home. I'm going to get a bit of an early night tonight. I'll probably be sleeping by the time Britt gets home soon after. I think she works till 7 30. So I'll probably be awake just until she gets home and I'll go to sleep. It's a bit of a shorter day today, but you know, we'll make up for it tomorrow. All right, we're gonna head over to the pickup right now. I was going to talk to you on the way there, but it's super windy and you couldn't hear anything I was saying over the wind noise. So I'm already hooked onto the trailer. I'm going to be taking tomorrow. Just to save me a little bit of time in the morning because I don't want to mess around here for half an hour or whatever. I'm going to figure out my trailer situation in the morning. So I did my pre-trip today, but don't worry. I'm going to do it again in the morning. I just did a round around it today just to make sure that there's no big problems. So as long as the tire doesn't blow up in the middle of the night, I should have a pretty simple pre-trip to do in the morning. I'll just double check everything, do my pre-trip. I know I got a good trailer where everything's working and I'm going to start the truck up once it's warm, ready to go. We can take off. So I have a fear of speed bumps, but don't worry. I'm slowly getting over it. I was drinking coffee in my slippers the other day when I thought to myself, I should really start using a cup. I didn't really like my beard at first, but it's been growing on me. That's all you get. I want to go home. I want to go home. Put the keys in the ignition, Josh. Stop telling dad jokes. Let's go home. All the radio wants to talk to me. How about new? Okay, those are the jokes for today. Wait, I got one more. I got one more. There's a really good one that someone sent in. Okay, okay. You guys ready for this? I don't know if I'm ready for it. Brady says the other day he went looking for camel pants to buy, but couldn't find any. Okay, now I'm going home. I apologize. I am so sorry. I'm so embarrassed right now. My dad tells the worst jokes. He's even worse at home. Dad says that the ball goes too short and I should end it. I don't really know what to say. Those jokes are pretty bad. I'm so sorry. I like them. I think my day was pretty funny. Well, I think you laughed. Didn't you, Diesel? I didn't laugh once. He's lying. Diesel, did you laugh? Okay, maybe I chuckled. Maybe I did a bit of a giggle. Diesel, it seemed a lot of people really liked your Weasel vlog last week. Maybe we should do another one. I think maybe we could do that. I think we could line one up. I've got some spare time next weekend. I could pencil you in around one o'clock maybe. Uh, are you telling them that a vlog is going to be ready? No, not saying anything. Like, I want to be in the vlog, dude. Okay, this time, no complaining. Everyone's got to share the vlog, okay? Fine. It's supposed to be a Weasel vlog. Nice, heavy vlog. Oh, you like vlogs?  Okay, what's your joke, Chevy? What's your joke? Okay, okay. What do you call a dog that is outside in the wintertime? What? A chili dog. Good one, Chevy. Diesel, you got one? You got one? Well, I guess I could wrangle one up.  I'm just going to stay here and tell you from here. What kind of dog likes taking a bath every day? A shampoo, dude. Okay, okay, I've got one more. You think they'll like it? I think they'll love, Chevy. Okay, well, I'm going to show my diesel. Can you help me? I recently planted a pet tree. It's like having a pet dog, except the bark is much quieter. Anyways, guys, those jokes were clearly better than my dad's jokes. Clearly, my brother did not just yawn, did he? I'm kind of bored. Whose jokes were better? We'll see you tomorrow.