8th Army Sig Beason Site 1965

14. POL Storage Area

POL stands for Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants. Diesel oil, motor gas and lube oil all had to be trucked to the site in the spring before the summer rains and in the fall before the winter snows. Storage of over 60,000 gallons of diesel fuel must be on hand before snow makes the road up the mountain impassable. Trucks bring in the fuel with 23 55-gallon drums per truckload. In addition to diesel for generators and stoves, storage of about 5,000 gallons of gasoline for vehicles and about 1,000 gallons of lube oil must be on hand. We had minimum of two Korean civilians working every day to transfer fuel from drums in the POL area into the day tanks for the generators and building stoves. US military radiomen, KATUSA's also had to help load, transport and pump fuel. We had no network of fuel pipes and only hand powered pumps.