Camp Pearson Camp Pearson, as mentioned previously, was established near UNIFIL HQ in Naqoura. The camp was named after the late Lester B Pearson, a Canadian name familiar to all members of the United Nations. Appropriately, the ceremony of erecting a camp gate and signpost coincided with the celebration of Canada Day on 1 July 1978. Camp Pearson provided tented accommodation and working areas for Unit HQ, Support Troop and the communications detachments working at UNIFIL HQ. Living in Camp Pearson was a luxury! The camp was set on a bulldozed flatland extending to the shore of the Mediterranean. Rocks! They grew everywhere! Protective bunkers, latrines, ablution facilities, etc, were for the most part dug in by hand. Washed gravel sufficed as flooring material in the tents. Other improvements were made as manpower, time and money permitted. Concrete floors were installed in the Mess Hall (Mac Al's), canteen (Macabbe Inn) and vehicle maintenance area (Orv's Place). Old railway tracks "borrowed" from a nearby abandoned railway served as forms for the concrete floors. Manhandling these in 35 degree C heat also served as good physical conditioning. Imagine the following: "Sergeant Major Currie!" "Yes Sir". "Do you remember those 45 cubic metres of ready-mix concrete we've been trying to get in from Israel for the last month?" "Yes Sir". "Well, it's arriving at 0900 hrs - all of it!" Panic? Hardly! Let a contract? Hardly! Get on with it! Get the TQ3 Rad Op, the Cook, the Trooper and everyone else available and get the job done. From April until June Camp Pearson was built. Most of the work was done in the evenings. Seven days a week, (later reduced to six) the daily routine was: work from 0700 to 1300 hrs, lunch and rest during the afternoon heat (if the time could be spared) and then return to work after supper for two or three hours of hard physical labour. Then, for those still wanting excitement, the canteen was opened and a movie shown. By mid-June, the camp was "comfortable" and the evening work schedule replaced by a popular programme of volleyball, both inter-section and inter-contingent. CANSIGS personnel never could determine why, since they had to teach the Fijians how to play volleyball, the Fijians won all the games! Camp Pearson, although the hub of CANSIGS' activities, existed primarily to support the deployed detachments. These detachments were "Priority One" for food, movies, CANEX items and work effort. Support personnel located at Camp Pearson were obliged to visit the deployed detachments at least once every two weeks. Seeing is believing! Thus, the SDS (Signals Despatch Service), Re-Supply and MRT were never wanting for someone to ride "shotgun".
| 
