After twenty-eight posts in just under three months, I've just about emptied my memory bank of Taipei and USTDC experiences.
One of my long-term hobbies is genealogy -- the tracing of my ancestry. I began that hobby because no one in my immediate family knew very much about our ancestors and I felt that it was important to assemble as much info as I could find and record it for future generations.
I began recording my Taipei experiences here for basically the same reason. I was unable to find very much information at all about the US Taiwan Defense Command, its history, or the people who served there. I even submitted a Freedom of Information request to Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii for a copy of the unit's history, but never received even an acknowledgment back from them. It's not worth creating a legal mountain out of this molehill of curiosity, so I'm afraid that the official history of USTDC may never be released.
I was told by an American civilian who lives in Taipei today that most of the younger population of the city have no idea that any American military personnel were ever stationed there.
Anyway, I am officially welcoming any and all comments from anyone even remotely connected to TDC. Here's the deal: If you will contact me by email and let me know what kinds of things you'd like to write about, I will add you as an author to this blog. If you have some experiences or comments that you'd like to share, but prefer not to be added to the list of authors, just write them up and send them to me and I'll be happy to post them here on your behalf.
I may very well remember more things to add here in the future, but right now I'm just about tapped out. I was only there for fifteen months during the 1970s and USTDC was operational for a whole lot longer than that. I hope that some of you will be willing to provide the rest of us with your experiences and insights that I simply don't have.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Don
I've been meaning to post these photos from Les and Kent of the HSA West Compound. They don't show all of the buildings but may refresh some memories of what that side of the street looked like. This one was probably taken from the top of the Roma Hotel
This one was probably taken from the roof of the hostel.
I've attempted to overlay the building layout that Les provided on top of the area as it appears today. I think that this is pretty close, but if anyone remembers it differently, please post a comment at the bottom of this post.
