Some time ago I posted diagrams of the East and West HSA compounds. These came from a military telephone book, published somewhere around 1977, that was provided to me by Les Duffin, who worked in the TDC building until about six months before it closed.
This is a cropped version of the East compound that shows USTDC and some of the surrounding structures. The top of this diagram is approximately due north. According to the map legend, circled number 18 was "TACF" and circled number 19 was "TDC." The area that's circled 17 is where the tennis/basketball courts were.First of all, what did TACF stand for? Next, where was the main entrance to the TDC building? I'm defining the main entrance as the door that the Admiral and the General usually entered and departed through. As you came in that door, the J-1's office was to the left and the BMC's office was directly ahead. The "ship's bell" was on the porch area and to the right. I think the entrance must have been where I've marked #1 or #2, and I think that it was probably at #2.
If you can help, please click on "Comments" at the bottom of this post and share that info with the rest of us.
I doubt that anyone has an actual diagram of the building that shows what was located where, but if something like that exists, I'd sure love to be able to post it. Also, if anyone has any photos of the interior of the building -- or the exterior, for that matter -- please let me know.
There's almost nothing on the web about USTDC, except for the Military.com Unit Page, and of course my ramblings and your comments on this blog. That's why I always welcome input from those who served in or around the place. I'd hate to see this important part of military history just disappear.
6 comments:
Don,
The main entrance and door to TDC was at #2 and accessed from a road just above #1. Don't know what was in #1 building, but I did deliver mail to the #2 building via vehicle almost daily back in 1965
George
That's what I thought. The main parking lot was in front of that entrance, with two flag poles -- one American and one Taiwanese -- at the far corners. There was at least one building across the parking lot and to the left that belonged to the Taiwan military, but that doesn't appear on this diagram.
Where was the mail room located in the building?
Thanks for filling in some blanks!
Don
Don,
I lived in the first military housing unit just next to the FASD Mess Hall not far from the play field and basketball courts, just a short walk to TDC. When delivering mail I seem to remember going up some stairs, but what we did get from there were all of our secured and unsecured messages from the Communication Center.
George
The main entrance was at number two, the quarterdeck for the Navy. Turning left towards number one was the mail pick up point, heading further along the passageway was the second door with stairs going either up to the second floor or down to the communications spaces. I worked on the second floor 1971 to 1973. I remember we had a small secure room behing the building where burn bags were destroyed.
TACF stood for "Taiwan Allied Communications Facility". It was finished sometime in 1968 during my second tour on Taiwan. I was a Radioman First Class and got in on the ground floor of finishing the interior of building "18".
The building was the communication nerve center for TDC and all of the different US forces throughout the island. It was huge by the standards then and all the latest state of the art communications devices were installed. As a "B" school graduate (RM), and a senior First Class, I was put in charge of this facilities maintenance division supervising the ET's for about 6 month until a newly promoted Chief took over. It was a memorable time for me.
My first tour in Taiwan was '62-64 and I was stationed not at TDC but in a small building near where TACF was built. Commander Seventh Fleet, Detachment Alfa was the official name. I was an RMSN and RM3 during that time the communications facilities were by WWI standards. I remember using a "key" (CW or Morse Code) to communicate with the P2V's flying out of Okinawa on the Taiwan Straits Patrol. I would then decode the 4 letter portions and the message would be delivered to TDC.
Mel Pennington
Centralia, WA
I knew the TACF as the USACC Communications Center (ground floor) with the TDC Command Center upstairs a flight. This is where I worked from Jan 1978 until the end. We had a couple of different systems from the standard teletype machines to the Digital Subscriber Telecommunications Equipment (DSTE) which was a bit quicker than the 60 baud teletypes. Also housed in the Comm Center was the Secure Voice switchboard (AUTOSEVOCOM) where we patched calls to and from the big wigs securely.
Larry
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