Taiwan Mementos

I received the following request from Lieutenant Colonel Scott Ellinger:

History is not to be forgotten. All who were once stationed in Taiwan please look through your old boxes, scrap books, and photo albums.

I am LTC Scott J. Ellinger, currently stationed in Taiwan at the American Institute in Taiwan – Taipei. I work in the Technical Section (Technical Section is the term used for the US MAAG after 1979) as the Army Programs Manager.

Our office wants to line our hallway with items from yesteryear in honor of those who once served in Taiwan, and to maintain a history of assigned units. We want to collect old memorabilia from persons who were stationed in Taiwan with any unit (USTDC, MAAG, Army/Navy/Air Force/Marine units and DoD civilians assigned to any of these units). So far, we have chosen 10 photos (blown up to 12x18) to line the hallway (these photos were downloaded from the USTDC and Taipei Air Station BLOGs). We would like more photos to fill up the white spaces on the walls.

Secondly, the collected memorabilia items will be put into an enclosed glass casing for their permanent home.

Lastly, if anyone has write ups (or wants to do a write up) of unit histories with unit photos, please send them. A historical file is to be created.

For those who are willing contribute to this endeavor, please notify Don Wiggins.

As years go by, I often think about the mementos from my military days that I've stored away in a box somewhere. Chances are good that most of those things will mean very little to my kids and grandkids and it's likely that they'll eventually disappear.

LTC Ellinger is offering a home for photos and objects from those days that will provide a record of our service in Taiwan. I already told him that I'll be sending him the "Gemo Medal" that I received while at USTDC.

I encourage you to take a look at what you have and if there's anything that you would like to see on permanent display at AIT in Taipei, just drop me an email and I'll send you LTC Ellinger's mailing address. Note: Overseas postage is NOT necessary.