The Bridge

 Dennis sent me these three photos taken on or near the bridge that crossed the river just north of the HSA compound and northwest of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command building.  I may have posted at least one of these in the past.

Taken from the south end of the bridge, facing southeast.

Taken near the south end of the bridge, facing north, toward the Grand Hotel and the Club 63/China Seas Club.

Again near the south end of the bridge facing west-northwest.  If you look closely, you can see the "exoskeleton" surrounding the construction of the Grand Hotel.

Chen Family Photos - Part 2

This is the conclusion of yesterday's posting of Chen family photographs.  Many thanks to Scott and to the Chen family for providing these rare images.

As always, if you recognize any of the individuals in these photos, please leave a comment or drop me an email.

Chen Family Photos - Part 1

Scott also sent me several photos from the Chen family.  Major Chen was Commander of the Honor Guard at the time these photos were taken during the early 1960s.   You can see there were many different VIPs, U.S. Generals and Admirals.

More photos will follow tomorrow.

More Kwei Family Photos - Part 3

This concludes this series of Kwei family photographs.  As I said at the beginning, if you can identify any of those who appeared in these photos, please add a comment or send me an email.

These rare photographs document an important period in the relationship between the people of Taiwan and the United States, a time when we stood solidly together to defend against aggression in that part of the world.  Recording the history those times has always been the primary purpose of this blog and I want to again thank Scott and the Kwei family for contributing to this effort.

More Kwei Family Photos - Part 2

This is a continuation of the Kwei family photographs that I began yesterday.  There will be more tomorrow.

More Kwei Family Photos - Part 1

Scott forwarded these Kwei family photos some time ago and I am just now getting around to posting them.  My apologies to Scott and to all those who were kind enough to make them available.

General Kwei was the Naval CNO (even though he was an Army General), then become the Chief of the General Staff in 1954.  He died shortly after taking the CGS post.

Scott doesn't  know who the Admiral was in these photos.  He thinks it may be VADM Struble when he was the 7th Fleet Commander.  These photos were taken when GEN Kwei was the Naval CNO, so the time frame was 1952-1954.

If you have any other information on the individuals who appear in these photos, please leave a comment or drop me an email.

SPAM ALERT!

During the past few days, I have been made aware of numerous SPAM messages that appear to be coming from my email address (ustdc [at] yahoo.com).  They are not coming from me.  I've been receiving the same emails.

The messages all have attachments, probably virus-infected, and some of them also have links, probably to malicious websites.

I understand that bogus emails like these usually come from a virus-infected computer -- in this case one that has my email address in its owner's email address book.  It then sends emails to everyone else in that address book.  If you do not have a CURRENT anti-virus program with up-to-date virus definitions on your computer, these messages could easily be coming from you.  Please check it out to be sure.

If you receive an actual email from me, the text will always include your name and it will always be regarding something specific that both you and I know about.  If you receive anything else that seems to be coming from me, just delete it.

 [ADDED]

My anti-virus program constantly protects and scans my hard drive.  Just to be sure these messages weren't coming from me, I just ran a complete scan of the entire drive.  There were no viruses or trojans found.  I have also changed my Yahoo! mail password just in case.  Once again, these bogus emails are not coming from me.

More Memories

A few days ago I received a very nice note from Allen Rawden, who was at TDC during 1976-1978. He wrote:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Fell into your USTDC blog and have spent the better part of the day there.  I was stationed at USTDC/SPINTCOMM from June of 76 to September of 78. During 20 years in the Navy, my best tour. Not even a contest.

I first lived in the Hostel near the Chung Shan Bei-Lu gate. Then moved to Tien-Mou for a brief time and finally to an apartment in the night club area south of the east compound. ;And no, I'm not going to try to spell the name of that area...

I too did not take many photos, none of TDC itself. I guess, being a CT, we were no in the habit of taking photos of work. In fact I have none of any duty station for my 20 years. Back to Taiwan....

I still have the brass bell given at my going away ceremony, my nametag, the command plague (which is in VERY bad condition)and my Chinese-American Friendship medal (And yes, Navy were authorized to "retain and wear" this ribbon as long as your request was submitted and approved by CINCPACFLT....and yes, I still have the paper work on that.

During the early 90's I was stationed at Pensacola. Also there was my Tien Mou room mate who had worked in the maintenance shop. We were having a personal inspection and the Captain had stopped at John (CTM1 Hodgdin), and stared for quite awhile at the thing. He didn't say anything, but then he got to me about 10 people further down the line. That's when he said, "OKAY, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING??" And yes, that afternoon I was getting a copy of my service record entry for the Command Master Chief.

Anyway, again thanks for the great blog and the rush of nothing but good memories.

Then CTOSN/3 Allen Dean Rawdon

Allen also included this scan of his typhoon card from back in the day.  The reverse side was written in Chinese and we were required to carry them in case we ever had to drive during typhoons.  I only recall driving one time in Taipei and that's when I had to drive a TDC van up to the radio station and back during a typhoon.  What with the pouring rain, high winds, Taipei traffic, no experience driving on the streets of Taipei and driving a panel van, I can tell you it was very interesting!