US Taiwan Defense Command: Taipei American School

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Taipei American School

I received a nice note from Victor this morning. He provided a link to this image of the first home of Taipei American School, that was taken sometime during the 1950s. There are literally thousands of such images at Taipics.com, home of Taipei Marc's amazing collection of early Taiwan postcards and photos.

Victor wrote:

"I believe the school was on Chang'an East Road back then. Anybody know its exact location (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_American_School)?

In the summer of 1953, TAS constructed a much larger campus at Chang'an East Road. In 1956, TAS graduated its first class of 14 seniors. By then, the Chang'an campus had approximately 50 faculty members and 1,000 students. In 1957, Mr. Wayne Nesbitt served as the first superintendent of the school.

In 1959, TAS purchased a 22 acre (89,000 m²) site in Shilin for a new campus. In March 1960, the kindergarten and lower school moved into a 36-classroom 5-wing complex on the site. The upper school remained at the Chang'an campus until 1964, when the last upper school facilities were completed."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: Don,

http://www.boot.com/tas/

This website has some old photos of TAS back in the 60's. I will be sending you a photo of the original TAS gate in 1949.

Scott; 06 July, 2011 22:51
Victor said...: Don,
Thx for the post. I've found more info about the TAS in the 1950s. It's next to the ZhongShan Girl High School and the ZhongZheng Elementary School.
http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=vicwk&b=2&f=1551082659&p=5

The person from left in the second photo of the following website is Wayne E. Nesbit, the principal of TAS in 1957.
http://www.rotary2000.org/PDG/pdg_home/12-Rotary_Family/Ricardo/00-Ricardo/20.htm; 06 July, 2011 23:08
Victor said...: http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=vicwk&b=2&f=1551091084&p=5
I think I've found its location. Please see the yellow square on ZhuLun St in the above image, where the Sports Affairs Council and the the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee are located nowadays.

Some of the houses in the 1950s photo(the upper left part of the photo) are still there today. Please see the purple square in the above image.; 08 July, 2011 19:20
Anne said...: I was in the first kindergarten class at the school! How fun to see the pictures! We had a great merry-go-round swing in the center playground area. I've got some more pictures of it I can dig up.;; 09 July, 2011 14:11
Victor said...: http://www.rocsf.org.tw/about_us/about_us_1_3.asp
The address of TAS on Chang'an East Road is No 3, Lane 153, Section 2, Zhang'an(Chang'an) East Road, Taipei(台北市長安東路二段一五三巷三號).; 12 July, 2011 06:51

Overview

The United States Taiwan Defense Command was a sub-unified command which reported directly to the Commander-in-Chief Pacific (CINCPAC). The command was composed of personnel from all branches of the U.S. armed forces and had its headquarters in Taipei.

Operational since November 1, 1955, USTDC was a planning headquarters for the defense of Taiwan and the Pescadores. In the event of hostilities, the Commander, USTDC, would have assumed an operational role and coordinated with the Government of the Republic of China in the defense of Taiwan and the Pescadores. In the event of such a contingency, three existing service commanders would have reported to the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command commander. The 327th Air Division commander would be the air component commander, the Taiwan Patrol Force commander would be the naval component commander, and the Chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) would be the Army component commander.

In addition to planning and peacetime responsibilities, the Commander of USTDC was assigned as the Single Senior Military Representative of Commander-in-Chief Pacific (CINCPAC). As such, he served as CINCPAC's single military spokesman on Taiwan -- exclusive of the miliitary assistance program -- and assumed responsibility for coordinating administrative and other policy matters for all U.S. armed forces on Taiwan on behalf of CINCPAC.

After twenty-three years, five months and twenty-six days of operation, the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command held its final flag retreat ceremony during the afternoon of April 26, 1979. Marine SSG D. J. Gemmecke lowered the colors for the last time.

Rear Admiral James P. Linder, the last USTDC Commander, departed Taiwan on April 28, 1979, accompanied by his wife Patricia.

Today there is no trace of the large American military compound on Chung Shan North Road in which USTDC was located. The area now contains a modern art museum, a park and a large sports stadium.

I am not a historian, but I do recognize that history unrecorded is history lost. My objective here is simply to record some of my own experiences as an Air Force enlisted man during my assignment to USTDC from 10 June 1973 until 4 September 1974, and to provide a platform for others to do the same.

Feel free to comment on any of these entries or to e-mail me with your own experiences and photographs. My e-mail address is displayed at the top and bottom of this column, or you can comment on any of my entries by clicking on "Comments" directly under each one.

Don Wiggins
SMSgt (Ret), USAF
Arkansas, USA
USTDC, J-12

Regarding Photographs

To the best of my knowledge, all photographs on this blog are either in the public domain or are displayed with the permission of their owners.

Owned photographs remain the sole property of the individuals who provided them. They are not to be downloaded, copied or reproduced in any form without the expressed written consent of their owners.

Send all requests for consent to me, through the email link at the bottom of this column, and I will pass them along to the owner of the photographs.

If you see any photographs here, past or present, which you believe have been inappropriately posted, contact me at the email address shown at the bottom of this column and they will be removed.

USTDC

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Taipei American School

5 comments:

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