US Taiwan Defense Command

NSG History at TDC

2012-01-18T10:02:00.000-06:00

This is from the NavyHistory.com website, which describes itself as being "...dedicated to preserving the proud and rich history of the worldwide CT community."

Naval Security Group Station History Dates ====================================================================
Station Opened                Closed/Disestablished====================================================================
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China

Formosa Liaison Center                                             20 Oct 1952              25 Apr 1955

U.S. Formosa Defense Command                               25 Apr 1955    01 Nov 1955

U.S. Taiwan Defense Command (COMUSTDC)          01 Nov 1955 26 Apr 1979

NSGA TDC, Taipei, Taiwan    Jun 1957    02 Feb 1979
Detachment of NSGA Shu Lin Kou, Taiwan located at the Taiwan Defense Command

The Last One Out

2012-01-03T04:00:00.000-06:00

This article from the Lakeland (Florida) Ledger of April 25, 1979, describes the final lowering of the American flag in front of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command.

I've written several pieces about the final days of TDC, but I've often wondered who the last "official" military person to leave Taiwan was. I believe that Vice Admiral Linder's aide, Lieutenant Commander Skip Wright remained behind for a short time to finalize things, but I don't know when he physically departed.

Does anyone know who was the last one out?

Personnel Officer

2012-01-02T13:10:00.000-06:00

I've been sorting through old news articles and found this one from the December 20, 1970 issue of the Ocala (Florida) Star Banner. It's a standard hometown piece that the military services send to local papers when a resident is assigned to a new unit. In this case, a First Lieutenant Blackwell was assigned to USTDC as a personnel officer.

What drew my attention was that when I arrived in 1973, there was no personnel officer. I was the personnel NCO as a tech sergeant, but my boss was Army lieutenant colonel Clay Blanton, who was (as I recall) the Administrative/Personnel Officer and he worked directly for the J-1. My guess is that the personnel officer position was cut as part of the gradual downsizing of TDC during that period.

Incidentally, the lieutenant's father-in-law, Major General Henry W. McMillan, was the Adjutant General of the Florida National Guard.

Best Taiwan Blog Award 2011

2011-12-31T07:26:00.001-06:00

Many thanks to all the readers of this blog who took the time to cast votes in Taiwanderful's 2011 Taiwan Best Blog Awards competition. For the second year in a row, the USTDC blog won the popular vote in its category and, for the first time, also won the "Peer Judged" category that's voted on by other Taiwan bloggers.

I made fewer blog entries this year, mostly because my wife and I had a very busy year, including our move to a new place. Things are beginning to return to what passes for normal around here and I'll try to do better in 2012.

This blog has always focused on the personal experiences of those who served in and around USTDC from 1955 to 1979. I felt it was important to record those memories so that today's youngsters might have a better understanding of who we were and what we did. I could sure use your help in accomplishing that goal. Though your family members may sometimes tire of hearing your old "war stories" about your time in the Taipei area, I promise that I will not. Please take a few minutes to jot down those memories and e-mail them to me to share with other readers. The e-mail address is near the top and bottom of the column to your right. Be sure to let me know if I may publish your name along with your comments. If you have any photos of those days, please attach them to your message as well.

I want to wish a very happy new year to my readers here in the States, those in Taiwan, and all those around the world. I am deeply grateful for each and every one of you.

Still Searching for Connie's Dad

2011-12-08T09:51:00.001-06:00

The last post I made here was a couple of months ago when I wrote about Connie, the daughter of a Taiwanese lady and an American serviceman, and of her search for her birth father. She is fairly sure that her dad was in the Navy.

I withheld a little information in that first post that I'm releasing here today. I'm hopeful that these additional clues might help.

Connie was born in Kaohsiung in January, 1967.
Her mother's name was Sally.

As I said in my earlier post, I have photographs of Sally and the American serviceman but I won't publish those. Everything I know about this case is contained in these two posts. If you or anyone you know has any idea who this guy might be, I'll be happy to discuss it privately. Just e-mail me at the address shown in the column to your right.

As I said earlier, I have no intention of invading anyone's privacy but if there's any chance that this gentleman would like to reach out to his daughter after all these years, I'm certainly willing to help.

Do You Know Connie?

2011-10-18T07:56:00.000-05:00

Connie is the daughter of an Americanserviceman and a woman from Taiwan. Here is her story:

"Iwas doing some research and found your USTDC website. Iwas hoping that you may be able to shed some light as to how I can goabout finding my biological father who was stationed in Taiwan from1966-67 (?). I am trying anything I can to get some answers. Would you know of any way that I can [find the names of people]deployed in Taiwan during that time?

It is extremely difficult since Ido not have his name, nor do I know if he was in the Navy or Airforce, but I am guessing Navy. The only thing I have is aphotograph of him. He knew of my existence and he was the one thatgave me my name, but that's all I know about him.

Thisstory just breaks my heart. My own father died when I was a child and I know how hard that was. How much harder it must be to not even know your ownfather's name nor much of anything else about him. I've read aboutAmerican servicemen who returned to the States with the intention ofreturning to Taiwan, but circumstances made that impossible. Irecall at least one case where an individual did return but, despitehis best effort, he was unable to locate his Taiwan family ever again. Perhaps her father was like one of those.

I'm not posting this story to createproblems for anyone, but rather in the hope that Connie's dad hasalways wondered about her and would like to make contact with herwhile there is still time. Many years have passed since she was bornand I think that reaching out to her is something that I personallywould want to do, though I know that some might not feel thatway.

These photographs show Connie as achild. I also have photos of her mother and father but willnot post them here for privacy reasons. I can tell you that they lived well south of Taipei. If you think you may be herdad, and if you would like to open a dialogue with her, please send mean email and we can discuss it further.

1960s "Taiwan Report" Download Available

2011-09-30T14:28:00.002-05:00

If you would like to have the complete "Taiwan Report" from the 1960s that I posted here a few days ago, you can download a PDF file by clicking HERE. You will need Adobe Reader to open the file. If you don't already have Adobe Reader, or a similar program, you can download a free copy HERE (You may want to un-check the McAfee box on the download page, unless you want to have your PC scanned.)

The Taiwan Report file is really big (close to 70 MB) and may take several minutes to download, depending on your connection. Maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to produce a more compact version.

*** UPDATE ***

I also uploaded the full 111 page "Taiwan Report" from 1973, published about ten years after the one mentioned above. It is also about 70 MB and you can download it at THIS LINK.

R&R in Taipei

2011-09-25T16:44:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Bill T. for sending me this 1967 news article:

At dawn and around dusk every day for weeks, two big Pan-American World Airways planes have been arriving at Taipei Airport, bringing war weary United States Servicemen from Vietnam.

After a quick passage through Chinese customs and immigration, the Americans board military buses and speed to Taipei. In the city, at a military reception area called the Sea Dragon Club, they get a brief talk on local customs, exchange some United States dollars for local currency and disperse to hotels of their choice.

Thereafter they are on their own in this city of 1.5 million for five days of rest and recreation. R and R, as it has come to be called, at a destination of his choice outside of Vietnam has become a perquisite of every American military man in Vietnam once during his tour there.

When Americans in groups from Vietnam complete their five days they assemble again at the Sea Dragon Club for the trip back to the war.

From a small beginning two years ago, the program has grown to a total of some 5,000 Americans every month, a figure that reflects not only the American military build-up in Vietnam but also the growing popularity of Taipei as a leave city.

It now ranks third, just behind Bangkok and Honolulu, as a center for Americans in Vietnam. They like it because it has good hotel and recreation facilities, the people are friendly, the climate is cool, the shopping is reasonably good and the post exchanges offer most of the facilities a soldier wishes for.

The Americans from Vietnam do much of their buying at post exchanges, but it is estimated each man spends an average of an additional $185, a figure that gives Nationalist China a monthly income of about one million dollars from the military visitors at the present rate of arrivals.

The program here is part of the American presence on Taiwan, which grows steadily despite the tapering off of United States military aid to Nationalist China and the decline in American military advisers and aid specialists.

Because of the war, there is also a major logistical operation at the Ching Chuan Kang air base, some 200 miles south of here. C.C.K., as the base is called, has become the biggest permanent United States military installation on Taiwan, with more than 4,000 men.

Transport planes and storage facilities provide air logistical support to United States military units throughout the Western Pacific area.

There are no United States combat units on Taiwan, but the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group, and the Taiwan Defense Command, a United States planning and housekeeping agency, account for about 9,000 Americans.

Some 13,000 American military men and their dependents and civilian Americans and their dependents in United States Government and private employment, account for an American community that has grown to roughly 27,000.

Most are concentrated in Taipei, and the outlook here is for still further growth. Housing is being prepared for approximately 250 wives and other dependents of civilians engaged in the economic aid and rehabilitation program in Vietnam.

Taiwan is regarded as a friendly haven in which families barred from living in Vietnam can locate near enough to permit occasional reunions.

Already the Taipei American School, with an enrollment of more than 2,000, is the largest of its kind overseas and seems destined to grow. Four other schools here and at cities farther south take in more than a thousand additional American youngsters.

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 12)

2011-09-21T13:00:00.000-05:00

This is the final chapter of the Taiwan Report from the 1960s period. It's titled "Miscellaneous" and it covers a variety of topics that were not addressed previously.

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 11)

2011-09-20T09:33:00.000-05:00

Chapter 11 discusses the household help ("servants," as they're called here) that many of us hired during our time in Taiwan. These included amahs (housekeepers), cooks, yardboys, houseboys, drivers or some combination of these. Prices were reasonable and I think most of us were pleased with the work they did.

As I've mentioned several times previously, I lived in the FASD hostel that was located right next to the east compound so my needs were pretty simple. I just needed someone to keep things spruced up and to keep an eye on the place when I was away. There were several men who worked as houseboys there and each had his own set of rooms to maintain. My guy made the bed, shined my shoes, dusted, swept, mopped and just generally tidied the place up every day. He also replaced my drinking water jug when it was empty and did my laundry, but I paid extra for those things.

One morning while at work, I realized that I'd neglected to pick up a fairly substantial amount of money that was on the table in my room. I hurried back during my lunch hour and found my room neat and clean as usual, and the pile of cash was sorted according to denomination and neatly stacked on the table. I never worried about the safety of my possessions after that.

My next door neighbor at the hostel was an Air Force master sergeant who was very fastidious about his room. I think he only hired a houseboy because it was sort of expected of us. Anyway, he used to sort his bottles and cans of deodorant, soap, shampoo, aftershave, etc. on his vanity, with the tallest container to the left and the shortest to the right. When he returned home from work he found them reversed, with the shortest to the left and the tallest to the right. He and his houseboy played this game for several days before he finally made it clear how he wanted them arranged. I thought it was hilarious and I have no doubt that wherever he is today, he still arranges his containers by height, left to right.

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 10)

2011-09-19T11:43:00.000-05:00

Chapter ten discusses purchasing and preparing food, as well as tips on eating at local restaurants during the 1960s. It also talks about the importance of drinking only water that had been properly treated. When I was there in the 1970s, we drank only bottled water. I did brush my teeth with tap water but never had a problem while I was there.

Food poisoning was not uncommon, even among those who had been stationed in Taiwan for extended periods. I wrote earlier about a visit to Snake Alley with my friends Pete and his wife Peggy and several other folks. Peggy was the only one in the group to eat boiled squid in one of the restaurants and she paid a pretty severe price for a couple of days or so.

But for the most part, just using a little common sense allowed you to enjoy most anything without suffering any serious consequences.

Blog Problem

2011-09-16T18:44:00.001-05:00

I was able to find and insert some code that eliminated the dreaded light box image viewing, so now you can just click on any image to see a larger version just as you've been able to in the past. If you click on the image once, you'll see a slightly larger version. If you then click on that version, you'll see an even larger version. I hope that this resolves the problem permanently.

Thanks for your patience.

Don

Intermission

2011-09-16T15:24:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be out of town for a couple of days and will resume posting the 1960s era Taiwan Report when I return. In the meantime, feel free to add comments to the USTDC Facebook page.

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 9)

2011-09-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 8)

2011-09-13T15:39:00.000-05:00

BOT Housing Preservation Effort

2011-09-13T09:47:00.003-05:00

Jenny Lee wrote:

Dear All USTDC fellows:

Tomorrow, there will be a second time of Yangminshan USTDC housing historical factor review. Please try your best to assist us to achieve the goal of "appointing" these houses as a "Whole and Original" National Historical Eco Village. Please do post a message [on Youtube] after you view the film and pass the link to friends.

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 7)

2011-09-12T15:35:00.000-05:00

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 6)

2011-09-11T15:31:00.000-05:00

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 5)

2011-09-10T15:25:00.000-05:00

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 4)

2011-09-09T18:42:00.000-05:00

This chapter discusses climate, housing and furnishings. There are some excellent photographs in this chapter of Taipei American School, the Club 63 (built in 1958) and several other facilities. I especially like the picture showing the interior of the Navy Exchange. The very basic displays are exactly as I remember them from my early days in the Air Force -- almost primitive when compared to today's military exchanges.

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 3)

2011-09-08T18:03:00.000-05:00

Chapter three describes the various military organizations, available services and facilities.

Taiwan Report - 1960s (Chapter 2)

2011-09-07T17:52:00.000-05:00

Chapter two discusses the history of Taiwan, its government and its people.

Taiwan Report - 1960s

2011-09-06T17:39:00.004-05:00

During 2009, I posted a copy of "Taiwan Report," the booklet that was mailed to individuals being reassigned to the Taipei area. That edition was published by the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command in 1973. Les Duffin kept a copy of the booklet from his tour and was kind enough to scan its pages and provide them to me for the blog.

I recently received a much earlier edition of Taiwan Report from Scott, who believes it was probably published sometime during the 1960s, possibly 1965. There are enough differences between the 1973 version and this one that I want to include it here.

I will post this version as I did the last one, a few pages at a time over several days. When the entire booklet has been published, I will then publish a separate index with a link to each of the posts, just as before.

Today I'll post the index and chapter one (General). You may notice that there are a few page numbers missing. Those were printed specifically for the Shulinkou version so I'll not include them here. Click on any of these pages to see a larger version.

The Big Picture: The Army in Taiwan

2011-08-31T16:18:00.002-05:00

I've posted The Big Picture newsreels here before, but Scott just alerted me to one I hadn't seen. It's titled "The Army in Taiwan" and it contains images that many here will find familiar. I appreciate the fact that NARA, the National Archives and Records Administration, preserves many of these old government films and makes them available for all of us to see.

The Blue Goose

2011-08-27T19:29:00.000-05:00

I've written previously about the USTDC Commander's aircraft that was commonly referred to as the Blue Goose. As I recall, at least two different aircraft held that designation over the years.

Lawrence Marcum just sent me this newspaper clipping from 1976 that shows the aircraft and crew that were in place at that time.

And Even More Furniture

2011-08-27T19:07:00.000-05:00

I've posted numerous photographs of furniture that many of us bought during our time in Taipei. It's amazing to me that so many of those pieces still grace the homes of so many Taiwan vets after at least 25 or 30 years.

I recently received more furniture photos, this time from Vic Gerlach, who was my replacement at TDC.

He says that he's not sure who made these pieces, but he and his wife used lemon oil on them frequently after their return to the States and still apply it about once a year.

Center Table with Stools

"Compact" Bar

Grandfather Clock

Stereo Cabinet (Custom Design)

Tree Table

The grandfather clock is the APO version that could be broken down into three sections and sent through the mail.

Vic says they also bought marble and brass floor and table lamps, along with carved marble items like vases. They also have several hand carved wooden objects.

Furniture Care, Haggling, Language and More

2011-08-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Bill Thayer comments on yesterday's post from Les Duffin and also talks about haggling, learning Taiwanese and other things:

Les and Don, we also purchased a number of furniture from Ricardo Lynn, the store that Les mentioned on the traffic circle in Shih Lin. We have had very little problem with cracking. The main problem that we have experienced was the glued pieces becoming unglued. I think this problem may have resulted from several factors such as the wood drying and becoming smaller and the use of inferior wood glues. I have been able to fix these problems, for the most part, with American carpenter's or wood glues, which when dry last virtually forever.

The other thing that my wife and I practiced in Taiwan had to do with what we called, at that time, the "two price" method of retailers. That is to say that there was one price for indigenous people and a higher price for foreigners. To offset this assumed methodology, we would shop and decide what we wanted, leave and my wife who is Taiwanese would later return alone and make the purchase. We also used this approach when we had visitors such as those who came TDY/TAD and we took shopping.

Having made many return trips to Taiwan since mid-1970's the latest of which was two years ago, the "two price" method has been greatly reduced and practically eliminated in the larger urban areas such as Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. However, it is still practiced in rural areas and among certain small street vendors and retailers who do not put price labels on the items they sell. I attribute the diminuition of this practice perhaps to the increased presence of foreign owned businesses such as the large Japanese owned department stores like Mitsukoshi and Sogo and American owned businesses or franchises such as McDonalds, 7-Eleven, Starbucks, etc.

It also helped that I spoke and understood to a degree the Taiwanese (Amoy) dialect. In the early 1960's, I was stationed at Linkou. One day, I was shopping at the Catholic bookstore in Taipei and happened upon two English-language lesson books for Taiwanese published by the Maryknoll fathers in Taichung. So I started learning the Taiwanese dialect, mainly so I could ask my wife's mother who only spoke Taiwanese and Japanese for her daughter's hand in marriage. When I finally became sufficiently proficient and acquired enough courage to pose the question, her response was a resounding and emphatic "NO". Well, anyway over time my wife's family was sufficiently impressed that I had learned some Taiwanese, they finally consented or maybe acquiesced.

Anyway, back to the Taiwanese lesson books. About ten years ago, I visited the Maryknoll language school in Taichung and a priest gave me a tour, including their bookstore. Maryknoll priests are headquartered in upstate New York, but they developed their own phonetic system for the Amoy dialect. Maryknoll priests who are assigned to parishes or missionary work in Taiwan, Singapore or Fujian province attend the school to learn the Amoy dialect. Since I purchased my first books back in the early 1960's, the Maryknoll language school has come up with a vast array of teaching materials, including CD's and English-Taiwanese and Taiwanese-English dictionaries, and greatly enhanced lesson books of more advanced Taiwanese dialect. The language school is located on the grounds of a Catholic church on San Min Lu in Taichung.

Taiwanese, by the way, is more difficult to learn to speak and understand than Mandarin, simply because there are more tones. but not as many as in Cantonese or Shanghainese. It is also made more difficult, because of the lack of written learning and teaching materials, which until the mid to late 1990's resulted in the enforced learning of Mandarin.

BOT Housing and Furniture

2011-08-16T14:26:00.001-05:00

I received these great photos and accompanying comments from Les Duffin about a month ago. They show the interior of his home in the Bank of Taiwan (BOT) housing area, including some of the beautifully made furniture that he purchased in Taipei. Unfortunately, I set the photos aside during our recent move and couldn't locate them again until today.

Les writes:

I was happy to see Barbara Auch’s BOT 109 photos, especially since she and her husband were obviously neighbors of ours, at least for a couple of months. Seeing the interior of her house reminded me very much of our own, so I thought I’d send these photos along. I think you’ll see the similarities.

And on another subject of recent interest, Taiwan-made teak furniture, you’ll also notice that we had – and still have – quite a lot of it. Here are a few gratuitous comments:The problem of drying out was well known. Many folks who left Taiwan wrote back to friends saying their Taiwan furniture had later dried out and cracked. But that was easy to avoid if you knew the system. There were lots of furniture stores in Taipei and Shih Lin making teak furniture, but in the early days only Ricardo Lynn had a kiln, and kiln-dried wood was the only kind certain not to dry out and crack. It was one of Ricardo Lynn’s major claims to fame and undoubtedly contributed to the company’s growth and fame. Later, by the mid-70s or so, some smaller companies also had kilns of their own, so the cracking problem actually lessened over time. But you still had to be careful which store you bought from because many still didn’t dry their wood before making it into furniture.

There were other ways to avoid the problem too: you’ll notice in one of my photos a large stereo cabinet and two bookcases. Those were made to my own design by a furniture maker in Tainan during our 1971-73 tour there. When I expressed concern that such large pieces would be prone to drying and cracking, he took me up to his attic and showed me several large pieces of Thai teak that he’d been drying there for six years. It was some of those he used to make my cabinet and bookcases. Today we still have several rooms of Taiwan teak furniture made by three different companies and none of it has ever cracked; it’s now 35-39 years old and still looks great. We’ve polished it with lemon oil from time to time, but it was also in storage for six years where it had more than ample time to dry out, and if that didn’t crack it I doubt anything would.

Taiwan teak furniture fell into three categories. First, there were standard items that most every company made; Ricardo Lynn seemed to me to be the major innovator and I think many others copied his designs. The second type were custom-made items built to the buyer’s own design. And of course the third were those clever APO-mailable items. It wasn’t unusual to see three or four furniture trucks backed up to the APO delivering things someone had bought while on leave in Taiwan. The buyer had to meet the truck at the compound gate to sign it in, and it was a well-oiled process that got the items from the truck to the counter where the buyer paid the postage to ship them home. You’ve mentioned end tables and coffee tables, but there were lots of other things too: you could, for example, buy a grandfather clock that came in four boxes, each small enough to fit within the APO size limits. Three contained parts of the cabinet, which bolted together, and the fourth held the movement and weights. The postage for some of those things couldn’t have been cheap, but it was still a bargain given the quality of the furniture and the fact that it was pretty unique. It was another great benefit of being assigned to Taiwan.

Les

USTDC Building Layout

2011-08-15T17:09:00.002-05:00

First of all, I want to apologize to those of you who do me the honor of checking in here every so often. Because my wife and I recently moved, I haven't been posting very much new material and I haven't been very good about answering your emails either. If you have sent me anything during the past couple of months (or before!) and haven't heard back from me, please send it again or at least let me know what it was and about when you sent it. Above all, please don't be offended.

I've tried, without much success, to remember the layout of the USTDC building. I just couldn't break through the mental fog that has built up since I left Taipei in 1974. I remembered the main entrance and of course the interior of my own office in J-12, but that's about the extent of it.

Well, two of my old friends from TDC -- Larry Marcum and Randy Burt -- have both sent me sketches of the place as they remember it. Larry was the command's Admin Officer while I was there and Randy was our Supply Chief (I'm not sure about Randy's title, but I trust he'll set me straight if I got it wrong). Both of these sketches are of the first floor. I told Larry that my version would probably be slightly different from either of theirs and would also be completely wrong.

Anyway, here's Larry Marcum's recollection:

And here is Randy Burt's version:

Remember that you can click on either of these images to see the full size version.

Recognizing that offices were moved around within the building over the years, do any of you have any comments regarding either of these sketches? Please feel free to send me your own version, including the layout of the second floor, basement (I didn't even know there was a basement!) or anything else you remember about the place.

Yangminshan Housing Restoration

2011-07-20T14:49:00.003-05:00

Jenny Lee and her group have worked very hard to save and restore as many Bank of Taiwan (BOT) houses as they can. The last I heard, many of these homes that were occupied by American military folks are being considered for demolition, which means that these historical structures will be gone forever.

She recently sent me links to some photographs of their work, including some amazing photos that show what a couple of them looked like before restoration began. Here are some examples:

Quarters F208B in 2009:

Many additional before and after photographs of F208B can be found here.

Here is an image of one of the quarters as it appeared years ago. Judging from the furniture style, I would guess probably sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s:

Here is a photo of quarters F207A after restoration. Jenny has tried to simulate the way it may have appeared in the 1950s. Amazing, isn't it?

BOT #109

2011-07-18T21:47:00.000-05:00

I received these great pics from Barbara Auch. She and her husband worked at USTDC during 1978-79 and they lived at BOT #109. She wrote:

Saw the pics of BOT housing on the blog, so I thought I'd add a couple. These pics are of the outside and inside of BOT #109. Unlike most of the BOT housing in Tien Mou, our place was not a duplex. It wasn't far from Les's house, which I walked by nearly every day to catch the bus. I think you can see from the BOT housing pics Les sent (the one with everyone on bicycles) you can see a house sitting directly behind them. BOT #109 is directly behind THAT house.

BOT#109 had 2 bedrooms and 2 full baths with terrazzo flooring in the kitchen and baths and wood floors in the rest of the house.

The pics I'm sending are 2 outside pics of BOT#109 (you can also see the huge apartment building they were constructing behind our house in 1978/1979). One pic is the living room with a big fireplace and built-in bookcases. A couple pics of the kitchen with all that tile. You can see the big water jug on the counter because you couldn't drink water from the tap. I also remember that our stove was gas and the windows throughout the house were just huge. Curtains had to be made to fit those windows and I was glad that the previous owner left them. I also remember taping those windows in an "x" pattern during the monsoon season. Ugly but effective.

Barbara Auch

USTDC Group on Facebook

2011-07-16T09:50:00.000-05:00

I once set up a Yahoo group for TDC, thinking that it might make it easier for back-and-forth discussions among us Taiwan vets. It never really took off, so I closed it a couple of years ago. However, I recently set up a US Taiwan Defense Command group on Facebook, since so many people already have a Facebook account.

Check it out at http://www.facebook.com/groups/181370945250687 and post whatever's on your mind. If you don't have a facebook account, it's easy (and free) to join. Just go to www.facebook.com.

Early Taipei American School Photo

2011-07-10T15:34:00.002-05:00

Scott recently sent me this great 1949 photograph that was taken at the entrance to the original Taipei American School.

Taipei American School

2011-07-06T12:24:00.001-05:00

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."

More BOT Housing Photos

2011-07-02T18:20:00.000-05:00

Scott thought these images of BOT housing would tie in well with my last post. A couple of them have appeared here before but the rest are new.

Many thanks, Scott.

Bank of Taiwan (BOT) Housing Conversation

2011-06-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

I received info copies of an email exchange between Les Duffin and Bill Thayer regarding the BOT housing where many U.S. military families resided. I thought the content of their messages would be of interest to many of the folks who read this blog. So here, with their permission, is a summary:

Les wrote: Since I lived in a BOT house in Tien Mu from 1976 to 1978, I'll try to answer as many questions as I can. I remember being told that, when the US military first came to Taiwan, there were few homes which were considered up to US standards. For that reason an agreement was reached between the two governments to construct a number of houses to fill the need. I don't know how BOT came to be the ROC agency chosen to build and run the housing compounds, but that was how things turned out. BOT acted as landlord and maintained the homes. I'm pretty sure we paid our monthly rent directly to BOT, but I'm not absolutely certain. I do know there was a BOT maintenance office not far from where we lived and we needed only phone or walk over there when we had a problem; the local employees would take care of it, usually right away.

The US Navy's role was to parcel out the houses to those who wanted them. A housing office in the HSA West Compound inspected and approved all private rentals and also assigned people to specific BOT houses. Senior officers and NCOs usually received BOT houses immediately upon arrival, but all others had to apply if they wanted one. You could sign up for either area, Tien Mu or Yang Ming Shan, or both. When I arrived in 1975, I was told the waiting list was about 12-18 months long. It turned out I was offered a house in exactly one year. So we ended up living in a private rental for the first year, then moved when a BOT house became available. During "normal" times, there were always more people who wanted BOT housing than there were available houses, but that changed later; when I left in summer of 1978 the declining numbers of US military personnel on island resulted in some houses actually sitting vacant.

The advantages of BOT homes over private rentals were several. First, you paid only your BAQ [Basic Allowance for Quarters] in rent. Private rentals were usually more expensive. And the houses were large and comfortable, with electrical systems capable of handling the usual complement of appliances (including two or three window-mounted reverse-cycle air conditioners for heating and cooling). Also, we were living in a community with a handy support structure: theater, bowling alley, little league baseball field, teen center, swimming pool, and a small Navy Exchange, all within easy walking distance. Plus, some units or installations operated shuttle buses between home and work; if you rode the bus and lived in BOT housing, you could count on being picked up and dropped off very near your home. That was not necessarily the case in a private rental.

I wish now I had kept my housing paperwork, but no such luck.

Here's an excerpt from the 1973 Taiwan Report, the newcomer's welcome guide ((ACO is Area Coordinating Office)):
The Bank of Taiwan manages 280 houses in the Taipei area. This housing is offered by the cognizant ACO to military personnel on a point basis. Points are determined by pay grade, number of dependents, time of arrival on Taiwan and other factors. Personnel coming from unaccompanied tours or ships deployed in a combat zone are given extra points.

Officers in paygrade O-6 and enlisted personnel in paygrade E-9 are eligible for immediate assignment to BOT housing and may be placed on waiting lists by sponsors prior to arrival.

BOT rents are generally lower than private rentals of comparable size with rates varying from $70-$100 per month for wood frame houses and from $100-$125 per month for masonry homes. A waiting period of 4 to 6 months is usual for personnel other than O-6 or E-9 desiring assignment to BOT housing.

Application for BOT housing should be submitted as soon as possible after arrival on Taiwan since eligibility is determined by placement on a housing list maintained by the housing office. This does not obligate the acceptance of BOT housing.

As a general rule, BOT houses are older and receive a slightly lower level of maintenance than private rental housing."
As I said, we thought the level of maintenance was actually better than we experienced in private rentals. And the waiting period was actually much longer than the booklet predicted, at least when we arrived in 1975. And I’ve attached a couple photos to give you an idea of what our house looked like. It was half a duplex, which was the norm except for really senior folks.

Bill replied: We lived in BOT housing in Tien Mou from February, 1973 until December, 1977. I was assigned to the US Army Communications Command in Taipei, but was the personnel officer and ran the personnel office for all the Army personnel in Taiwan during that period. Can't add much to what Les had to say, except that I don't recall having to wait very long after arrival for BOT quarters.

One of things that I particularly liked was the size of our backyard, which was large enough for my kids to practice baseball. I coached little league and my sons all played on the teams I coached. One of my sons was a pitcher and the backyard was large enough for him to practice pitching with myself as catcher. Coaching little league was my attempt to reestablish myself as head of the family and father figure since I had just finished my second tour in Vietnam, second RVN tour in a three year period.

Another thing that I liked was the proximity to the ball field right across the main street in Tien Mou. It was used mainly as a T-ball field, but as the kids grew older our practices and games moved to the ball field close by the Naval Hospital.

Don has some pretty good photos and commentary on BOT housing at his USTDC website.

http://ustdc.blogspot.com/2008/08/tien-mou-housing.html

http://ustdc.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-tien-mou-housing-photos.html

Les Replied: Funny thing about that, I also coached little league for the two years we lived in BOT housing. T-ball, actually. There was a batting cage near the baseball field and I remember throwing lots of batting practice there.

I would guess your short waiting time for housing was because you were coming from a remote tour. That was supposed to carry a lot of weight in deciding where you were placed on the waiting list. But I must confess I never understood the other weighting factors like rank and time on island. How points were assigned for each of those was always a mystery to me, maybe because that’s the way the housing office wanted it.

Bill replied: Les, the fact that I was coming from Vietnam may have had something to do with what seemed to be a rapid assignment of BOT quarters. I am unclear and now foggy on what the criteria was for assignment of BOT housing. It seems to me that Temporary Lodging Allowance (TLA) was also a factor, i.e. minimizing the period in which a person received TLA by staying in a hotel or guest house. I know that TLA minimizing was a factor upon departure, because I used to have to review and process receipts and inevitably, we had some people inflating, duplicating, or attempting fraud in order to maximize the amount of TLA.

As to little league, I had only one son that played T-ball for one year. The other two older sons played on teams that used the larger field close to the Navy hospital. The guy that lived in back of me, Air Force Master Sergeant McGregor, and I teamed up to coach. We got draft preference on our four kids, two of whom could pitch and play any position, and we drafted one more who was a pitcher, infielder and home run hitter. So we ended up with three pitchers two of whom could play catcher and the left side of the diamond was completely covered. Our best season was when we ended up with a 21 and 4 record.

We played a couple of the Chinese teams that so dominated the Little League World Series in those days. We never won against them, but we came closer than some of the teams that played them at Williamsport. At the start of the season, the league coaches all got together and because we were prohibited from going to the World Series, we set our own rules. Little League rules barred any overseas American teams from playing in the little league world series in which the host country was playing. Some of the rules we developed and used: unlimited practice, seven inning games.

Les replied: I had a much less satisfying coaching “career.” My elder son was signed up for T-ball and ended up on a team sponsored by Citibank. A Citibank official who had years of coaching experience was head coach and I was supposed to be one of his assistants – easy enough. Except that right before the first game, he had a family medical emergency and departed for the States. So of course my fellow assistants voted that I should take over. We had a pretty poor team and seldom won. The next year my son graduated to little league and I coached the T-ball team one more time. The little league games used both the field in the housing area and the one near the hospital, and I think I remember some T-ball games near the hospital as well.

The Bridge

2011-05-24T10:06:00.019-05:00

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

2011-05-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

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

2011-05-22T06:00:00.003-05:00

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

2011-05-21T06:00:00.003-05:00

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

2011-05-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

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

More Kwei Family Photos - Part 1

2011-05-19T12:06:00.004-05:00

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!

2011-05-11T15:27:00.001-05:00

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

2011-05-06T19:21:00.001-05:00

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!

Chung Shan N. Road -- 1973

2011-04-26T18:33:00.000-05:00

Dennis McNelis and I served in Taipei during the same period (1973-1974). I don't think we ever met in those days, though it's likely that we saw each other from time to time. Unlike me, Dennis took a lot of photos of the area in those days and I've posted several of them here in the past. He is now in the process of scanning his collection of color slides from that period and I'll likely be posting some of them here also as they become available in the weeks ahead.

Today's image was taken during July, 1973. It was taken from the south end of the old bridge on Chung Shan North Road. You're facing southwest and the area behind the billboards is where the zoo was located. Note that one of the signs is advertising Royal Crown Cola.

East Compound

2011-04-24T12:40:00.000-05:00

Dennis McNelis sent another photo taken at the Headquarters Support Activity (HSA) east compound, sometime during 1973-74. To your right is the Navy Exchange, which was located directly across the parking lot from the commissary. At the far end is the library and theater. What do you suppose they were doing with that big crane?

More on TDC's Back Entrance

2011-04-22T15:13:00.001-05:00

Stev Pitchford annotated (in black) the map from the last post to show the route he used to take from the rear entrance to his workplace in the photo lab. He says that there was no passageway from the main building to the building behind it at that time. I extended his path to show (in red) the route that I took to the TDC main entrance.

I tried to figure out where my office was but I've pretty much forgotten the layout of the interior of the building, except for the main lobby (shown below in a really rough sketch!) and the interior of my office.

If anyone would like to take a shot at diagramming the building's interior (lower or upper floor), please send me whatever you come up with.

Rear entrance to USTDC

2011-04-20T13:42:00.001-05:00

Old friend and frequent contributor Dennis McNelis just sent me this shot of the rear entrance to TDC. The tennis courts are to the right.

I think I used to enter that way to get to my office, but I must have had to walk around the building to the left to get to the main entrance, since the outside door to my office only opened from the inside. I'm still having trouble figuring out exactly which corner of the building this shows. Memories have faded over the past 37 years or so.

Below is a map of the compound. The TDC building was #19 on the map. I believe the main entrance to the building was just above and to the left of the #19. The tennis courts shown to the right in the above photo are at #17 on this map.

If anyone remembers this any better than I do, or if you can identify anything else in the photo, please let me know.

Letters Home

2011-03-31T18:16:00.002-05:00

Stev Pitchford was a Navy photographer at TDC during 1959-60. Many of his excellent photographs have been enjoyed by countless visitors here.

Stev recently went through a stack of letters that he wrote to his parents years ago. What follows are his comments about the letters, followed by excerpts from some of those that he wrote during his time in Taiwan. I really enjoyed them because I think they're typical of letters written by young men far away from home years ago, and probably similar to letters written by today's young men and women stationed around the world. Of course most of today's letters are probably typed on a keyboard and received by Mom and Dad within seconds after they're sent.

Mom and Dad saved the letters I wrote to them while I was in the Navy. After about 50 years, I've gotten around to reading them. Some things I remember pretty well, but there's a lot I don't recall.
A few remarks about Chiang Kai Shek (Gemo) and President Eisenhower (Ike) were a little impertinent, but I was a teenager at the time. Looking back, I realize what a privilege it was to have come into personal contact with two of the most significant figures of the 20th century.

July 29, 1959 (Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA)

. . . . I leave at 6:30 AM August 1, by plane. I’m not sure where I’ll wind up, but it will probably be Taiwan or Japan
. . . .The next time you hear from me it will be from across the Pacific. . .

August 6, 1959

. . . . Well, I’m here. I got in Taipei at about 4:00 this afternoon. There is no base here. Taiwan Defense Command is one building on one side of town. . . . It could be very nice.

. . . . I don’t know if I’ll stay here or be shipped to some other part of the island. I’ll find out tomorrow. . . . .

. . . .Tomorrow . . . . I’m staying here. And I’m beginning to like it even more. There are 11 people in the photo lab, and it isn’t too busy. . . .

. . . . I went to a Mongolian Barbecue for lunch today. 9 of us went across town on 5 motor scooters to the place. I don’t know what it was but it was good. We ate with chop sticks, which proved to be interesting.

August 17, 1959

. . . .There aren’t many cars here, but that doesn’t mean anything. There are plenty of bicycles, rickshaws, and people to make up for it. . . .

. . . . Seeing as how we get pretty good money and things are so cheap here, we live pretty high. I’m going to be spoiled when I get back. . . .

. . . . They have American movies here. Most of the theaters in Taipei are comparable to those in the U. S. I’m told that one will show up anything in the states. . . .

August 30, 1959

. . . . I get mail in the oddest ways here. Commanders bring it to me, I get some on days the mail isn’t supposed to come in, and yours just came in the middle of a typhoon. . . .

. . . . 4 of us are keeping the photo lab tied down during this big wind. Right now it’s supposed to be blowing about 100 mph outside. It’s 1:30 AM and I’ve got nothing better to do, so I’m answering your letter. I’ll bet this is the first letter you’ve received written in the middle of a typhoon. . . .
Sept. 7, 1959

. . . . Probably tomorrow, I’m leaving for Matsu for about a week. It’s an island 2 miles from the mainland. So now I’m going to see Communist China. . . .

Sept. 16, 1959

. . . . I was on Matsu for 5 days. That’s a group of islands 5 miles from the Communist coast. It’s from right out of the war movies.

I even had my own personal jeep and driver till the last day. Then I had to share it with an officer. . . .

And to top it all, I got $70 extra pay for going. . . .

I finally made it on board ship. I came back on a Chinese destroyer. I was all over the thing shooting pictures. . . .

Sept. 24, 1959

. . . . I went swimming for the first time last Sunday. They’ve got a wild diving board at this pool. Usually you use a diving board to put you where and how you want to hit the water. Not so with this one. It throws you any ole place it feels like. Very exciting.

Monday is Confucius’ birthday, so we’ve got a long week-end. . . .

Dec. 17, 1959

. . . . Last week we really put out the work. I didn’t even get one day off - - - except for the weekend. Things like that don’t happen very often though. We’ve been about half busy this week.

We’ve had a pretty cold week. A raincoat feels pretty good now.

Jan. 26, 1960

. . . . I don’t know about this command. One of our idiot generals thought it would be nice to stand an inspection once a month. Not that that wasn’t bad enough - - - we have to wear uniforms to and from work and any other time we leave the compound. Since we have to work in dungarees (uniforms would get stained), this will involve changing clothes every 5 minutes. . . .

Feb. 10, 1960

. . . . Our general’s ideas just went out the window Monday - - - hooray! We’re back to normal now. . . .

Feb. 29, 1960

I went to the Admiral’s house again Saturday. I showed “Auntie Mame.” And I had pop corn for the first time since I’ve been on this island.

I was out shooting pictures all Saturday afternoon. The Admiral’s aide got me a car to use all day, so I saw some new territory. I thought that was pretty nice of him.

May 1, 1960

. . . . Gemo is throwing a tea party at the hostel tonight, so I think I’ll go bowling again. I don’t like crowds. . . .

May 21, 1960

. . . . I learned today that I got my fourth stripe May 16. I’ve been a PHG3 for almost a week now. . . .

June 16, 1960

. . . . I’m mad at Ike. Just because he’s coming here, I have to work this weekend. That messes up my swimming and I might miss a good movie. . . .

June 23, 1960

. . . .Ike sure messed up my weekend. I didn’t even get to go swimming once. And the weather was perfect. This place looked like Ripley on the 4^th of July. . . .

July 19, 1960

. . . . I got myself a Zenith Trans-Oceanic radio last week. It is an awfully potent short wave radio. I haven’t even hitched an aerial to it, and I can get as far east as Delano, Calif. and as far west as Paris, France. . . .

Aug. 4, 1960

. . . . The basic reason I decided to get a recorder is that in this part of the world I hear things (on the short wave radio) I’m not sure I’ll be able to pick up in the states, and they’ll be interesting to me and maybe you to hear later. Radio Peiping, from Communist China, is my main target here. They tell me how horrible we “imperialist Americans” are. . . .

Aug. 11, 1960

. . . . I may be sitting on that front porch with you in about 25 days. My orders came in yesterday. I’m going to the Norton Sound - - - which didn’t shock me too much. I leave August 30 - - - which really shocked me. . . .

Aug. 21, 1960

. . . . I’ll see you sometime next week. I fly out of here on the 29^th. . . .
Stev

Taipei Volunteer Fire Department

2011-03-30T15:29:00.000-05:00

Jim Sartor, a frequent contributor to this blog over the years, worked in J-22 (Op Center) at USTDC from 1968 to 1972.

Some time ago Jim asked me if I'd ever heard of the Taipei Volunteer Fire Department, a social organization that he belonged to during his tour in Taipei. I'd never heard of it, but Jim recently discovered that they're still around, and have been since 1955. You can find their website HERE.

Sounds like a fun group. Anyone else here who remembers them?

MAAG Officers Open Mess - Part Two

2011-03-21T14:43:00.002-05:00

A couple of days ago I posted some excellent photographs of the MAAG Officers Club that were taken in 1960 and that were provided by Elizabeth Feldmann. She has now sent me some additional images from that period.

Article from Far East Club Activities about the MAAG Officers Club and U.S. Army Captain Jerry Feldmann.

Dining Room Menu Cover

Club Menu - First Page

Club Menu - Second Page


Paul Kuo was a Taiwan artist who frequently drew cartoons under the heading "Formosan Vignette" for the China Post Newspaper. This one depicts Jerry and Elizabeth Feldmann and their four children departing Taipei.

Elizabeth says that she had many great experiences during their assignment to Taiwan. Because of her husband's job, they were invited to the British Embassy for Queen Elizabeth's birthday observance. They were also invited to the Korean ambassador's home because Captain Feldmann used to brief him some years earlier when he was stationed there.

She continued, "We used to go to Sun Moon Lake with a picnic lunch, haul all the kids and our amah and get rowed around the lake for a few hours. I remember going roller skating at a park not far from the river. We had three of the children with us and we gathered quite a crowd watching us. (I think they were waiting for my husband or myself to fall down.) Thank goodness we didn't!

I remember going down-island to a glass blowing factory. The bus was so old and rickety I wondered if we would make it back. I found out what happened to all of our old coke and beer bottles. Very young children were blowing them into big round green and brown balls that were used with the fishing nets. All of us women had to buy some of these so the bus was really overloaded on the way back!

There very few cars, but boy did they blow their horns...and just race all over! I never drove over there; I was too scared! I felt much safer in a pedicab!

We were never robbed, but the Provost Marshall who lived across the walk from us was -- his name was Capt. George -- so we hired guards and never had a problem."

MAAG Officers Open Mess

2011-03-19T11:17:00.004-05:00

I received a very nice note from Elizabeth Feldmann, wife of Captain Gerald Feldmann, the MAAG Officers Club Officer during 1960-1961. His club manager was Air Force Chief Warrant Officer V.W. Loiselle, whom I mentioned about a year ago. She wrote about the exciting times in Taiwan and the beauty of the country.

Elizabeth provided these great photographs of the MAAG O-Club that were taken in 1960.

There is the front of the building, the main bar, the dining room and the lounge. She writes that there was also a stag bar, swimming pool and a barber shop at the facility. She and her family lived across the street in a compound that she believes was referred to as MAAGville back then.

According to old friend Kent Mathieu (Taipei Air Station blog), who was night manager at the O-Club Annex, the main club was located on Chung Shan North Road, across the street from the FASD Hostel and about a hundred yards or so to the north.

Patricia Linder

2011-01-30T18:54:00.001-06:00

Patricia Linder, wife of the late Rear Admiral James Linder, recently notified me that her website now includes several photographs of her recent trip to Taipei. As I wrote earlier, she spoke at the opening of the American Footsteps in Taiwan exhibit there.

The website also includes video of her television interview in Taipei, during which she discussed many of her Taiwan experiences during 1977 to 1979 when her husband was the Commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command. Her website is at PatriciaLinder.com.

I've long recommended her book "The Lady and the Tiger" which is available at Amazon for about US$20.00. Not only did I find it an interesting and entertaining read, but historically significant as well.

1953 Flooding of MAAG Compound

2011-01-27T19:11:00.002-06:00

I decided to take a "sabbatical from sabbatical" because of material sent my way from old friend Sarj Bloom. These images of flooding after a 1953 typhoon are all in the archives of the ROC Government Information Office and can be found at this link.

What makes these of interest to regular readers of this blog is that they show the west compound (the Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) compound) in 1953.

The first photo appears to have been taken at the entrance to the west compound (facing out and to the northeast). In the distance, to the left of the picture, you can see the roof of what appears to be the Story House, which is still there today. I originally thought it might have been taken from the east compound, but I now think the angle of the Story House indicates otherwise. All opposing views are welcome in the comments section.

I believe the next picture is facing outward from inside the west compound entrance toward Chung Shan North Road.

This picture was taken outside the MAAG compound entrance, where crews appear to be pumping water out of the compound. Note the building slightly to the left in the distance. It appears in the next photo as well.

This photo was taken further inside the gate, probably about where the chapel eventually stood to the left. If you look straight ahead, you'll recognize that same cement sign that has shown up in many photographs of the west compound on this blog. I believe the building to the left of that sign was the hospital in those days.

Reflections and Wanderings and Taking a Breather

2011-01-13T15:39:00.000-06:00

I've been writing this blog since 2007 and, like most bloggers, I run out of new material from time to time. It seems like those dry spells have been happening more frequently in recent months. I used to worry about it, but then I reminded myself that the whole purpose of this effort was to assemble as much of the history of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command as I could find, since there wasn't much of it available elsewhere. I feel like I have accomplished most of what I hoped to do and I'm okay with that.

So if you don't see a lot of updates to this blog going forward, don't assume that I've given up on it. Whenever I come across something interesting, I'll write about it. For example, I submitted a FOIA request to the Naval Historian's office several months ago and maybe one day they'll get around to responding. If they ever do so, I'll pass along whatever I receive.

In the meantime, I'll be trying to figure out a way to make all the information contained here a little easier to sort through. The advantage of having a blog format is that readers have an opportunity to comment on each topic as it is written. The disadvantage is that there has been a lot of information posted here since 2007 and there's no easy way to find what you're looking for. I must confess that even I lose track of where things are sometimes. I'll probably begin by taking a look at the tags for all entries, since there's now a hodgepodge of topics, many of which aren't very useful at all. I have a couple of other ideas as well which I'll be exploring in the days ahead.

But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the other outstanding resources available to Taiwan veterans. The first one I found before I ever started the blog was the website dedicated to the 6987th Security Group at Shu Linkou. As you scroll down their main page, you'll find well-organized links in various topic areas, all of which contain many photographs. The site is updated frequently and is a treasure trove of memories. I'm often amazed at the sheer volume of information they've assembled.

I also heartily recommend the Taipei Air Station blog, which recently has focused on Taipei as it exists today. It's a great resource for us "old timers" to see how much things have changed. I always find it interesting (and maybe a little depressing sometimes) as I am reminded of the years that have passed since I was stationed in Taipei and all the changes that have taken place.

The same author maintains the Taipei Air Station website, which was actually the predecessor to his blog. It also is a goldmine of information and photos. I should mention that both of his sites cover far more than just Taipei Air Station. You can find historical information about the Taipei area as well as other U.S. military units that were in Taiwan. Please note that Kent is organizing another trip for veterans to visit Taiwan for a few days during November 2011. I'm sure that he'd be pleased to add your name to the list.

Finally, I want to thank each and every one of the more than 63,000 visitors to the USTDC blog for dropping by here every now and then. I especially want to thank the many folks who have contributed so much here. I don't want to risk offending anyone by inadvertently omitting a name, but you all know who you are. This blog would have died long ago if not for you. It has been a tremendous pleasure corresponding with each and every one of you. I have made many good friends here and I am most grateful for the opportunity.

May the good people of Taiwan continue to enjoy a lasting peace and the freedom to determine their own destiny.

The Canal

2011-01-09T20:55:00.000-06:00

Back in 2008, Sarj Bloom submitted several photographs that he took during Typhoon Gloria in 1963.

He just sent me some more information that he's discovered using Google Earth:

While looking for the Canal that ran north and south east of TDC I remembered that one of the photos I took of Typhoon Gloria '63 was taken looking north towards the east of TDC. See location photo from Google Earth.

A friend of mine told me that the Canal is still there it just runs under the new raised highway. Sure enough I even confirmed it with a Google Earth photo of the water under the Highway.

Anyway I got my photo out and then tried to match it the best I could looking North from the new Highway that goes over the Canal.

Both photos are looking north and you can see the mountains that run behind Club 63 and the Grand Hotel. I think I got the approximate position on Google Earth to represent my photo.

I was a few blocks north of Nanjing E. Rd. or what we called Nan King E. Rd. Our intention was to walk to TDC that day but had to turn around because of the canal overflowing the road, as you can see in the 1963 photo if you look up near the trucks. Also you can see the canal on the right is hardly in it's banks.

That had to be a lot of heavy construction to contain that canal and then build a raised highway over it. Most of all, look at all the big buildings that have been constructed since those days.

Amazing what time can do.

Sarj

Kind Words

2011-01-02T05:00:00.001-06:00

Every now and then I receive an email that just makes my day. This very nice note from Mr Qian S T was one of those.

I am a foreign Chinese and a frequent traveler to Taiwan in the 70s.

I write to submit my humble thanks to you people for the enormous contribution and personal sacrifice you all made to underwrite and bolster democratic rule for the Chinese race, without which the entire Chinese race would have long since been subjugated under godless tyranny of the Chicoms. My profound gratitude.

And thanks for the great nostalgic fotos of Taipei in the 60s-70s

Long Live America. Truly you guys live up to your credo: Land of the Free and Brave.

Your courage, conviction and sacrifice has changed the face of this Earth for the better. Without you guys Earth would have developed into a nightmarish vision of one-third USSR, one-third Nazi Reich and one-third Japanese Empire.

Linders Depart Taipei

2011-01-01T11:26:00.000-06:00

On April 28, 1979, Rear Admiral and Mrs. Linder departed Taipei following the closure of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command. I believe that the officer to the left of RADM Linder is LCDR Skip Wright, the admiral's aide at USTDC.

Photo courtesy of Scott Ellinger

Mrs. Linder at Quarters A -- Then and Now

2010-12-28T18:55:00.000-06:00

As I wrote a few days ago, Patricia Linder, the wife of Rear Admiral James Linder recently returned to Taipei for a few days. While there, she visited what used to be "Quarters A," the official residence of the USTDC Commander.

Scott just sent me these photos that were taken more than 30 years apart at the front gate to the residence.

West Compound 1958

2010-12-27T05:00:00.002-06:00

Here's another clip from 1958 showing the dispensary in the west compound. Click HERE to watch the short video. Notice the sign in this photo from the clip. It was straight ahead from the west compound entrance and near the back of the compound. It displayed different things over the years, but the sign itself remained, probably until the compounds were destroyed.

That brings up another question that I've had for some time. Does anyone happen to know when the east and west compounds, along with the USTDC building, were demolished?

Red Cross at MAAG Compound in 1958

2010-12-26T18:44:00.000-06:00

Scott Ellinger alerted me to a great commercial website for historical videos. It's at criticalpast.com and they offer thousands of old government films. All of the films have samples that you can view at the website.

This afternoon I found one from 1958 of the American Red Cross in Taiwan during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. It shows the hospital in the west compound. A Red Cross Gray Lady comes out of the building. She goes to the Exchange in the east compound and shops inside, apparently with a shopping list of things for people at the hospital. She pays cash at the counter, gets into a pedicab and returns to the west compound. She enters the hospital, talks to servicemen and delivers items to them. A serviceman lying in bed pays her for the cigarettes. This is the only image I've seen of the inside of the Exchange. Of course this was 1958 and it had probably changed some by the time I got there in the 1970s.

Click on the above image to see the video.

Back to the Old Neighborhood

2010-12-26T05:00:00.007-06:00

Sarj Bloom recently sent me some photos that show how much his old neighborhood has changed since he lived there in the early 1960s.

This is a photo I took from the same neighborhood that I took the Opera and Story teller photos. The first photo is of a rice field across the street during Typhoon Amy, before things got too bad to be outside. The other photo is of children and other residents at another time.

I knew it as Min Sin E. Rd. but the spelling has changed so much now. It was hard for me to finally locate the area on Google Earth. I believe I have it now. It is Minsheng E. Rd. I have a couple of images from Google Earth and I am pretty sure this is the same building that I lived in for a few months. I lived in the second floor apartment and another sailor lived in the 3rd floor. The first photo is what I believe was my apartment and the second photo is looking directly across the street from there.

If indeed this is the same building and area you can see the changes that occur in almost 50 years. I'm amazed and I'm sure that some of the blog visitors from Taipei will be amazed also.

Here's a story about that day of the Typhoon. The back part of the apartment had two walls of glass panes that went from ceiling to waist high. There was a section that was about 6 feet long and then another section that went the length of kitchen, bath and water heater area which was a good 12 feet. I often thought that it was odd to have all glass and thought that maybe it was cheaper than using brick.

Anyway, during the storm my wife and I could see the long section of glass panes bowing in and out and we were afraid it would break and throw glass everywhere. We went to the front of the apartment far from the panes of glass and stayed there. Just as we got settled we heard a crash and thought our wall of glass boke. We stole a peek and saw that it wasn't ours but we heard screaming upstairs.

We went upstairs to see if we could help and sure enough their wall had given way and the Navy guy had pieces of glass sticking in his chest and stomach. He and his wife had both been drinking and didn't seem to feel any pain. I asked if I could help and he said they were okay. I went back down to our apartment and got back in our safe zone. We could still hear the guy and his wife arguing.

We moved to another apartment soon after this. I had never seen anything like that entire wall going in and out like it was breathing.

Ground Surveys from Grass Mountain -- 1958

2010-12-23T05:00:00.000-06:00

I was recently contacted by retired Air Force Major John J. Molitaris, Jr. John was part of a ground survey team at the top of Grass Mountain in 1958. Here's his account of that deployment:

My experience on Grass Mountain occurred as a member of the 1370 Photo Mapping Group, home based at Palm Beach AFB, Florida. The basic mission was to upgrade previous ground surveys conducted with tripods and sextants.

The group consisted of four (4) squadrons: (1) 1371 Sqdn – RB-50 (4-engine bomber) Operations, (2) 1372 Sqdn – Logistics Support, (3) 1373 Sqdn – Data Analysis, and (4) 1374 Sqdn – Radar Ground Stations. I was a member of the 1374^th which deployed remote ground station teams consisting an E-5/E-6 Electronic Tech Chief (3073), E-3/E-4 Electronic Tech Deputy Chief (3053), E3 thru E-5 Ground Radio Operator, and an E-3 thru E-5 Ground Power Operator/Maintenance man. Each team member was cross trained in the other disciplines to maintain operational status in the event of illness or medical evacuation. Survey missions involved two ground stations with a RB-50 flying between them at several altitudes. Surveys were accomplished with the Short Range Navigation (SHORAN) radar. Site deployments usually lasted three to six months. I was the E-4 Electronic Tech when I deployed to the Grass Mountain site in March 1958 for three months.

Grusome-11 was housed in the wooden Formosa Government fire watcher hut located on top of Grass Mountain. The site required portable AC/DC power generators, UHF/HF radio sets, 55 gallon barrels of drinkable water and aviation gasoline, 5 in 1 field rations and folding cots. The only road ran beyond the Grass Mountain Hostel to an elevation of 2,500 feet (approximate). Laborers were paid to sling all the site items on bamboo poles another 2,500 feet up a narrow trail. The fifty (50) foot Receive/Transmit antenna mast was quite visible on clear days.

Our contingent was certainly a curiosity to the local citizens and especially the university students who hiked up to the site often. We were able to exchange cultural facts about US and Formosa because the students spoke English reasonably well. I still remember going outside in the mornings to see we were above the clouds and listening to the Formosa Army artillery practice echoing through the mountain ranges.

I remember the Grass Mountain Hostel well. It was the great R & R escape from a cold hut, 5 in 1 rations, AND bathing in a dish washing tub with the cold wind blowing in around the windows. 5 in 1 rations beat out C-rations but couldn’t touch the filet mignon with eggs breakfast at the Hostel. Those dual temperature hot sulfer tubs were the greatest once you learned how to use them. It was embarrassing the first time when I stayed too long and my 195 pounds had to be rescued by 2-3 staff. The only downside occurred when I and my Argus camera wandered down the road towards the mountain residence of Chiang Kai-shek. The sudden appearance of an air-cooled 30 caliber machine gun was a heart stopper. Grass Mountain was one of the top deployments of my enlisted service.

Unfortunately the slides I took on Grass Mountain were misplaced or lost.

John J. Molitaris, Jr.
Major, USAF (Ret.)

Taiwan Visit of USS Wasp in 1954

2010-12-22T05:00:00.001-06:00

On 10 January 1954, Taiwan's Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek spent more than four hours on board the USS Wasp watching simulated air war maneuvers in Formosan waters.

USS Wasp (CV-18) in 1954

The following are Kwei family photos of that event. Note that Vice Admiral Alfred M. Pride was Commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and became the First Commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command.


Chiang Kai-shek is wearing the overcoat. To his right is VADM Pride and to VADM Pride's right is GEN Kwei Yung-ching. GEN Kwei was the Chief of the General Staff, highest ranking general below Chiang Kai-shek.


Ambassador Rankin and VADM Pride


VADM Pride and Taiwan VADM Soong


Major General Chase (MAAG Chief) and VADM Pride

Chiang Ching-kuo reviewing U.S. Marine guards aboard the USS Wasp

FASD Hostel Opening

2010-12-21T05:00:00.008-06:00

Today's video, courtesy of Wang Chun, shows the opening of the FASD Hostel on August 26, 1963. I believe that this was the older of the two hostels that were there during my assignment in 1973-74. I lived in the newer one, which was located behind this building.

The quality of these old film clips isn't good, and this one has no sound track, but I think it's important that they be available to the public for historical purposes.

Mr. Wang wrote:

Taipei FASD Hostel was built and operated by Combined Logistics Command, CLC （聯勤總部）.
The Chinese general in this clip is Lai Min Tong（賴名湯）. He was the commanding general of CLC then. And in the subsequent decade he became commander of Chinese Air Force and finally climed up to the top of the whole military structure. It's something like Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff in US. In Chinese, we call it 「參謀總長」.
As for the American general in this clip, I think it is Maj Gen Kenneth O. Sanborn.
After American military withdrew out of Taiwan, CLC converted FASD Hostel to a civil hostel and opened to the public. In early 1980's, I've joined a wedding banquet in former FASD Hostel restaurant which was called ''Rainbow Hall''（彩虹廳）.

VADM Baumberger Addresses Taipei Rotary Club

2010-12-20T05:00:00.003-06:00

Wang Chun has provided numerous audio and video files to this blog over the past couple of years or so.

Today's video is from July 4th, 1972. Vice Admiral Walter H. Baumberger, USTDC Commander from August 1970 through September 1972, addresses the Taipei Rotary Club.

Footsteps in Taiwan Videos

2010-12-19T09:47:00.000-06:00

Kent Mathieu, owner of the Taipei Air Station blog, has posted two ten-minute videos of his walk-through at the American Footsteps in Taiwan exhibition in Taipei. You can view them HERE.

Chiang Ching-kuo

2010-12-19T05:00:00.000-06:00


Photo courtesy of Sarj Bloom

Sarj sent me this photograph a few days ago. He wasn't positive how he came into possession of it but he says the individual on the left is Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Chiang Kai-shek. The man on the right appears to be a police officer. Does anyone have any idea who he is or where this photo was taken?

American Footsteps in Taiwan Images

2010-12-18T05:00:00.043-06:00

Lieutenant Colonel Scott Ellinger just sent me several great pictures of the American Footsteps in Taiwan exhibition that opened in Taipei on December 17th. You can read about the event on the AIT website and there is a Chinese account on Yahoo News.

Patricia Linder was one of the speakers at the opening ceremony, traveling from her home here in the States for the occasion. Her husband was Rear Admiral James Linder, the last Commander of USTDC. I have long recommended her book "The Lady and the Tiger," an account of her experiences during their assignment in Taiwan.

Many of you will see some familiar photographs and memorabilia on display.

The USTDC emblem that was mounted on the building

Mrs Linder and President Ma

Mrs Linder addresses the audience

The exhibition will continue through January 24th. If you live in Taiwan, especially anywhere near Taipei, you'll certainly want to drop by the National Central Library and view this amazing collection of historical items and information.

RADM Linder Presides Over Final Retreat Ceremony

2010-12-17T05:00:00.017-06:00

On April 28, 1979, the U.S. flag was lowered for the last time in front of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command. Rear Admiral James Linder, USTDC Commander, presided over this ceremony, just as he'd already done at other U.S. military units in Taiwan. Marine SSG D. J. Gemmecke lowered the colors.

Shortly after the ceremony, Admiral and Mrs. Linder departed the country.

Photo courtesy of LTC Scott Ellinger

The building to the left of the flagpole was (as I recall) a Chinese military barracks. When we raised our flag each morning, two soldiers carried their flag from that building over to the ROC flagpole that was located to the right, directly across the parking lot from the pole in this photograph.

When everyone was in place, one member of each team (the junior in rank) stepped up on his platform and hooked up his flag. The BMC (Chief Boatswain's Mate) stood next to the bell at the TDC main entrance. He had a radio tuned to a local station that played a series of beeps at precisely 8:00 AM. He'd then ring the bell eight times and both flags were quickly raised. The person who raised the flag would then step off the platform, stand beside his partner and join him in the salute. At that point, the BMC blew his whistle three times and both teams lowered their salutes and marched back to their respective buildings.

American Footsteps in Taiwan Exhibition

2010-12-16T08:45:00.001-06:00

The "American Footsteps in Taiwan" exhibition will open at the National Central Library in Taipei on Friday, December 17th and continue through Monday, January 24th. President Ma Ying-jeou will make opening remarks, as will Mr. William A. Stanton, Director of the Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Mrs. Patricia Linder, wife of Rear Admiral James Linder, will also speak at the opening ceremony on Friday. Admiral Linder was the last Commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command.

The exhibit contains information and artifacts of the American presence in Taiwan from 1950 until 1979. Several Taiwan veterans, including readers of this blog, have provided a number of items that are on display. LTC Scott Ellinger has worked very hard on the military cooperation section of the exhibit and has expressed his gratitude to all those who helped make it possible.

As I receive more information, videos or photographs, I'll pass them along. A copy of the pamphlet from the exhibition appears below.

Assignment Taiwan -- 1965

2010-12-11T16:23:00.000-06:00

This "Big Picture" documentary, produced by the U.S. Army in 1965, gives an overview of the cooperation between the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) and the Taiwan military. The film runs about 28 minutes.

Families and Memories

2010-12-02T05:11:00.003-06:00

As regular readers know, Sarj Bloom was a photographer at USTDC during the early 1960s and has provided many great photographs and memories to this blog during the past two or three years.

He recently sent me these photos and comments and agreed to let me share them with you:

This is photo of my wife and me on the day we left Taiwan during late September or early October, 1963. We were standing outside the Omega Hotel that was located on the circle that lead to downtown. We were to leave right after this photo to catch our Ship the "General Mann" in Keelung to travel back to the States.

My wife and I are on the right and my mother-in-law, who just passed at the age of 101 last week, is on the left with her husband who passed in 1972. In the back is her aunt and uncle and a nephew that I also knew very well.

Maybe someone will remember the Omega Hotel. It was built around a garden and was Japanese style with tatamis, paper doors, etc. I really like that style.

Last week Apo (Chinese for grandma) passed away at the age of 101. She was the mother of my first wife, whom I married in Taiwan in November, 1962. She was also the grandmother of my 12 grandchildren and attended every family gathering graduation and other events.

She was born September 30, 1909. She lived in mainland China and during the Communist takeover, she and her family fled to Taiwan. She eventually came to the States where she lived with her daughters in Maryland. She got lost so many times in the malls that we made her carry a note telling who to call. She was generous and sometimes gave things to the kids that didn't belong to her. We all loved her and her servant's heart. She lived as we are all called to live, thinking of others instead of ourselves.

This is a wonderful family photo of her taken with her brothers and sisters when she was a young lady. She is in the back row on the right. Most likely, this photo was taken in Canton Provence.

I took this photo of her at my grandson's high school graduation in Maryland around eight years ago.

I feel so blessed, as do my children and grandchildren, to have such a wonderful family made up of two cultures. I don't think of it as two races. We have overcome language barriers and the younger generations now all speak English. Even now we have one of the grandsons that can understand Hakka, an almost forgotten language of Southeast Asia. Grandma and her children spoke this most of the time, though they could still speak Mandarin.

List of Military Assistance Advisory Group Chiefs

2010-11-28T12:30:00.001-06:00

Scott Ellinger has assembled the complete list of MAAG Chiefs from 1951 to 1979. At the end of the list are photographs of all of them.

There was a brief period in 1958 when USTDC and MAAG were combined, but it was ultimately determined that this structure was neither as efficient nor as effective as two separate entities. The Communist Chinese artillery attacks on Quemoy and Matsu during August of that year were largely responsible for the return to the former command structure.

蔡斯少將 MG William C. Chase: May 1951 - Jun 1955

史邁斯少將 MG George W. Smythe: Jun 1955 - Sep 1956

鮑恩少將 MG Frank S. Bowen: Sep 1956 - Jul 1958

杜安少將 MG L. L. Doan: Jul 1958 - Aug 1960

戴倫少將 MG Chester A. Dahlen: Aug 1960 - Aug 1962

桑鵬少將 Maj Gen Kenneth O. Sanborn: Aug 1962 - Aug 1965

江森少將 MG Dwight B. Johnson: Aug 1965 - Jun 1967

戚烈拉少將 MG Richard G. Ciccolella: Jun 1967 - Mar 1970

泰勒少將 MG Livingston N. Taylor: Mar 1970 - Dec 1971

巴恩斯少將 MG John W. Barnes: Dec 1971 - Dec 1973

那水德少將 MG Slade Nash: Dec 1973 - Jun 1976

馮納准將 BG Leslie R. Forney Jr.: Jun 1976 - Sep 1977

崔仕克上校 CAPT Ace F. Trask: Dec 1977 - Jul 1978

湯普遜上校 Col Hadley N. Thompson: Jun 1978 - Feb 1979

CCK Home Movies

2010-11-27T07:16:00.000-06:00

In a comment to an earlier post, Hank alerted me to another home movie (two, actually) of Ching Chuan Kang (CCK) Air Base during the 1960s.

TDC Chief of Staff Videos

2010-11-25T15:23:00.000-06:00

Wang Chun has provided a lot of very interesting material for the blog in the past, and he just sent me two great videos showing Brigadier General William C. Burrows' arrival and departure from Taiwan (1972 and 1974) and a video of Brigadier General Clarence J. Douglas' departure from Taiwan in August, 1972. Both of these generals served as the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command Chief of Staff.

Because I had no other photographs of either General Burrows or General Douglas, I added these videos to the blog entry for USTDC Chiefs of Staff.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T11:34:00.001-06:00

And to my friends in Taiwan and elsewhere around the world, 感恩節快樂

T - Turkeys, tablespreads, being together,
H - Happiness and homes to protect us from all weather,
A - Aunts and uncles, a reunion in Fall,
N - Nieces and nephews, family members all!
K - Kind-hearted kin coming over for dinner,
S - Surely you'll have fun, but you won't get thinner!
G - Gourds and pumpkins, mouths open wide.
I - Indians and Pilgrims we remember with pride.
V - Very special times-there could even be snow.
I - Imagine what it was like at Plymouth long ago.
N - Never forget how the settlers led the way,
G - Giving thanks and blessing this special day.
- Author Unknown

I hope that you can enjoy Thanksgiving in the warm company of family and friends. Despite all of life's ups and downs, we all have much to be thankful for.

New Photos of Admirals

2010-11-21T19:18:00.000-06:00

Sarj Bloom, who was one of the USTDC photographers, has provided many great photos for the blog during the past couple of years or so. He recently sent me these three, which were probably taken during May of 1962.

Major General Sanborn, USTDC Chief of Staff (left) and Vice Admiral Melson, USTDC Commander (second from right). I don't know who the ROC officers are.

Vice Admiral and Mrs. Smoot departing Taiwan

(l to r) Vice Admiral Smoot, probably the Chief of MAAG Taiwan, and Vice Admiral Melson

USTDC Chiefs of Staff

2010-11-13T05:00:00.010-06:00

I recently posted the complete list of all the admirals who served as USTDC Commander (Thanks again, Scott!). Historically, the Air Force assigned a brigadier general as Chief of Staff to each of the USTDC Commanders. Quite some time ago, I posted a nearly complete list of those generals as well.

Unfortunately, as I was posting the list of admirals, I somehow managed to delete the list of generals. I've been able to reassemble most of them from their official biographies. I've included photographs when they were available. Some of these officers were promoted after leaving TDC but they were all brigadier generals while serving as TDC Chief of Staff.

If anyone can provide the missing names or photographs, I'd be most grateful.

Lieutenant General Harold Winfield Grant

January 1955 - April 1957

Major General Harold Huntley Bassett
1957 - 1958

Major General Neil D. Van Sickle
Oct 1958 - 1959

Brigadier General William G. Lee Jr.
1959 - 1960

Major General Robert Francis Worden
Aug 1960 - Aug 1962

Brigadier General Frederick J. Sutterlin
23 Aug 1962 - Aug 1964

Major General Kenneth O. Sanborn
1964-1967

Lieutenant General Carlos M. Talbott
May 1967 - Jul 1968

Brigadier General John A. Des Portes
Jul 1968 - Sep 1970

Brigadier General Clarence J. Douglas Jr.
Sep 1970 - Aug 1972

Major General William C. Burrows
Aug 1972 - Jul 1974

Brigadier General David O. Williams Jr.
Jun 1974 - Apr 1976

Brigadier General Dan A. Brooksher
Apr 1976 - Jul 1978

A Taiwanese Memory After World War II

2010-11-12T05:00:00.010-06:00

In my memory while I was the student of the elementary school, some of my classmates, girls or boys, had no shoes to protect their feet when they went to school in the summer or in the winter, no matter rainy day or sunny day. But, I was lucky although my shoes were not new and they were my aunt's old shoes.

After WWII in Taiwan, not only US Aid from US government but also many aid items from American people that I could see in the church, including clothes, medicines, food ( milk powder, wheat groats), etc. In elementary schools, all the students could enjoy the milk about 500 cc every week. The younger girls and boys in nursery school of the church could enjoy the hot and sweet food of wheat groats. Some of the students in elementary school who had eyes illness could accept medicine treatment ( kind of ointment in tube) every day.

My grandfather who passed away about 20 years ago was a grower of pine trees in the mountains of the middle Taiwan when I was a little girl.

In my memory, he sent US Army a lot of pine trees before Christmas was coming in December every year and US Army gave my grandfather some bags of flour and wheat groats as gifts. At that time, my grandmother and mom used the flour to make many steamed buns and delicious dumplings for meals, sometimes, I could take some at home and shared with my friends happily when we were hungry after school. I knew the flour was from USA because I saw the US flag printed on the outside of the bag.

In my heart and feeling, the friendship between Taiwanese people and USA was warm and so kind. USA government was really friendly helping Taiwanese people to restore their living since WWII was over.

However, I hope that USA would never forget the relationship with Taiwan and the people of Taiwan island.

Written by a Taiwanese

RADM Linder Photos and Items

2010-11-11T05:00:00.013-06:00

Rear Admiral James B. Linder was the last Commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command. He served in that position from August 1977 until April 1979.

RADM Linder accomplished one of the most difficult missions bestowed upon any commander -- to terminate an official command and close down all subordinate commands as well. He accomplished this mission under the most difficult and contentious circumstances imaginable. The switching of diplomatic relations from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China evoked great anger and sadness from the people of Taiwan. Despite major challenges from numerous sources, he accomplished his tasks skillfully and professionally and departed on the best of terms with his Taiwan counterparts and colleagues.

Official photo

RADM Linder receiving award from ADM Soong (MND CGS)
(NOTE: This plaque and photo will be displayed at the American
Footsteps in Taiwan exhibition in December 2010 and January 2011)

(left to right) RADM Linder, Queenie Yao and

General Yao (Taiwan Air Force Commander)

Citation to accompany the award of RADM Linder's
Defense Superior Service Medal

RADM Linder's press release biography
prepared by the USTDC Public Affairs Office

Admiral Linder and his wife retired in the Southwestern United States. He passed away on 23 April, 2009.

Quarters "A" Interior Photos

2010-11-10T05:00:00.006-06:00

Last September I wrote about Quarters A, the official residence of the admirals who commanded the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command. Patricia Linder's husband, RADM James Linder, was the last USTDC Commander and she wrote extensively about the place in her excellent book, "The Lady and the Tiger."

Mrs. Linder has kindly provided these great photographs showing the interior of the house as it appeared during the late 1970s. She wrote, "As the wife of the TDC Commander, I was privileged to live in Quarters A on Yangmingshan Mountain. Not only was it architecturally beautiful, it provided the warmth of a real home. Good friendships were formed during the many dinners that characterized the social aspect of my husband's command of TDC. We left with cherished memories."

This last photo shows Hogo (the quarters houseboy) and a guard standing at the entrance gate to the residence.

Sergeant Major Veasey

2010-11-09T05:00:00.025-06:00

Christy Veasey, daughter of SGM Ronald E. Veasey, provided several items for the American Footsteps in Taiwan exhibition and has graciously consented to let me show them here as well.

SGM Ronald E. Veasey was assigned to the US MAAG with the Southern Advisory Team in Kaohsiung from 1968 to 1970. SGM Veasey was a veteran of the Vietnam War and served at the US Military Assistance Advisory Group in Saigon. He and his family lived in the Kaohsiung HSA housing area located just outside Tsoying Naval Base.

SGM Veasey is seen in the photos below going through the final Jump Master Personnel Inspection (JMPI) prior to a jump with a Taiwan Airborne unit. Taiwan Army LTC Chang is performing the JMPI.

SGM Veasey's certificate of appreciation from the Taiwan 2nd Field Army, both in English and Chinese, signed by LTG Hou Cheng-ta.

SGM Veasey's certificate of appreciation from the US MAAG Army Section Chief, COL Clifford.

SGM Veasey is seen in the lower left-hand corner and in the OH-6 chopper seat in the "Taiwan Loyalty Newspaper," Fengshan Edition. Fengshan is located east of Kaohsiung and home of the Taiwan Airborne Training Center.

After Taiwan, SGM Veasey was reassigned to Germany, where he was promoted to Command Sergeant Major. He retired at Fort Benning, Georgia after 27 years of service. He passed away in 1994 and he and his wife are interred at the Main Post Cemetery at Fort Benning.

List of USTDC Commanders

2010-11-08T10:54:00.002-06:00

Many thanks to LTC Scott Ellinger for his research into the identities of all ten admirals who served as Commander, U.S. Taiwan Defense Command (COMUSTDC). Following this list is a photograph of each admiral.

(殷格索中將) VADM Stuart H. Ingersoll: Nov 1955 - Jul 1957

(竇亦樂中將) VADM Austin K. Doyle: Jul 1957 - Jul 1958

(史慕德中將) VADM Roland N. Smoot: Jul 1958 - May 1962

(梅爾遜中將) VADM Charles L. Melson: May 1962 - Jul 1964

(耿特納中將) VADM William E. Gentner Jr.: Jul 1964 - Jul 1967

(邱約翰中將) VADM John L. Chew: Jul 1967 - Aug 1970

(包柏格中將) VADM Walter H. Baumberger: Aug 1970 - Sep 1972

(貝善誼中將) VADM Philip A. Beshany: Sep 1972 - Aug 1974

(史奈德中將) VADM Edwin K. Snyder: Aug 1974 - Aug 1977

(林德少將) RADM James B. Linder: Aug 1977 - Apr 1979

Click on the image below to view the full-sized version.

American Footsteps in Taiwan

2010-11-07T15:05:00.003-06:00

Another find by TitoJohn: This is a small portion of the American Footsteps in Taiwan exhibit being displayed this year in Taiwan.

Slides of Taiwan 1968-69

2010-11-06T15:05:00.001-05:00

Titojohn found this YouTube presentation that was put together by a former Air Force guy who was stationed in Taipei during 1968-69.

Bill Kling Memories

2010-11-05T17:56:00.000-05:00

Some time ago I received a note from Bill Kling, who spent a lot of time in Taiwan during the 1970s. He described his experiences in some detail and I'm pleased to post some of those comments here today. Any errors or omissions are mine.

I first heard of Taipei when I was in Vietnam. In March of 1971, I asked for Sydney, Australia, for my R and R (Rest and Recuperation) leave. However, my orders came back for a week in Taipei, Taiwan, instead. I was not happy, but since it was time away from Vietnam and my buddy got the same orders, I decided to go. While on R and R I met some other GIs and they convinced me that I should try to get assigned to Grass Mountain Tech Control.

During that R and R I remember frequenting the Sea Dragon and 63 Clubs run by MAAG and really enjoyed myself. I played golf at Tamsui, visited Green Lake, Wulai and generally left the island happy that the Army redirected my R&R to Taipei.

After my Vietnam tour I returned to the States. Then one day I was told I would be on orders soon and it was suggested that I fill out a “dream sheet’ to improve my chances of a good assignment. Of course I asked for Taiwan, Hawaii or Thailand, and of course everyone laughed at me and said, “No one ever reads those things.” In about a month I got orders for Taiwan -- very lucky for a young, married E-5 to get an accompanied, overseas assignment.

After receiving letters from my sponsor, I packed and shipped my furniture and away we flew to Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) airport to take a military charter flight to Sung Shan Air Base. I got lucky at Sea-Tac as I met the Command Sergeant Major from MAAG who was returning from leave. He was in charge of the 63 Club. I do not remember his name now, but we ended up becoming good friends. He helped me get into Bank of Taiwan housing in sixty days when the waiting list was normally nine months. He showed me how to manage my moving while living in a guest house upon arrival on the island. My sponsor put me in the Formosa Guest House at what we thought was a good rate, however I was moved to the Taiwan Guest House, a bigger place and one third cheaper.

My next challenge was to buy a car, but I didn’t have much money. I had to decide between a very small new car called a Daihatsu, or buy a used one from someone who was leaving Taiwan. Two friends and I decided to buy the new one. After two months on the island, I had a Chinese identification card, Chinese drivers license, ration cards for liquor and the PX and had been assigned a shift at Grass Mountain Tech Control.

I began taking college courses from the University of Maryland in September 1973 and took two courses per semester during my remaining time on Taiwan. I'm not sure how I had time for all of this but I also joined a bowling team and played for the Grass Mountain “Outlaws” softball team.

During 1974 and until August 1975 in addition to my work, schooling, and sports some of the many highlights included being part of a Dragon Dance team, Chinese Dragon boat team, seeing a “Double Ten" nighttime celebration and a very large July 4^th fireworks display at Taipei American school. I took trips to Seoul, Korea, Clark Air Base in the Philippines, and I also volunteered to go to Vietnam to assist in communications support during the last days of our involvement there during March/April 1975.

But it was time to leave and I was extended for operational needs two months beyond the normal tour. Our last several months consisted of learning what a “chop man” was, buying teakwood furniture, buying carpets, handicrafts, and saying good bye to the many American and Chinese friends we made during that time. I am still in contact with the family that ran the first guest house we stayed in when we arrived on the island.

So during by Taipei tour I got promoted to E-6, accumulated two years of college credits, a house full of furniture, put some money in the bank, and made new friends. But now I was leaving for Ft. Huachuca, Arizona wondering what this assignment would bring.

After a year or so back in the States, I went to the USACC personnel department to see if I could get reassigned. Again, I was very fortunate as the personnel sergeant was my former supervisor from Vietnam. I asked him to find me an assignment where I could use my skills, of course asking for only the most popular locations and he said he would see what he could do. Well, to my surprise, about a month later I called in to my company First Sergeant who wanted to know what friends I had in high places. He then told me that I had been assigned back to USACC Taiwan. With the troop level being reduced to only a few hundred personnel how lucky was this for me?

In January 1977 I was headed back to the island I knew so well. I could tell as soon as I arrived that things had changed. Instead of over 7,000 U. S. military on Taiwan there were now less than 1,500. There was no waiting list for Bank of Taiwan Housing, plenty of appliances to buy in the PX, the China Seas Club was never crowded, and the education center had reduced the number of classes they offered. When I arrived at the Grass Mountain facility I was now a trick chief, but instead of 6 or 7 on a shift there was only 3. While being very glad to be back, there was a sad feeling that only grew during my tour.
The good times with good friends were still there but the small things gradually changed the atmosphere. Some of the changes were the morning briefing to the Commander of USACC was now done by voice order wire, not in person; the detachment at Grass Mountain moved downtown to the HSA compound; the Autovon switch was deactivated and shipped to Okinawa; the hours of the snack bar and PX were reduced; the Tien Mou swimming pool was empty; I could go on and on.
By June of 1977 we were training local nationals to do the job previously performed by USACC. This was difficult as I trained locals in Vietnam before we there in 1972. I couldn’t help making the comparison. I still think of Mr. Chen, Mr. Wu, and Mike Chiang often. Many of my Chinese friends were now asking, When are ALL of you leaving,? I just laughed it off saying that we will always be here, but the United States is reducing forces across Asia.

The tour continued as we accomplished our mission with fewer personnel. We had a typhoon and an earthquake in 1977. That, combined with a major submarine cable cut to Okinawa, made for a very fast year.

By the time 1978 rolled around our local national friends were doing the bulk of our work. The Defense Communications Agency reduced our reporting requirements from every 8 hours to every 24 hours. We really felt the end was near, as the amount of our normal work was greatly reduced. We now disconnected equipment and packed it up to be shipped off the island. It was now an effort to get enough guys to complete our softball teams, Shu Linkou Air Station was closed, Taipei Air Station was in caretaker status, and by July 1978 USACC was down to approximately 150 personnel. Still, life went on. I still went to the Tien Mou Mongolian Barbecue regularly, got video tapes to watch on my Sony Betamax, and of course I continued on with school.

In January 1979, we were living in the guest house and were concerned about riots and protests. A friend had his car burned at the China Seas Club, another friend was attacked, but fortunately he just got a few bumps and bruises. We were very cautious, but in a few days things calmed down. Most of us now shared rides to work, or took a military shuttle. I thought after all these years that the good duty stations were all going away. Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Iran, and Ethiopia all closed for Tech Control personnel. I was feted to a going away party by a few close military and Chinese friends. So, finally my family and I left via the new CKS airport on January 28, 1979 and a few close Taiwanese families came to see us off.

Some time after I arrived at Ft. Huachuca (Arizona), I was told to report to a colonel who had a project for me: I was to help coordinate the final departure of men and equipment from Taiwan. It was an exciting and easy job. I helped whenever there was information concerning disposition of equipment, assisted other solders if they had problems with assignments, household goods, etc. I think we left Taiwan around April 28, 1979 and I left the Army on May 10, 1979.

Somehow Taiwan and I were destined to be linked. It is truly amazing to me to realize that from 1971-79 Taiwan played such a major role in my life. To this day I still have USACC and Chinese friends from 30 years ago. I have been back to the island three times since then, always on business, with the last trip in 2003.

Key Personnel - 1975

2010-10-31T15:46:00.001-05:00

Glenn in Taipei recently sent me some listings of United States key personnel working in Taipei, including those at USTDC and MAAG. These were published by The China News, which was Taiwan's first English paper (1949 or 1950), and which was followed by the China Post.

This is a portion of the listing for 1975 that names key personnel at USTDC, MAAG, NAMRU-2 and a few others. Click on the images to magnify them.

The Main Gate

2010-10-26T20:01:00.002-05:00

During 2008, United Tian Mu monthly magazine published a story about Charlie Hoppe, who was a 22 year old Intelligence Officer when he arrived at USTDC in 1956. He and his wife returned to Taipei in 2008 for a visit and he brought the photo shown below with him. Charlie took the photo in 1957 and it shows the gate at the entrance of TDC as it appeared at that time. Below that is a photo of the gate as it appeared during my tour in 1973-74. Just to the left of these gates was Hsinsheng North Road.

Many thanks to Ken A. (Linkou vet) and Les D. for providing these images.

CCK Film Clip

2010-10-24T19:13:00.000-05:00

My friend Klaus pointed me to this short YouTube video (narrated in German) of some American pilots and aircraft at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in 1976.

I believe that the F-4 fighter aircraft were probably detached from Kadena Air Base on Okinawa.

MAAG -- The Big Picture

2010-10-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

A big salute goes to LTC Scott Ellinger for locating this film from the 1950s television series, "The Big Picture." It runs about 28 minutes and describes the early efforts of the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in training the Nationalist forces on Taiwan. If you are unable to view it, click HERE to visit the website.

Walking Tours of Taipei

2010-09-30T17:45:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago I mention that Kent Mathieu (Taipei Air Station blog and website) has been posting videos to YouTube of his walks around Taipei. He has now done several of these videos, pointing out where things are (or used to be) located. The most recent video (30 Sep 2010) is a walk along Sung Shan North road in the vicinity of the hostels and HSA compounds.

You can find his videos HERE, and I've also added an item under "Taiwan Links of Interest" in the right-hand column of this blog. Look for "Kent Mathieu's walking tours of present-day Taipei."

Current Yangmingshan Housing Photos

2010-09-24T05:00:00.002-05:00

Scott has posted several great photos of the former Yangmingshan American military C-Area housing units. Click HERE to view the images.

Where Was This Sign?

2010-09-23T09:00:00.004-05:00

Old friend Marc told me about this photo that may have been taken sometime during the 1950s.

I don't remember this sign at all when I was there in 1973-74 and I'm wondering where it was located and what direction it was facing. I assume it was in or near the east or west compound. The arrows on the sign provide some clues, showing that the Club 63 and the hospital are to the left, with Finance and the commissary to the right. But the sign on the building to the left of the sign appears to read "Hospital," suggesting this was before the Naval Hospital was built in Tien Mou. Someone once commented here that the hospital was originally in one of the compounds until the new one was built. Was the Club 63 ever located somewhere near the compound area instead of just across the river and to the right of the Grand Hotel?

History of U.S. Military Assistance to Taiwan -- 1950-1959, Part 3

2010-09-22T09:00:00.002-05:00

Today I'm wrapping up the history of U.S. military assistance to Taiwan during the period 1950-1959. As I mentioned earlier, the source for this information was a Joint Chiefs of Staff report from 1961. It filled in a lot of gaps in the information I had and I hope that it does the same for readers of this blog as well.

One thing I neglected to mention yesterday is that while Vice Admiral Ingersoll was Commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command, he was also Commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, according to Naval records. That seems odd to me and I could find no explanation for it.

On 5 September 1958, as Communist pressure against the offshore islands continued to mount, CINCPAC informed the JCS that he must have a single commander in the Taiwan area who was directly responsible to him. CINCPAC then noted the proposed command relationships set forth in his plan to counter Chinese aggression in the vicinity of Taiwan without American use of nuclear weapons. Under this arrangement, the Commander, Taiwan Defense Command, would exercise operational control over the forces allocated for the execution of his assigned task. He was to exercise this control through the chief of the advisory group, the Commander, Taiwan Patrol Force, and the Commander, 13th Air Task Force (Provisional). The commander of the defense command also would coordinate the activities of American forces assigned to support his efforts. Finally, he was to coordinate the actions of American and Chinese Nationalist forces. (CINCPAC msg to JCS, 050330Z Sep 58 (CCS 381 Formosa, 11-8-48, Section 38A)

Three days later, in a message to the Chief of Naval Operations, CINCPAC elaborated upon his system of command relationships. The Air Force subordinate commander, he pointed out, would be assigned the responsibilities of Air Defense Commander. Should the JCS prefer to establish a joint task force to deal with the current emergency, CINCPAC would be equally satisfied. If such a task force were created, however, he would propose the Commander, Taiwan Defense Command, as its commander, with the Commander, Taiwan Patrol Force, as Navy task group commander, the Chief, Military Assistance Advisory Group, as Army task group commander, and the Commander 13th Air Task Force as Air Force task group and air defense commander. Whatever the arrangement, the chief of the advisory group would remain responsible for the functions of that organization (CINCPAC msg to CNO, 082010Z Sep 58 (CCS 381 Formosa, 11-8-48, Section 38A).

At their meeting on 9 September 1958, the Joint Chiefs of Staff concurred in the CINCPAC recommendation that the Commander, Taiwan Defense Command, become the commander of a unified subordinate command comprising all force assigned for the accomplishment of his mission. The JCS message sent on the following day designated the Chief, Military Assistance Advisory Group, as subordinate Army commander, the Commander, Taiwan Patrol Force, as subordinate Navy commander, and the Commander, 13th Air Task Force, as subordinate Air Force commander with responsibility as air defense commander. Advisory group personnel were excluded from the Army forces under the operational control of the Taiwan Defense Command (JCS 2118/114, Note by the Secretaries to the JCS on the Establishment of U.S. Taiwan Defense Command, with enclosure, dtd 10 Sep 58; JCS msg to ComNavPhil, JCS 947808, dtd 10 Sep 58 (CCS 381 Formosa, 11-8-48, Section 39).

While the American forces, except for the advisory group, were being brought under the operational control of the Taiwan Defense Command, the separation of the Military Assistance Advisory Group and the defense command staffs continued. On 24 September, the Commander, Taiwan Defense Command/Military Assistance Advisory Group directed the continuation on an interim basis of the organizational plan used during the recent emergency (ComUSTDC/MAAG Coordinating Authority Instruction 5400.4, dtd 24 Sep 58, Appendix 5 to Enclosure A to JCS 1259/436). CINCPAC, however, continued to urge completion of the consolidation begun in March 1958 (Enclosure A to JCS 1259/436).

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, unable to agree on the completion of the merger, on 8 May 1959 forwarded their views to the Secretary of Defense. The Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, objected to the consolidation because the two commands involved had radically different duties. Although they agreed that an operational command which excluded advisory personnel had been necessary during the 1958 crisis, they recommended that the Taiwan Defense Command be replaced by a planning and liaison group as soon as the existing tensions had eased. The Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps recommended the approval of the CINCPAC plan of consolidation, provided that, when the advisory group's duties were divided along functional staff lines, the separate service sections be retained as major subordinate staff components. Those who favored the proposal believed that its acceptance would simplify the military structure on Taiwan and of the Pacific unified command, establish a single headquarters to deal with the Chinese, simplify command lines and insure unity of effort, and reduce facilities as well as the number of Americans needed on Taiwan (JCSM 175-59 to SecDef, with appendices, dtd 8 May 59 (JMF 5166, 9 Jan 59).

The Secretary of Defense, after studying the divergent views and holding additional discussions with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed the Chairman on 15 June that consolidation did not appear desirable. On 8 July, the Joint Chiefs of Staff informed CINCPAC that the Taiwan Defense Command and the Military Assistance Advisory Group were to remain separate but that this decision did not affect CINCPAC's authority to select a senior officer at Taiwan as his representative (JCS 1259/477, Note by the Secretaries to the JCS on Consolidation of Command Structure on Taiwan, with enclosure, dtd 26 Jun 59; Decision on JCS 1259/477, dtd 8 Jul 59 JCS msg to CINCPAC,JCS 962043, dtd 8 Jul 59 (JMF 5166 9 Jan 59).

The decision to abandon the uncompleted program of consolidation had, in the opinion of CINCPAC, no effect on the existing Military Assistance Advisory Group agreement with the Nationalist Government. The principal change was the separation of military assistance activities from the Taiwan Defense Command, a planning and operational headquarters. The status of the defense command also was unchanged, save that its commander would have no additional responsibility toward the advisory group CINCPAC msg to AsstSecDef (Public Affairs), 010154Z Aug 59 (JMF 5166, 9 Jan 59).

Summary

The Military Assistance Advisory Group, Taiwan, encountered some opposition from Nationalist authority. The reorganization of the Chinese logistical effort, the decreasing of the authority of political commissars, and the attempt to convince higher echelons not to interfere in the conduct of their subordinates were elements of the American program that held little appeal for the Generalissimo. The advisors, however, did succeed in vastly increasing the Nationalist combat capability (Historical Division, JCS, History of the Formosa Situation, dtd 15 Sep 55, Series B, pp. 321-326).

Because of the need to coordinate Chinese and American efforts in defense of the island, the advisory group formed a liaison center, which was expanded by CINCPAC into the Taiwan Defense Command. The defense command provided CINCPAC with direct access to the Chinese high command and enabled him to keep abreast of Nationalist plans. Since it dealt primarily with planning for the Sino-American defense of Taiwan, attempts to enlarge the scope of the defense command to include the advisory group's duties of providing military assistance met with no success. The crisis of September 1958 emphasized the essential differences between the Taiwan Defense Command and the Military Advisory Group, and in the following year the Secretary of Defense decided that the two organization should not be consolidated.