EM Club Kaohsiung Memento

I recently received a note from Joseph "PAT" Halton, the son of Navy SH1 J.J. Halton, who was the Club Manager of the EM Club in Kaohsiung from 1962 until 1967.  Pat included a photo of the pennant that was presented to his father upon his departure from Taiwan. 

Pat wrote:  "I recently found one of my father's service mementos. It's a hand made pennant of "Deputy Dog" with a note thanking him for his service as Manager of EM Club Kaohsiung.  My oldest brother had it for years, unfortunately he passed away in '09; so after quite some time in "mothballs" this memento of our Dad's service is seeing the light of day for the first time in ages.  I just had to try and see if I could find out anything about it, or more importantly my father, or even the person who made it or the people he served with.

We lost my Dad back in 1972, and I remember seeing this pennant and how cool I thought it was. I will soon be mailing this to my youngest brother and am sending the information I found on Kaohsiung along with it. Maybe you or someone my Dad served with can add more:  'James Joseph Halton retired in the mid-60's after 24 years of service in the Navy. He was a Boatswain's Mate originally, but retired as a Ship's Serviceman First Class (SH1). He was originally from Colfax CA and retired in Carson City, NV. He served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.'

I am a 29-year Navy veteran and really appreciate you guys keeping our history going, so others may know. Thank you for your service and God Bless!!

Sincerely,
Joseph "PAT" Halton
CMDCM(SW), USN (Retired)"

I wrote a short article back in 2009 about the EM Club in Kaohsiung which you can find at THIS LINK.

Recalling the Early Days

I received a nice note from retired Navy CPO Joe Faszcza who was one of the early pioneers at USTDC, arriving in 1956. He was kind enough to provide a summary of his experiences from those times and here's what he had to say:

It was early December 1956 when I completed getting my shots at the Naval Station, Treasure Island (San Francisco) and was ready to begin the long journey to Formosa.

There were only "prop" planes in those days, so our first first stop was at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, for a couple of days and then it was on to Guam. The NCO club only opened for an hour each day from 1200 until 1300 where one could get a beer. Another couple of days and it was then on to Clark AFB in the Philippines. The only flights out of Clark to Taipei were on Tuesday and Thursday, so if you arrived on a Friday you were SOL until Tuesday. The seats on the flight were bucket seats and the lunches were always a sandwich and an apple.

What a shock to arrive at what the Taipei airport in those days. It looked like a lean-to shed to me. There was a Chinese military driver there to meet me. There were no paved roads; only dirt roads with big pot holes. Most of the traffic seemed to be ox carts where the driver scooped up the ox's s**t and shoveled it into the back of his cart.

A bus took me from the United States Taiwan Defense Command building up to Grass Mountain (Yangmingshan) where I was berthed. There were two hostels, a recreation building and a chow hall (closed mess). When you lost all your money playing the slots at Club 63, the closed mess would let you run a tab. The tea was free but peanut butter and banana sandwiches were $ .05. The phone number was sue-sue-limba 4412 I think! The hostels had double bunk beds and a community restroom and showers. Kerosense lamps provided the heat. Whenever the shuttle bus engine conked out, the driver would beat the engine with a hammer - but it worked!

TDC was located at the far end of Taipei off a road adjacent to a river (Tamsui?). There was a zoo nearby which housed chickens, roosters, and other "wild" animals. Also nearby was the Grand Hotel and the Club 63 was down the road.

I was a 20 year old E-3 assigned to J-1 (Personnel) with a Navy Commander as the Division Officer and a Navy Warrant as the Administrative Officer. Our big job was to publish the Plan of the Day.  We only had one stencil machine in the building and it was located in J-2 (Intelligence). The Legal Office was also located on the first floor. The Admiral, his Chief of Staff, and Comms were all located topside.

We worked and stood personal inspections wearing dungarees and a tee shirt. The motor pool, and sick bay (where you got those yellow pills for your burning sensations) were located behind the building. The Photo Lab was a Quonset hut. We used a barrel-like object made of what appeared to be chain link fencing for burning our classified documents.  We took turns turning the handle of the barrel to ensure nothing remained. The mail came in via ship at Keelung twice a week.

Many bars intersected the main drag (Chung Shin Pay Lou). I hung out at The Black Cat bar where mixed drinks, e.g. VO or CC, were about a quarter and a glass of ice was a nickel. The girls in the clubs earned their living by getting the customers to buy them drinks. If a girl left with you, it would cost you about $7.00. There was also a bar called "Dick's" and they had the best Mongolian barbeque one would taste.

There was a town nearby, called Paytoe, that had many hotels. They also had sulphur springs where one could take a hot sulphur bath and feel like Superman. Our valuables were very rarely looted.

We rode in the Admiral's plane for R&R flights to Hong Kong.  We could wear civies in Hong Kong but the fleet guys still  had to wear their uniforms. We were also able to ferry over to Kowloon. I bought a cashmere white dinner jacket for $25.00 and tailor made monogrammed silk shirts for $2.00 apiece. Dick, one of our shipmates, got caught by customs bringing in a suitcase full of glass frames. He got a special courts martial and restriction to the hostel for three months. His girlfriend used to come up to the hostel to visit him while he was on restriction.

Ed, another shipmate, got drunk and killed a local while driving back up the mountain. The locals rioted and we called it "Black Friday." They bussed us down to the compound and issued us weapons but nothing further happened.  Ed was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in Japan.

At 20 years of age, I spent most of my time drinking and partying until I ended up with a collapsed lung and was hospitalized at the MAAG clinic.  While there I met an Army guy from Chicago.  Both he and I spoke Polish and we used to break up our nurses by speaking to each other in Polish. On my last day at the clinic, one of the nurses admitted that she also spoke Polish and knew everything we were saying. One good thing did happen to me during that week in the clinic. I studied for advancement and shortly thereafter got promoted to E-4.

I left TDC in July 1959 and still communicate with two shipmates.  It's been over 56 years!

R&R in Taipei

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.

MAAG Officers Open Mess - Part Two

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

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.