Quarters A

We've had several discussions about Taipei area military housing during the past three years or so.  But there is one house that I don't think I've mentioned previously.  The Commander of USTDC and his family resided in what was called "Quarters A," high above the city.  Jenny Lee asked me about it a few days ago and I started looking around for its location.

Patricia Linder, wife of RADM James Linder, in her book "The Lady and the Tiger," wrote extensively about the place, including many humorous (and also some very serious) events that occurred there during their period of residence from 1977 until early 1980.

LTC Scott Ellinger was kind enough to identify the map coordinates for the former Quarters A (25.133202,121.542799), which I pasted into Google Maps for the images shown below.

This first image shows the location of Quarters A in relation to the HSA compound.  You can see the aircraft symbol at the old airport in this photo, the HSA compound was about two kilometers (by my reckoning) due west of the airport.  Well north of that location, appropriately labeled "A" in this image, is Quarters A.  As always on this blog, you can click on the images to expand them for easier viewing.

Below is a satellite photo of the building as it appears today.  When Pat saw this photo, she immediately recognized it, and said that the white area to the lower left of the house is the pool.  A long porch faces the pool and looks out over Tien Mou.  The house to the left of Quarters A was the South African Embassy with Bill and Renee Praetorious in residence at that time.  She noted that nature is very forgiving because many large trees were destroyed during the typhoon that hit as they were moving into this house.  As you can see, the area seems to have healed nicely since then.

There was also a street view available in Google Maps for this location and here's how it looks from the entrance gate:

Pat told me that the long wall with the little windows visible here is the "insanely slick hall" to the master bed/sitting rooms.  You'll have to read her book to fully appreciate that comment.

Many thanks to Jenny, Scott and Patricia for helping me document this important part of US Taiwan Defense Command history.

U.S. Military Housing Restoration

Today I received this e-mail from Jenny Lee, who resides in what was once one of the U.S. military housing areas.  She and some volunteers are presently working on the restoration of a nearby house in the same area:

I have visited your web blog many, many times.  Since May 2009, I have rented  F205 from the Taiwan bank, and started to find out a lot of things about these houses.  And then, with great courage, I decided to do this:  [Click here for the link to her Picasa album of photographs].

Up to now, most of the work is being done by volunteers.  Why does the bank not maintain them?  It's a long and complicated story.

I wonder who lived in F205, where I live now.  It was remodeled -- nice but lacking the old flavor.  The one I am fixing now is F209, very original.   the family that lived in this house before must have been very happy.  I wish that they still remember this house and come back to see it.

My father was an air traffic controller who worked for Asia Airline.  He was sent to Laos from 1961 to 1972.  I was three years old when I joined him and I lived in Laos for almost 10 years.  The Vietnam War, to me....was a close contact.  Dad's office was located in the airport and sometimes he took me to his work place when he was on  night shift.  If any of you were pilots at the time and have been to Vienjen (capital city of Laos) we might have met.

My best wishes to all of you.

Jenny Lee

 She also provided a link to a very interesting website on the same subject -- Odie's Notebook -- which is about the "Yangmingshan Shanzaihou U.S. Military Housing" area.  I filtered the site through Babel Fish and you can find a rough English translation of it HERE.

I know these photographs will be of great interest to many of the folks here at the blog.  If you have more information about any of these structures, especially units F205 and F209, I'd love to hear from you.

U.S. Lady

In addition to the other materials that Colonel Baker provided, there are these pages from the January, 1962 edition of "US Lady," which I have discovered was a "...service family journal for service wives, families and women in service."

This article gives an overview of Taiwan and describes life for American military families during the early 1960s.  It's not as detailed an account as the MAAG newcomers booklet, but still a very interesting article.  I was fascinated by the ladies' bible study that was regularly held at the home of Mrs. Smoot, the wife of Vice Admiral Roland Smoot, Commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command during 1960-1962.  The study group consisted of both officer and enlisted wives.

Taichung Area MAAG

Today's entry is much longer than what I usually post here, but there was no practical way to space the material out over several days.  Besides, this is the first real posting I've done for quite some time.  Enjoy.

COL Thomas Baker kindly provided us these materials:  a photo of his father, Sergeant First Class Archie Baker, (retired as a Sergeant Major) standing outside the Taichung Club 36 NCO Club;  a welcome booklet compiled by the wives club of the Taichung Area MAAG;  the appreciation letters to the wives club; photo and farewell thank you card from the MAAG Area Commander, COL Arnold;  and lastly, a photo of COL Baker standing by the old location of the US Naval Hospital (photo taken July 24, 2010).

His father, Archie Baker, was stationed in Taiwan with the US MAAG at the Taichung MAAG Area Command from 1959-1962.

The photo shows his father standing outside the Taichung US NCO Club 36. SFC Baker was the NCO Club manager.

The MAAG Taichung, Taiwan newcomers welcome booklet was also provided by COL Baker.  His mother was a member of the wives club that assisted in the development of this booklet.  After the cover is a listing of pages from the booklet.  Just click on each to view a larger version.

 

 

 
The following memorandums are the appreciation letters from the US MAAG Chief and US Ambassador to the Taichung MAAG Area Commander, which were then forwarded to members of the wives club.

Farewell letter and photo of COL Arnold, the Taichung MAAG Area Commander.

COL Thomas Baker was born at the US Naval Hospital in Tienmou in 1960. These photos are of COL Baker standing at the present day location of the old US Naval Hospital.  The old US Naval Hospital was torn down and a new building stands on the same location.  The new building is an extension of the Veteran's Hospital).

COL Baker writes:  "After 30 years in the Army I am about to retire.  I recently had a chance to visit Taiwan; and what better way to end 30 years of service than to visit the location where I was born -- Tienmou.   I was born in 1960.  My father, SGM(R) Archie Baker was station in Taiwan in the late 50's and early 60's. From my mother's stories, he was first stationed somewhere in Taipei, then transferred to Taichung at the MAAG Area Command. He was the NCO club manager there.

I know my parents loved living there and had a fantastic quality of life.  I recently got to visit and a colleague stationed in Taiwan was kind enough to show me some sites and take me to Tienmou to the old location of the US Naval Hospital.  He actually lives right across the street from the old US Naval Hospital location where I was born. I was looking for some sort of shrine or plaque, but for some reason the Taiwanese didn’t think my birth was deserving (ha).   I even have a tattoo that verifies I was made in Taiwan.

It was great to visit Taiwan.  It is a wonderful place."


Thomas Baker

Call for Interviews

I received a note today from Derek Sheridan, a graduate student at the University of Chicago whose research concerns the American presence in Taiwan during the cold war.  He is particularly interested in the kinds of day-to-day interactions between American military, diplomatic officials and Taiwanese society during that time.

If you think you might like to participate in this project, or if you have any questions about it, send an email to Derek at: derekrandallsheridan@gmail.com.