US Taiwan Defense Command

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Taiwan Report Index

During the past few months, I've posted pages from the "Taiwan Report - Taipei Edition," a booklet that was published by the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command in 1973. The booklet was sent to American servicemen and women being assigned to Taiwan and it was designed to ease their transition into their new surroundings. It's a great historical record of life in the Taipei area as experienced by American military personnel 35 years ago.

Les Duffin kept a copy of the booklet all these years and has been kind enough to scan and share all 118 pages. I've posted them pretty much as I've received them, but the 15 chapters (plus intro and quick reference sections) are not always easy to find in the chronological format of a blog.

So today's post contains the complete index to Taiwan Report, with individual links to each section. My objective is to make it easier for readers to "thumb through" the booklet from page 1 to page 118. I'm also adding a link somewhere in the right-hand column of the blog so you can come directly to this posting at any time in the future.

Keep in mind that if you click on each of the pages within each chapter, you'll be able to view the full-size image.

Thanks again to Les for having the foresight to preserve this historical document and for taking the time to share it with all of us.

Taiwan Report - Intro

It looks like I messed up yesterday when I said that I had already posted every chapter of the Taiwan Report. Apparently I published only certain parts of some chapters, including the introduction. Hey, I'm 65 years old so cut me some slack, huh?

So today I'll post the complete intro, including the front cover of the booklet and if I discover any other unpublished sections I'll post those in the days ahead. Once everything is posted, I'll do the index with links to each section as I promised earlier.

So here's the cover and intro of the Taiwan Report - Taipei Edition:

Friday, February 27, 2009

Taiwan Report - Chapter 13

I thought I had posted all the chapters of the Taiwan Report over the past several months, but I apparently missed chapter 13, which had to do with stores, restaurants and health precautions. Those pages are shown below. As always, you can click on any of the pages to see a larger version.

Taiwan Report was the publication we mailed out to those being assigned to USTDC and other military units in the Taipei area. The publication date was 1973, and if there were earlier or later editions I'm not aware of them.

Within the next day or two I plan to post an index to all of the chapters in the booklet.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Taiwan in 1957-1958

I found this excellent article that was written by Bob Ronald who (I believe) was a Jesuit priest who taught in Taiwan, beginning in 1957. He describes all of the sights and sounds of 1950s Taiwan as perceived by a new resident.

This is a 29-page Adobe PDF document so of course you'll need Adobe Reader to view it. If you don't already have it on your computer, you can get the free download here.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Another Pedicab

I've received and posted several photos of pedicabs here. By the time I arrived in Taipei, I don't think they were any longer used in the city, but when guys like Sarj and Stev were there in the late fifties and early sixties, they were apparently pretty common.

A few U.S. cities still issue permits for pedicab drivers who cater mostly to tourists, but they're pretty much a novelty in most places today as far as I know.

Taipeimarc recently alerted me to this old pedicab that was listed for sale on Craig's List. It has since been sold, but I contacted the woman who took the photos to see what I could find out about it. You can see all the rest of those photos here.

It turns out that a friend of hers participated in an auction for the contents of an unpaid storage unit. When they opened it up, this pedicab was inside. They're guessing that it might be one of the pedicabs that were imported for the 1962

Seattle World's Fair. I'm not sure about that because the style -- especially the enclosed wheels -- looks older than that to me. I'm thinking it was built sometime in the 1950s. I'd guess even earlier than that, except that the nameplate is in English. The headlight that runs on a small generator is definitely an add-on.

I did a quick search for the Victory Company in Taipei but came up empty.

If you can help solve the puzzle of when this thing was built, or whether it was one of the Seattle World's Fair pedicabs from 1962, please let me know.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Dennis Blair

A week or so ago I wrote about Dennis Blair, who is the new Director of National Intelligence. I mentioned that he was formerly head of Pacific Command, which is the senior military authority for the entire Pacific theater. I said that I felt his background provided him with a particularly good understanding of the situation in Taiwan with regard to the People's Republic of China.

I just read a great piece about Director Blair from the January 18, 2009 edition of the Washington Times. The article, titled "Admiral takes new tack with intel position," includes this exchange between Admiral Blair and a PROC admiral:

When Adm. Dennis C. Blair was in China as commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, a Chinese admiral confronted him rather aggressively on the issue of Taiwan, warning the United States not to interfere in China's campaign to gain control of the self-governing island.
Admiral Blair listened for a minute, then said: "Admiral, let me tell you a couple of things. First, I own the water out there," gesturing toward the Pacific Ocean. "And second, I own the sky over the water out there. Now, don't you think we should talk about something more constructive?"
The anecdote, confirmed by Adm. Blair, illustrates the sort of plain speaking that characterizes the man President-elect Barack Obama has nominated to be the nation's top intelligence officer. As Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the retired admiral would be responsible for setting objectives and standards for 16 disparate intelligence agencies including the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, and for coordinating their sometimes conflicting operations.

I know that this has nothing to do directly with the focus of this blog, USTDC, but I think that most of us Taiwan veterans are still concerned about the safety and self-determination of the good people of Taiwan. I am pleased to see that at least one member of the President's administration feels the same way.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Returning to Taiwan -- Update

I just learned that the Taiwan vets who are planning to return there in September have received permission to tour The American Club In China, the private club that moved to the old Club 63 (China Seas) building after the U.S. withdrawal.

I'm sure that those who enjoyed many hours in that beautiful facility back in the day would like to see what it looks like today. If you're interested -- even if you think you might be interested -- drop Kent Mathieu a note as soon as possible.

Though I will be unable to make the trip, I recently checked the price for a round-trip ticket from Chicago to Taipei and saw that it was in the $1200 range -- not cheap, but not outrageous either. You may be able to do a lot better. Adding hotels (off-season in Taiwan), meals and incidentals, you could probably do the whole trip for less than about $2500. Maybe quite a bit less, depending on your location and tastes.

Kent's GIs Returning To Taiwan site is here and the trip details are here. His email address is as pictured here:

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Record of U.S. Withdrawal From Taiwan

A year or so ago I wrote a series of pieces based on a document that I received from U.S. Pacific Command, an appendix to the 1979 Command History. It described in detail the events that occurred prior to and during the U.S. military withdrawal from Taiwan.

I just noticed that the 1979 PACOM History document that is posted at the Nautilus Institute website, includes that appendix as well. You can view the entire report by going to this link. At the top of that page you'll see that you're viewing page 1 of 639 pages. Change that 1 to 500, hit Enter and you'll go to the first page of the appendix. Keep in mind that this is a PDF document so the PDF page numbers will not be the same as the printed page numbers.

There is a lot more information in that appendix than I wrote about so I thought that some of you might be interested in reading the entire thing.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Blue Angels Invitation

A big thanks to Les Duffin for sending in this invitation to an air show by the Navy's aerial demonstration team, the Blue Angels. The event was held at Tainan Air Base on November 16, 1971, and was co-hosted by the COMUSTDC, Vice Admiral Baumberger.

In 1971 the Blue Angels would have been flying these F-4 Phantoms, an aircraft that was also flying combat missions in Southeast Asia at the time. One of the birds crashed at an air show in Iowa a year earlier but the pilot punched out safely and nobody else was injured.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

CCK Orientation Publication

Titojohn sent me this link to the 1973 edition of the Ching Chuan Kang ROCAFB orientation booklet.

It describes what to bring from the States, arrival procedures, housing, utilities, transportation, recreational facilities and lots of other things -- many of them unique to CCK and the Taichung area.

It also mentions USTDC, MAAG, and the 327th Air Division at Taipei Air Station that was the senior Air Force unit on Taiwan.

Similar to USTDC's "Taiwan Report," this publication provides a great snapshot of life for U.S. military folks on Taiwan in the early 1970s.

Overview

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regarding Photographs

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

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

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

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

USTDC