The Birth of USTDC -- November 1, 1955

Bill Thayer sent me this Associated Press article from October 23, 1955. It shows that Vice Admiral Alfred M. Pride, who was Commander of the US 7th Fleet, announced that the Formosa Liaison Center was being changed to the United States Defense Command on November 1st of that year.  VADM Pride was Commander of the US Seventh Fleet from December 1, 1953 until December 19, 1955.  This link goes to the history of the Seventh Fleet and it shows VADM Ingersoll holding that position after VADM Pride.


Also, note in the article that when they created USTDC, they renamed the Military Assistance Advisory Group from MAAG Formosa to MAAG Taiwan and the name of the radio station from Voice of MAAG Formosa to Voice of MAAG Taiwan.

From the second article displayed here -- also from Bill -- it appears that the Commander of  the US Seventh Fleet was concurrently Commander of USTDC because those two commands were not separated until early in 1957.  That may mean that VADM Pride was technically the first COMUSTDC, at least for about 19 days until the arrival of VADM Ingersoll, though I don't know if VADM Pride was actually designated as such.


Click on either article to view the full text of each.