East Compound

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?

Rear entrance to USTDC

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.

1953 Flooding of MAAG Compound

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.

Red Cross at MAAG Compound in 1958

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.

Where Was This Sign?

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?

Larry Fields Memories

One of the purposes of this blog is to provide a platform for others to talk about their assignments in Taiwan.  I recently heard from Larry Fields, who was with US Army Stratcom Taiwan from 1977 to 1979.  Though he wasn't assigned to USTDC, many of his memories are familiar to those of us who were.

We arrived in Taiwan on 12/09/1977 and I was one of the last USAStratcom members to be assigned to the island (maybe even the last one).  We stayed in a guest house located outside the back gate of the West Compound.  It was a nice enough place but I was glad to get into a house.

We moved into our house on Super Bowl Sunday (Monday in Taiwan) when the Broncos played Dallas and lost 27-10.  I had a small radio that I unpacked first thing so I could listen to the game while we unpacked (I was a Denver fan, and I ended up living here in Denver for the last 28 years).

We lived in Tien Mou , originally in the old BOT housing that was off of the circle at the end of Chungshan Bei Lu.  I’ve seen some pictures of an older house called the “White House” in Tien Mou and that may be the house I lived in.  It was in that area across the street from an orphanage.  We lived there for about 6 months then moved to the newer BOT housing that was down by the movie theater and ball fields, where the new Taipei American School is now.

We went through one major typhoon while we were there.  I had to drive up to work, stayed for about 30 minutes, then they told us to go home.  I had to give another member a ride down to the compound, and on my way home a lot of the streets were flooded so it took me a while to wind my way around the streets.

We also had earthquakes, one that did a lot of damage.  If I remember right, it killed six or seven people.  A new building being constructed by my house caught fire and was burned pretty badly. I don’t remember if it collapsed or not. Earthquakes were a way of life there as we all know.

We had a couple of Amahs; I still have pictures of them, but over the years we lost contact with them.

Like a lot of others I stocked up on teakwood furniture (some that I still have), some

rattan furniture, lots of fishbone carvings (still have those too), some marble pieces, and some pottery from Kinmen (which I think you could only get at certain times from one place in Tien Mou).  The fishbone we got from a Chinese guy who was mute, but would deal with you by writing everything down on a tablet.  He rode around on his motorcycle and would stop by the house about once a month.

My favorite place to eat was the old Tien Mou BBQ.  We also used to eat at a BBQ place across from the China Seas club, but after one of the floods the food started tasting bad so we quit going there.

We did spend a lot of time at the China seas, where my wife dealt with a lot of the locals exchanging money and stuff for the slot room. Caught a couple of good shows there, but mostly hung out and played pool, watched TV or played the slots.

There wasn't much TV:  Donnie and Marie show, Starsky and Hutch and Baa Baa Black Sheep (played on Thursday nights and I never missed an episode).  There was a movie in English on Saturdays and I think two on Sundays, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. We also started watching a reality type show from New Zealand and a Chinese talent show (that we actually started understanding).

Chop men would stop by the house every Saturday. We had my oldest son trained to

Say “Nothing to chop.”  I sold a nice refrigerator, some stereo gear, and miscellaneous stuff to the chop men before we left.

I worked at US Army Stratcom.  I worked shifts for a while then got assigned to quality control team.  I flew to a missile site down-island where we climbed up on the MW tower and could see the mainland.   We got fogged in and had to drive back -- 45 minute flight up, 11 hour drive back. We did get to see a lot of the island.

I made a trip to CCK Air Base to do QC testing and got to spend three or four days there. Dave Wyandt and I went down.  We had a great time, since work only lasted three or four hours a day and the rest was play time.

I did a little work in downtown Taipei (where the main switch was) and at Seven Star Mountain. I was supposed to go out to one of the islands, where at one time there was a communications site.  As they were making the arrangements for me, there was a shelling of the island and everything was destroyed so I ended up not going (which was a good thing).

I also got trained as a customs agent, and when someone would leave the island I’d go out and inspect the outbound shipment.  I think I did this four or five times.

I attended the University of Maryland Taipei campus.  I became friends with some local Chinese
students who attended classes, one of whom eventually married Chiang Hsiao-wu, Chaing Kai-sheks grandson.  I still have some of the grade slips and some of the Instructors' names. One of the instructors was Ellen Klossen whose husband at the time worked at the American Consulate.   In the last few years I’ve been able to get in touch with a couple of them, thanks to the internet.

I played softball  on the Grass Mountain team for one of the seasons then got to play on the TDC team.  I didn’t play much; mostly coached first base.  After the Carter announcement, we regularly had softball games against the Chinese unit stationed at the compound. We shared gloves and bats and had a very good time with all of them. They were very professional in every way.

I golfed at Peitou.  The course was across from a military base and once in awhile they would

fire off  a cannon. There was also one hole that you hit across a wide ravine.  The first time I played it I thought I hit a good shot but it went about halfway over then straight down.  I didn’t try to find my ball.  You couldn’t go out of bounds either because of snakes etc.   The last hole had a big rock in the middle so you had to go to one side or the other.  I think I bounced a few shots off of that rock.

I drove a 1978 Ford LTD, which I bought for $8,000 and sold for $11,500.   I never did any maintenance on the vehicle and wore the tires down to nothing before I sold it.  Driving was quite an experience but once you got used to it, it was easy.   I remember the lights turning from green to amber to red and if you were going the other direction, it was all about who could beat whom through the intersection.

I had one accident while I was there.  Coming home from the China Seas, I rear-ended a guy -- $2500 damage to my car but not much to his.  I didn’t get into too much trouble.  By the time the FAP’s got there (it was a cool night) I was sober ( I think).   Dealing with the insurance company was an experience.  I remember having to take my car to a repair shop on a little back street that was barely wide enough for the car. They did a good job on it though.  What was the insurance guy's name?  Jimmie something, I think.   Oh yeah, still have my Chinese drivers license.

One of my sons was born at the Chinese Naval Hospital in Tien Mou (Sept 1978).  It was a real experience since none of the doctors or nurses spoke English.  On the night he was born, I was waiting in the hospital and saw a young nurse come to the door and look at me three or four times but she never came out.  After about 5 hours, the Chinese interpreter assigned to US personnel came out and congratulated me on my new son.  My response was, “Huh?”  The young nurse was supposed to have come out to inform me but her English was poor and she didn’t want to embarrass herself.   When I went to see my son for the first time, I had to walk outside of the room that was round, with all of the newborns inside.  Since I didn’t speak Chinese I had no  clue what to do, so I just started walking.   All of a sudden one of the nurses came running up to the window and instructed me to go back.  My son was the only non-Chinese baby and she recognized that. My wife didn’t like staying in the hospital because she didn’t understand the language and all they served was Chinese food.

I had to get my son's birth recorded so I got all of the paperwork from the hospital, got it translated, and took it to the consulate.  I don’t remember how long it took, but I had to go back down to the consulate after the Carter announcement, and there were long, long lines of Chinese.  I managed to work my way to the front where one of the Marines saw me and let me move to the head of the line.

After Jimmy Carter's announcement, we stopped driving our cars and took a van to work every day to be safe, but still had rocks and other things thrown at the van.  I heard a noise one night at my house and thought someone was breaking in.  I got up to check it out and there were six or seven police officers sitting on the bumper of my car in my carport.  Eventually the Chinese army moved a company of soldiers into the area and we had no problems from then on. There were a couple of stabbings and one or two servicemen were assaulted during this time frame but for the most part the Chinese were pretty decent to us.

Near the end, the post office stopped processing any shipments being made by personnel that weren’t stationed in Taiwan (Lots of folks would come from the Philippines and  elsewhere to buy stuff to ship back).  My wife became friends with a couple of them, so I would stand in line and ship their stuff for them (and sometimes it was a lot of stuff).  Then they would send us stuff from the Phillipines (or Okinawa or Japan).   We ended up with some nice stuff from those places.

I came back with a bunch of pirated record albums that I got from the record store across the intersection from the Roma hotel.   We would buy them cheap and record them on tape because they only lasted three or four plays on the turntable.

We departed 3/21/1979 and were on the next-to-last plane to leave. Our Amahs rode out to the airport with us.  There were lots of tears, knowing that we probably wouldn’t ever see them again.  It was pretty rough leaving, more so for my oldest son, who was four years old when we left.

Tempus Fugit

I received some Corona satellite images of Taipei via TaiwanAirPower.org.  Corona was a US military reconnaissance satellite system operated by the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology with substantial assistance from the US Air Force, used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union, China and other areas from June 1959 until May 1972.  The images were declassified during the Clinton administration.

The first image here is a diagram of buildings in the HSA East Compound as they appeared around the 1970s.  If you click on this same image down the right-hand column of this page, you'll be able to view a much larger version in which you can read the purpose of each building.  USTDC is at the top of the page.

The next image is from 1966 and shows the same general area.  You can just make out some of the buildings, as well as the river at the top of the page.  The three "H" shaped buildings to the right should help you get oriented.

The next image is from 1969, three years after the one above was taken.  The image is noticeably clearer, showing the technical improvement in spy satellites in that relatively brief period of time.  The large white building toward the north and slightly to the east was the TACF and the main USTDC building was to its left.

Finally, here is a modern satellite photo of the area.  The structure toward the upper left -- the one that looks like it was constructed with Lego blocks --  is the Museum of Modern Art.  To the east of that was the approximate location of the US Taiwan Defense Command.

Flowers in the Compounds

Old friend Kent sent me to some links to websites for the Taipei International Flora Exposition.  The Exposition, scheduled to open later this year, is located in the old HSA east and west Compounds.

This view shows both the east and west compound areas.  The rainbow colored area is in the west compound.  I understand that the stadium that was built after the US military's withdrawal, has been mostly unused in recent years.


This very slick eBook has some nice illustrations of the sites.  Be aware that it takes a while to load and you have to click in the upper right-hand corner to turn each page.

*** UPDATE ***

Kent also sent a link to this promotional video for the exposition.   Looks like it's going to be quite a place.  It's hard to believe that much of this ground was once the east and west Headquarters Support Activity compounds, populated by American military folks.

New Info on Naval Hospital and Other Landmarks

Back in January 2008, I posted a short article about the Naval Hospital in Taipei.  Basically I said that I vaguely remembered it but couldn't remember where it was.  During the following weeks and months, several people sent me much more information and some photographs that I posted in later articles.  Toward the bottom of the right-hand column here, you'll find a section titled "Topics."  Scroll down and click on "Medical" and you should pick up most of I've written on the subject.

Today, Gene Abernathy made a comment to that original post regarding a much earlier period. He wrote:

The Hospital that served all the military in 1955-1959 to the best of my recollection was the MAAG hospital in the MAAG compound off of Chung Shan Pei Lo. Don't recall any other Hospital in the area at the time. Believe they contemplated moving the MAAG Hospital shortly after one of the typhoons flooded it pretty bad. Went back to Taiwan a couple of years ago and attempted to locate the command where I was stationed. It was COMSEVENTFLT Staff Det. Alfa, Joint Operations Center (JOC). It was located about a 1/4 of a mile past the old 13th AF Base Out a long way via Roosevelt Rd (which was a dirt road at the time). If anyone can offer a coordinate for google world check I would appreciate. I might add, the first club 63 was also on the compound and moved to Pei An Rd (below the Grand Hotel) in 57 I believe.
The O Club was a little ways outside the gate of the MAAG Compound up on Chung Shan Pei Rd. across from Hostel 2. Fond memories of different times. I completed 30 years of Naval Service in 1981 and my memories have always taken me back to the best duty station I had in Taiwan. Best, Gene Abernathy

If anyone can add anything to this, please leave a comment or drop me an email.  As always, I'd love to post any photos that may have survived the years.

Bill Kling Family Arrival

MAY 1973:

I arrived on the island as an Army E-5/SP5 with my young wife and six month old son.  As some background, I was a communications type person and while previously serving in Vietnam I worked with those in Taiwan  keeping communications circuits working between Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan and Hawaii.  Of course these people told me that if possible I should get assigned to Taipei.  As luck would have it, after serving at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, for 18 months I got orders for Stratcom Taiwan.

So I left from SEA-TAC airport via a military charter (Flying Tiger) and after many stops along the way was met at Sung Shan airport (the only airport) by my sponsor SSG Peredo.  He took us a short ride to the Formosa Guest House where we would live for the next 75 days.

To get to the Formosa GH, you would exit the East Compound via the back entrance, cross the street and make a left at the first alley (there was a furniture store at that spot), walk about 50 feet and there it was.  The first few nights we had trouble sleeping as we had to get used to the smells and noises of Taipei.  The GH owners were a family with two young daughters 11 & 12 and a mother-in-law.  THE WU FAMILY.  They ran the GH which consisted of three floors and perhaps as many as six apartments.  These people became friends and we are still in contact with the daughters today.

It seemed we ate many meals at the cafeteria located on the West Compound, and many meals at the 63 Club and a few at the FASD Dining Hall on the East Compound.  As Taiwan "rookies" we didn't eat on the town often.  It seemed we were always walking to the East Compound, as that was where the 7-11 type store, the housing office, bank, PMO, education center, and almost everything I needed for the family were located.  The weather could make that seem like a long walk sometimes, especially with an infant. 

I remember the adjustment my wife had to make.  This was her first overseas assignment and she had to learn how the military worked while being away from friends and family with a new baby.  She was great and thanks to the family at the GH, she learned her away around Taipei, how and where to shop, how to look for a place to live (we ended up in the old BOT housing in Tien Mou), speak basic Chinese, and meet other new families. She really did a lot of things to help me, as I worked on Grass Mountain, probably a 30-45 drive via government van from the Compound area.

A few other things I remember, in no specific order, were:

• learning what water to drink and where to go to get it.  
• Learning about the different units in Tapei.
• Tthe role of the Air Force, Navy, and Army.
• How to live while waiting for our household goods on the money alloted by the government.  We had to provide receipts for everything to the Army every 10 days for every expense you can think of, including the cost of the GH, meals, transportation, laundry, etc.  I didn't realize what a benefit this was at the time!  Just imagine living almost free for 75 days today while still getting your regular pay.
• Getting on the BOT housing list.  If I wanted a New BOT 2 bedroom house, the waiting list was 9 months with the cost being about 3600NT a month, or an Old BOT house with no waiting list for 2300NT a month.  The decision was easy for a new family so as soon as our furniture arrived we moved into the Old BOT housing.  Again, looking back that was sooo cheap with the exchange rate of 38NT to the dollar combined with the housing allowance I recedived it was a good deal.  However, I did need to get a house guard, yard boy, amah, but all in all a sweet situation.  As a point of reference private housing in the Tien Mou area was much more expensive, plus BOT housing was close to the area where the movie theater, snack bar,bowling alley, and pool were located.

I was lucky enough enough to serve my tour, return the States and come back to Taipei a year later.

Typhoon Gloria Aftermath

I've posted a number of photos and comments about Typhoon Gloria that hit Taiwan in 1963.  There was tremendous damage from flooding and high winds from what was then the largest typhoon to ever hit the island.  The HSA and USTDC compounds were both flooded.  I remember seeing a plaque on the wall of either the commissary or the exchange that showed the high water mark from that typhoon.

Les just sent me some photographs of the east compound that he took after the waters had receded.  The first two show items being set out to dry from the exchange and the third shows the line of military personnel and their families lining up to buy flood damaged items at deep discounts.

Directly ahead in the third photo is the base theater and library.  The library was just to the right of the theater.

Compound Area Views

Good old Les sent me these photos several days ago and they're all very familiar to me.  Here are his comments and the pictures:

Here are four more you might like.  One is just a shot looking south along Chung Shan N. Road.  I remember the JAL office, but don’t remember what the cross street was.  The other three are of the corner near the Linkou Annex: one of the Roma Hotel, another of the book store on the opposite corner, and one showing both and with the East Compound entrance in the foreground.

These are really great shots.  The Linkou Bookstore later became the Caves Bookstore, but I think that was after I left in 1974.

I remember when Japan Airlines (JAL) discontinued flights in and out of Taipei which they had to do to get access to the People's Republic.

I believe the fourth photo was taken from the roof of the hostel that was closest to the street.  The other building was directly behind this one with a paved area between them.  You can see the gate to the east compound directly ahead and the back of the Roma hotel is just beyond it.  I walked through that gate to get to TDC for the 15 months I was there.   Directly across Chung Shan North Road from the east gate was the entrance to the west compound where the chapel, PMO, the gas station and the bowling alley were located.

East Compound Chinese Restaurant

A few days ago I posted a link to a blog called Boudicca's Voice.  The author's father was assigned to USTDC and the family lived in the Taipei area up to the time of the US withdrawal.

In one of her emails to me, she mentioned a Chinese restaurant in the east compound.  She thought it was behind the theater and that it was called the China Pavilion.

I don't remember the place at all but I'm wondering if it was the building labeled "Mess Hall" (building 709) in this page from the Taiwan Report:

If anyone else remembers the place, please leave a comment or two about it.  I saw another diagram which labeled that building as the FASD facility.  It seems to me that FASD stood for Foreign Affairs Service Department (or something like that) and I think they operated the hostel where I lived.  Were they a department of the ROC government?  Maybe MND? Did the restaurant accept US dollars, NT dollars or both?  I know that I always had to convert US dollars to NT to pay my monthly rent at the hostel.

Boudicca's Voice

I received a very nice note from the author of a blog called "Boudicca's Voice" a day or two ago.  Her dad was assigned to USTDC and the family was in Taipei for a couple of years, up until the withdrawal of American forces.

She came across my article about the Grandee Hotel and  wrote a piece on her blog about her family's experiences there as they were preparing to leave Taiwan.  It's a fun read and you can find it HERE.  Oh, it would help you to know that TGOO is her father (The Great Omnipotent One).

In her email to me, she mentioned a Baskin Robbins in the east compound that her family often visited, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't there in 1973-74.  Believe me, old Don definitely would've remembered something like that.  Anyone know when it opened?

Roma Hotel

I just came across this item on eBay.  It's a luggage tag from the old Roma Hotel that was located on the northeast corner at the intersection of Min Zu East Road and Chung Shan North Road.

I've written about the old Roma Hotel before, which had a small restaurant located near the front entrance.  The hotel was on the corner just south of the HSA East Compound where the exchange, commissary, theater and numerous other buildings were located.  The US Taiwan Defense Command was at the far northern end of that compound.

Here's an image of that building today on Google Maps Street View.  You're facing north from in front of the Caves bookstore and the old Roma Hotel building is across the intersection to your right.  Just beyond it was the HSA East Compound.  To your right from this vantage point was the Linkou Club Annex and Linkou Hotel.

National Grandee Hotel

I received the following photos and comments from Les Duffin:

I just saw your post from Ray Richardson.  The National Grandee Hotel was actually at the southwest intersection of Min Tzu East Road and Lin Sen North Road, across the street from the “back gate” of the HSA East Compound, the gate that pointed straight into the signal compound.  The gate was located sort of behind the theater and library.  I returned to Taipei in 1984 and took the attached photos.  By that time the East Compound had become headquarters for the Chinese Military Police and their main building was directly inside that same gate.  The first photo is looking north along Lin Sen Road; that’s the CMP hqs in the center and the white building on the left corner is the hotel.  The second shot shows the same two buildings from a little closer perspective.  The third shot is the hotel itself from the diagonally opposite corner.

The funny thing is that I didn't even recall a back gate on the south side of the east compound, but if you look at that area on Google Maps, it's right there.  Search for "Riviera Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan" and go to Street View, which will put you at that intersection and you can look around from there.

Thanks again to Ray and Les for all this good info.

More Memories of USTDC

I've been corresponding with Ray Richardson, a retired Army SFC who served at USTDC from March 1978 until the day it closed.  Here's some of what he had to say:

First of all, Thank you for what you have done for the past members of the Taiwan Defense Command. I was so thrilled to find the site and have thought about the neat things I have found there since I discovered it. I was there as a member of the U.S. Army Element from March 1978 until the end. I was on the last plane taking the military members out of the country.  The flag was lowered by SSG D. J. Gemmecke (USMC). At that time I was a single E5 and was assigned to the Command Center at USTDC. If the assignment was still open, I'd still be there!

As I remember when you came in the front door, the Master of Arms office was straight ahead and the J1 was off to the right.  [Ray and I discussed this and I think the J-1 was to the left as you came in the front entrance.  Anybody else remember?]  If you went to the left you walked down a hallway and had to take a set of stairs to get up to where the J2, J3 and the Command Center where I worked. The USACC Comm Center was in the Basement of the building. The photoshop was still in a quonset hut out back of the main building.

There is a large hotel across the street from the entrance to the West compound on Min Zsu East Road. They built that hotel while I was there and it opened shortly after then President Carter made the announcement.  In the final days, they moved a large amount of the military that was left into that hotel so we were all in one place.  Nothing like putting all your eggs in one basket!  Across the street was a store, not sure what kind of place it was; could have been a restaurant or a bar but the name was "Carter" something.  Well, they changed the name shortly after the announcement...I found that hilarious at the time.

Seems to me that somewhere on the blog I read about a guy who got stabbed...His last name as I remember was Collins and he worked in the USACC comm center in the TDC Building.  I think you and I may have lived in the same hostel room...LOL  Imagine that!!  My houseboy loved Hennessey Cognac!

I think I've mentioned this before, but if any of you out there think you have a pretty good idea how the TDC building was laid out -- upstairs, downstairs and basement -- I'd sure like to hear about it.  If you could sketch out a floor plan as you remember it, then scan it and send me a copy, that would be great!  To be honest, I'd forgotten what even the exterior of the building looked like until people started sending me old photographs of it.

The Compound Today

Old friend Kent, owner of the Taipei Air Station website and blog, returned from Taipei a few weeks ago and was kind enough to send me some snapshots of his trip.

Just when I'd finally gotten used to the idea that the old Headquarters Support Activity (HSA) west compound (where the BX, commissary, theater, library and USTDC were located) was replaced by a park, I now see that the park is being destroyed to accommodate an upcoming flora exposition.

Great! Now I'm doubly out of date.

Here are a few shots of the former east compound:




As you continue north on Chung Shan North Road, just before the bridge, you come to the turn that took you to the main entrance of the US Taiwan Defense Command headquarters building. Many of you will remember the Storybook House on the corner.

Just past the storybook house is now the modern art museum, located just to the west of the former TDC compound. The USTDC location is now a taxi rest area. I find that very depressing for some reason.

But even though most everything that I knew is now gone, I guess I'm at least a little bit comforted by this shot of a passenger aircraft coming in on final approach to the airport. I estimate that this photo was probably taken a few yards south of where the hostels were located. I've often written here about the passenger jets rattling my windows in the hostel as they flew overhead and it's good to see that this is one thing that has not changed.

Google Steet View In Taipei

I noticed this morning on Michael Turton's View From Taiwan blog that the folks at Google are collecting and publishing their Street View images of Taipei. They're actually in the process of covering much of Taiwan, but they've already covered most of the capital city.

If you're not familiar with Street View, you just point your browser to maps.google.com and then -- in this case -- enter this string in the box and press the Search Maps button: Section 3, Jhongshan North Rd, Jhongshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 104. That will give you this image. That "A" marker is almost exactly at the former entrances to the east and west HSA compounds.

Place your cursor on that Street View image in the white box and you'll see the image shown below. Notice the green construction fence to your right where the Art Park (former east compound) is undergoing renovation. The blue fence to the left is in front of the sports stadium that is located in the area of the former west compound.

The really cool thing about Street View is that if you click ahead on that yellow line, you'll "drive" to that point. You can also turn 360 degrees and look at everything near your location.

For example, if you turn around from your starting point and then follow the yellow line south, you'll find yourself in front of the Caves (aka Lin Kou) bookstore where we used to buy all those good, inexpensive books, records and tapes.

If you turn around and head back north again (gawking left and right as you go, of course), you can go past the American Club (aka Club 63, aka China Seas).

If you find any other interesting spots, please share 'em!

USTDC Building Evolution

***UPDATE***

Good old Titojohn came up with a much better quality photo of the first photo below. He also learned that it was actually taken in 1949. As he pointed out, the lettering over the main entrance reads "Taipei Guest House" and the photo ID at the Life archive says that it was a "Guest house where exilers are temporarily put up."

I've replaced the image that was here so you can get a better look at it. Just click on the image to see the full size version. One other thing: The new photo reveals that what I thought was a park looks more like a storage dump. You can see what appear to be logs and other (building?) materials there.

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I don't think I've ever before seen this Life Magazine photograph of the USTDC building. It was taken somewhere around 1950. I would very much like to know what it was being used for at that time, since USTDC had not yet been established, but it's clearly the same building. The area that became the front parking lot looks like it might have been a garden or park at that time.


The next photo shows what the area looked like ten years later. The park, or whatever it was, became the front parking lot. The entryway walls were removed and the entrance was moved several yards further up the driveway.


The last photo shows the building as it appeared around the late 1970s. The shot was taken from the southwest corner of the main parking lot, with the main entrance at the center of the photo.

Among other changes, note that in the first photo there was no cover over the steps to the main entrance. In the second photo there was what appears to be a corrugated steel awning, and by the 1970s, when I was there, the awning was replaced by a permanent roof.