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!

Civilian Employee Pamphlet

Just as at other military organizations around the world, Department of Defense civilians contributed greatly to the successful operation of USTDC.  In most cases, these folks were career civil servants who voluntarily relocated to Taiwan, bringing their families and household goods with them.

Moving to a new place is often a challenge, especially when that place is halfway around the world.  So in 1962, the Pacific Air Command (PACAF) published a pamphlet specifically for DOD civilians moving to Taiwan.  It was similar to the "Taiwan Report" brochure that USTDC published for incoming military personnel, but addressed some issues that were unique to civilian employees.


Scott in Taiwan was kind enough to provide me with images of every page from that document a while back.  I converted them to a single PDF (Adobe) document and I've made it available for download.  If you'd like to have a copy, just click HERE.

Letters Home

Stev Pitchford was a Navy photographer at TDC during 1959-60.  Many of his excellent photographs have been enjoyed by countless visitors here.

Stev recently went through a stack of letters that he wrote to his parents years ago.  What follows are his comments about the letters, followed by excerpts from some of those that he wrote during his time in Taiwan.   I really enjoyed them because I think they're typical of letters written by young men far away from home years ago, and probably similar to letters written by today's young men and women stationed around the world.  Of course most of today's letters are probably typed on a keyboard and received by Mom and Dad within seconds after they're sent.

Mom and Dad saved the letters I wrote to them while I was in the Navy.  After about 50 years, I've gotten around to reading them.  Some things I remember pretty well, but there's a lot I don't recall.

A few remarks about Chiang Kai Shek (Gemo) and President Eisenhower (Ike) were a little impertinent, but I was a teenager at the time.  Looking back, I realize what a privilege it was to have come into personal contact with two of the most significant figures of the 20th century.

July 29, 1959  (Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA)

 

. . . . I leave at 6:30 AM August 1, by plane.  I’m not sure where I’ll wind up, but it will probably be Taiwan or Japan

. . . .The next time you hear from me it will be from across the Pacific. . .

 

August 6, 1959

 

. . . . Well, I’m here.  I got in Taipei at about 4:00 this afternoon.  There is no base here.  Taiwan Defense Command is one building on one side of town. . . .  It could be very nice.

 

. . . . I don’t know if I’ll stay here or be shipped to some other part of the island.  I’ll find out tomorrow. . . . .

 

. . . .Tomorrow . . . .  I’m staying here.  And I’m beginning to like it even more.  There are 11 people in the photo lab, and it isn’t too busy. . . .

 

. . . . I went to a Mongolian Barbecue for lunch today.  9 of us went across town on 5 motor scooters to the place.  I don’t know what it was but it was good.  We ate with chop sticks, which proved to be interesting. 

 

August 17, 1959

 

. . . .There aren’t many cars here, but that doesn’t mean anything.  There are plenty of bicycles, rickshaws, and people to make up for it. . . .

 

. . . . Seeing as how we get pretty good money and things are so cheap here, we live pretty high.  I’m going to be spoiled when I get back. . . .

 

. . . . They have American movies here.  Most of the theaters in Taipei are comparable to those in the U. S.  I’m told that one will show up anything in the states. . . .

 

August 30, 1959

 

. . . . I get mail in the oddest ways here.  Commanders bring it to me, I get some on days the mail isn’t supposed to come in, and yours just came in the middle of a typhoon. . . .

 

. . . . 4 of us are keeping the photo lab tied down during this big wind.  Right now it’s supposed to be blowing about 100 mph outside.  It’s 1:30 AM and I’ve got nothing better to do, so I’m answering your letter.  I’ll bet this is the first letter you’ve received written in the middle of a typhoon. . . .

Sept. 7, 1959

 

. . . . Probably tomorrow, I’m leaving for Matsu for about a week.  It’s an island 2 miles from the mainland.  So now I’m going to see Communist China. . . .

 

Sept. 16, 1959

 

. . . . I was on Matsu for 5 days.  That’s a group of islands 5 miles from the Communist coast.  It’s from right out of the war movies.

 

I even had my own personal jeep and driver till the last day.  Then I had to share it with an officer. . . .

 

And to top it all, I got $70 extra pay for going. . . .

 

I finally made it on board ship.  I came back on a Chinese destroyer.  I was all over the thing shooting pictures. . . .

 

 

Sept. 24, 1959

 

. . . . I went swimming for the first time last Sunday.  They’ve got a wild diving board at this pool.  Usually you use a diving board to put you where and how you want to hit the water.  Not so with this one.  It throws you any ole place it feels like.  Very exciting.

 

Monday is Confucius’ birthday, so we’ve got a long week-end. . . .

 

 

Dec. 17, 1959

 

. . . . Last week we really put out the work.  I didn’t even get one day off - - - except for the weekend.  Things like that don’t happen very often though.  We’ve been about half busy this week.

 

We’ve had a pretty cold week.  A raincoat feels pretty good now.

 

 

Jan. 26, 1960

 

. . . . I don’t know about this command.  One of our idiot generals thought it would be nice to stand an inspection once a month.  Not that that wasn’t bad enough - - - we have to wear uniforms to and from work and any other time we leave the compound.  Since we have to work in dungarees (uniforms would get stained), this will involve changing clothes every 5 minutes. . . .

 

 

Feb. 10, 1960

 

. . . . Our general’s ideas just went out the window Monday - - - hooray!  We’re back to normal now. . . .

 

 

Feb. 29, 1960

 

I went to the Admiral’s house again Saturday.  I showed “Auntie Mame.”  And I had pop corn for the first time since I’ve been on this island.

 

I was out shooting pictures all Saturday afternoon.  The Admiral’s aide got me a car to use all day, so I saw some new territory.  I thought that was pretty nice of him.

 

 

May 1, 1960

 

. . . . Gemo is throwing a tea party at the hostel tonight, so I think I’ll go bowling again.  I don’t like crowds. . . .

 

 

May 21, 1960

 

. . . . I learned today that I got my fourth stripe May 16.  I’ve been a PHG3 for almost a week now. . . .

 

 

June 16, 1960

 

. . . . I’m mad at Ike.  Just because he’s coming here, I have to work this weekend.  That messes up my swimming and I might miss a good movie. . . .

 

 

June 23, 1960

 

. . . .Ike sure messed up my weekend.  I didn’t even get to go swimming once.  And the weather was perfect.  This place looked like Ripley on the 4^th of July. . . .

 

 

July 19, 1960

 

. . . . I got myself a Zenith Trans-Oceanic radio last week.  It is an awfully potent short wave radio.  I haven’t even hitched an aerial to it, and I can get as far east as Delano, Calif. and as far west as Paris, France. . . .

 

 

Aug. 4, 1960

 

. . . . The basic reason I decided to get a recorder is that in this part of the world I hear things (on the short wave radio) I’m not sure I’ll be able to pick up in the states, and they’ll be interesting to me and maybe you to hear later.  Radio Peiping, from Communist China, is my main target here.  They tell me how horrible we “imperialist Americans” are. . . .

 

 

Aug. 11, 1960

 

. . . . I may be sitting on that front porch with you in about 25 days.  My orders came in yesterday.  I’m going to the Norton Sound - - - which didn’t shock me too much.  I leave August 30 - - - which really shocked me. . . .

 

 

Aug. 21, 1960

 

. . . . I’ll see you sometime next week.  I fly out of here on the 29^th. . . .

Stev

Ground Surveys from Grass Mountain -- 1958

I was recently contacted by retired Air Force Major John J. Molitaris, Jr.  John was part of a ground survey team at the top of Grass Mountain in 1958.  Here's his account of that deployment:

My experience on Grass Mountain occurred as a member of the 1370 Photo Mapping Group, home based at Palm Beach AFB, Florida.  The basic mission was to upgrade previous ground surveys conducted with tripods and sextants.

The group consisted of four (4) squadrons: (1) 1371 Sqdn – RB-50 (4-engine bomber) Operations, (2) 1372 Sqdn – Logistics Support, (3) 1373 Sqdn – Data Analysis, and (4) 1374 Sqdn – Radar Ground Stations.  I was a member of the 1374^th which deployed remote ground station teams consisting an E-5/E-6 Electronic Tech Chief (3073), E-3/E-4 Electronic Tech Deputy Chief (3053), E3 thru E-5 Ground Radio Operator, and an E-3 thru E-5 Ground Power Operator/Maintenance man.  Each team member was cross trained in the other disciplines to maintain operational status in the event of illness or medical evacuation.  Survey missions involved two ground stations with a RB-50 flying between them at several altitudes.  Surveys were accomplished with the Short Range Navigation (SHORAN) radar.  Site deployments usually lasted three to six months.  I was the E-4 Electronic Tech when I deployed to the Grass Mountain site in March 1958 for three months.

Grusome-11 was housed in the wooden Formosa Government fire watcher hut located on top of Grass Mountain.  The site required portable AC/DC power generators, UHF/HF radio sets, 55 gallon barrels of drinkable water and aviation gasoline, 5 in 1 field rations and folding cots.  The only road ran beyond the Grass Mountain Hostel to an elevation of 2,500 feet (approximate).  Laborers were paid to sling all the site items on bamboo poles another 2,500 feet up a narrow trail.  The fifty (50) foot Receive/Transmit antenna mast was quite visible on clear days.

Our contingent was certainly a curiosity to the local citizens and especially the university students who hiked up to the site often.  We were able to exchange cultural facts about US and Formosa because the students spoke English reasonably well.  I still remember going outside in the mornings to see we were above the clouds and listening to the Formosa Army artillery practice echoing through the mountain ranges.

I remember the Grass Mountain Hostel well.  It was the great R & R escape from a cold hut, 5 in 1 rations, AND bathing in a dish washing tub with the cold wind blowing in around the windows.  5 in 1 rations beat out C-rations but couldn’t touch the filet mignon with eggs breakfast at the Hostel.  Those dual temperature hot sulfer tubs were the greatest once you learned how to use them.  It was embarrassing the first time when I stayed too long and my 195 pounds had to be rescued by 2-3 staff.  The only downside occurred when I and my Argus camera wandered down the road towards the mountain residence of Chiang Kai-shek.  The sudden appearance of an air-cooled 30 caliber machine gun was a heart stopper.  Grass Mountain was one of the top deployments of my enlisted service.

Unfortunately the slides I took on Grass Mountain were misplaced or lost.

 

John J. Molitaris, Jr.

Major, USAF (Ret.)   

Memories of 1963-64

Bill Amborn was at TDC during 1963-64 and provided this account of Typhoon Gloria:

I was assigned to TDC from the States and arrived as a PFC in the army in late August 1963.  I was billeted at Yangmingshan first.  I took a few snapshots of the TDC compound during Typhoon Gloria as I was in it those few days.  I just ran across the photos which I'd sent to my parents.

Being the new guy in my unit I was one of three of us to stay in the compound in our little office during the typhoon.  The photointerpreters, part of J2, were downstairs and boy, did we get flooded.  As the water started coming up we put sandbags outside the steel door leading out and sat around and played cards.

Later the water began gushing in above the sandbags and we got concerned about the thousands and thousands of maps we had of all of China and started to remove them from the lower shelves and put them up higher.  While we were casually working on this activity we heard a violent snapping sound and saw that the water pressure had bent the door.  Water was coming in like gang busters.  So we started scurrying as fast as we could bringing all the maps and tons of classified stuff upstairs.  The water kept coming up. Then it became obvious we were being weighed down by our fatigues so we stripped to underwear and continued.  Some of the duty people upstairs thought we were mad men.  Then the power went out and we had a few flashlights, etc, by which we kept carrying the equiment and papers upstairs.

In the end, before we had to stop, we were up to our shoulders in that wonderful, muddy water.  We saved everything needed to keep us operating after the clean-up and got the normal thanks for a job well done (nada).

Then the C-rations ran low and we had to go to one of the warehouses to get them.  So we peons stripped down to our scivvies and formed a line of guys to walk wherever we were led.  That way if the first guy fell in a hole or something, the second guy would know where it was.  Like walking in a mine field.  We got our boxes and carried them like you see African ladies carrying items - on our heads - because the water was up to our necks.  And so we traipsed back across.  During the walk back guys started talking about all the poisonous snakes and wondering (a) could snakes swim and (b) what's that over there?

Since stressful situations bring out the best and worst in us, one could expect being stuck in a building for a bit would do just that.  Sure enough, one of the officers was found to be stealing all the C-ration cookies.  That really got some of the guys hot and required some higher rank to assure us cookies would be equitably distributed.

Like everyone who went to Taiwan, I have a ton of memories, but the strongest one still is of walking over the bridge from TDC to Club 63 with Billy Cowan (Air Force) and Larry Dugan (Navy) and Billy telling us that Kennedy had just been shot.

Bill Amborn

8/63-5/64 USTDC

Formosa Liaison Center

I've been corresponding with Tom Kirkland, retired Air Force tech sergeant, who was in Taipei during 1955-56.  He talked about the "Formosa Liaison Center," which sent me off in search of that unit.  I'm learning quite a lot and will be writing a piece later this week based on some declassified documents I've come across today.

Also, I'm adding RADM Fenno to the list of USTDC Commanders because he commanded the Formosa Liaison, which became the Formosa Defense Command for a few months before being renamed the US Taiwan Defense Command.  I'll go into more detail on that in my next article.

Here's what Tom had to say:

I was assigned to the Formosa Liaison Center/US Taiwan Defense Command from Sept. 1955 to Dec. 1956 as a crypto operator with the Communications watch.  Admiral Fenno was commander until Vice Adm Stuart H. Ingersoll took over in late 1955.  I was detached from the Air Task Force 13th Provisional (FEAF) and BGen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. was the commander.  Once while I was hitch hiking, General Davis  graciously stopped his command vehicle and gave me a lift up to Grass Mountain on his way to his quarters. We conversed about island life and our assignments. I was highly impressed by this extremely knowledgeable leader, and would have enjoyed serving with him. As a 19 year old recruit freshly out of basic/tech school why wouldn't I have been? Little did I know of his WWII ventures.

We had a hostel on top of Grass Mountain (Yangming Shan) which belonged to President Chiang Kai-Shek and was guarded by the Chinese Army. It consisted of a dining hall, and dormitories (open bays) -- not much privacy.

Our supplies came in at Keelung harbor on the USS General Howard. Air Force uniforms were scarce, so we combined US Navy/AF on occasion. We only had a few places we could go during those days:  Club 63, MAAG, Friends of China club, USIS, US Embassy, Lin Kou Air Station, Taipei Air Station, and some limited areas were open to US personnel. I was lucky that I spoke some Mandarin and had a Chinese driver, so I was designated as a courier when messages/mail had to be taken to other units.  Beitou, Sun Moon lake, and some areas of downtown Taipei were often off limits.

We had several typhoons hit the island during my stay, and we would have to strap ourselves to trees outside to crank up generators. We were located by the river, on Chung Shan North Road, just down from the bridge leading to the Grand Hotel.

 I also lived with my girlfriend and family across from the Confucius temple located behind the Taipei zoo. We often visited the temple to observe ceremonies. Chiang Kai-Shek's son used our apartment to take a photo of the temple. He presented me with a copy which he signed.

Since my assignment on Taiwan, I went on to duty in SAC Headquarters, Nebraska; Chelveston England; Patrick AFB (Cape Canaveral) Florida; Wake Island; Anderson AFB, Guam; Scott AFB IL;  Homestead AFB, FL; Udorn Thailand (Laotian territory) and the Presidential Support Mission, Key Biscayne White House, retiring in 1974 at Homestead AFB, FL.  I thoroughly enjoyed my career in the military, having met and served with many famous people, but my duty on Formosa/Taiwan was probably the best!

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.

Request for Information -- Life in Taiwan During The 1950s

I received a note this weekend from Dr. Stephen Craft, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University regarding a book project he's been working on.  He explains it here:

I am a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where I teach military and aviation history.  I lived in Taiwan for many years in the 1980s and 1990s, and go back there every two years.  Over the last several years, I have published a book on V.K. Wellington Koo and another on Embry-Riddle's role during WWII.  Over the last ten years or so, I have been working on a third book project that deals with MAAG-Taiwan and the Reynolds Riot of 1957.  I am really interested in interviewing Americans who lived in Taiwan in the 1950s to get a feel for expatriate life at the height of the Cold War.  I can always be contacted at crafts@erau.edu.

Take care.

Steve Craft

Stephen G. Craft, Ph.D.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
HU/SS Department
Daytona Beach, FL 32114

 If you were in Taiwan during the 1950s, and would be interested in contributing to this work, please drop Steve an e-mail.

Some Names From TDC

Old friend Larry Marcum was the Administrative Officer at TDC during my tour (current photo shown here).  He dug through his memory bank and came up with names of some of the folks who were assigned there during his tour:

VADM Philip Beshany  Sept 1972 -1973
VADM Edwin Snyder  1973-1977 ?
RADM James Linder  1977 - 1979 Taiwan Defense Command was closed

BGEN Burroughs  USAF
BGEN Don Williams  USAF
BGEN Dan Brooksher USAF

J-1
CAPTAIN James Becker USN
Col Charles Peters  USAF
Col Bruce Ferrier USAF

J-1 Staff
LtCol Clay Blanton  USA
LtCol Julian turner USA
LtCol Sam Martin
Larry Marcum, Administrative Officer, Civilian
Captain Joel Lipsett USAF

J-7 Legal
Captain Hairston USN
Captain Battagalino  USN
Captain Tam  USN
LtCol Paterson USAF

PAO
LtCommander Paul Hanley
LCDR Jay Coupe

The Situation in 1976

I've written several pieces about the withdrawal of US Forces from Taiwan that ended with the final flag retreat ceremony at the US Taiwan Defense Command on April 26, 1979.  But a gradual downsizing had been underway well before the President James Earl Carter's speech on December 15, 1978, announcing the complete withdrawal from Taiwan of all US forces.

I found a very interesting UPI article in the Pittsburgh (PA) Press of July 18, 1976, titled "Fading US Presence leaves Taiwan at Sea."  Here's most of the text from that article, which paints a very interesting picture of the situation in Taiwan, especially Taipei, at that time:

By Charles R. Smith

Taipei, Taiwan (UPI) -- At a corner table of the American Officers' Club lounge two American military officers in civvies sipped Saturday afternoon beers.

Across the otherwise empty room sat four civilians, complaining about the slow service.

Empty seats lined the black, L-shaped bar.  In the middle of the bar a large white sign gave mute testimony to the dwindling military presence in Taiwan: "Waitress Service Only."

Only one waitress at that.  And at prime drinking time and at what was once one of the busiest American military clubs in Asia.

"The number of military personnel on Taiwan is way down," a Navy officer said.  "It's down to 2,100 now, down from a peak of 9,000 in 1972.  And it's still going down."

Only about 50 people are left in a Military Assistance Advisory Group that once numbered more than 2,000.

The Taiwan Defense Command staff has been cut from more than 200 three years ago to about 80.  More cuts are ahead.

About half of the U.S. military personnel remaining on the Nationalist Chinese Island are Air Force.  But there are no more combat planes around.

The largest single American military unit on the island is a 400-member army communications command.

Along Chung Shan Road, which runs from the magnificent Chinese-style Grand Hotel and through a burgeoning business district of new high-rise office buildings and hotels, there are many faded signs of a fading era.

The San Francisco Tailor shop ("We make regulation uniforms") is closed.

The pitch to GIs painted on the front of an antiques and art shop is painted over.  The come-on message is now in Japanese.

The girls at the Butterfly Bar still speak GI slang, but now they cater to tourists.

Government officials and businessmen are not so concerned about the dwindling number of American military personnel as they are about the continued presence of at least a token force and the continuation of the U.S.-Republic of China Mutual Defense Treaty.

"Of course we are very much concerned about what might happen," a government official said.  Our biggest worry is that the United States will break relations with us, abrogate our defense treaty and establish full relations with the Communist regime on the mainland."

If young people are as worried about the future of Sino-American relations as their elders, it doesn't readily show.  Their concern is with more mundane matters.

At a new YMCA building, just behind the Taipei Hilton Hotel, a bright young American, Greg Zurowski, sits in the coffee shop with a group of Chinese teen-agers for an informal evening English class.

What are Taiwan's young people thinking about?  What are their problems, their concerns, their complaints, their desires?

"School" is the reply, almost in unison.

"The competition is so keen and the opportunities so few," one student explains.

"Western culture is overwhelming us," one student says.  "We need a return to more traditional culture."

That's just what the government has been saying in one of its campaigns.

But he and the others admit they prefer many aspects of Western culture, expecially movies, music and lifestyle.

"Industrialization is the problem," one young man says.  It is forcing Western culture on us.

He and his friends beside him are studying chemical engineering, a profession not only involved in the industrialization process he complains about but also the highest paid profession in Taiwan.

Concerned about the vast amount of money spent on religious festivals and temples -- there are more than 7,000 temples in Taiwan and more than 300 gods who rate important festivals -- authorities instructed teachers to ask students to try to dissuade their parents from participating.

This did not seem to be working very well.

There was a bit more to the article, but part of the text was illegible in the on-line copy.

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.

In The Beginning . . .

I was recently contacted by retired Marine Colonel Darrell Davidson, who was one of the first to arrive in Taiwan for assignment to USTDC.  Until now, I've had almost no record of those early days when the command was first established.  Colonel Davidson was kind enough to allow me to post some of his comments here:

I thought you might be interested in what I might contribute to those who share a USTDC heritage from one of the "plank owners."  I believe that a Navy CPO Schremsher and I, a Marine 1st Lt, both recent graduates of the U.S. Naval Photo Interpretation Center were the first two to arrive on the scene on April 1 or 2, 1955.  My orders were classified "Confidential" and directed me to report to the Formosa Liaison Center for duty with the U. S. Taiwan Defense Command.  Neither the Chief nor I had a clue as to where to find the FLC, but somehow we ended up in a hostel that housed a number of U.S. military people, both officer and enlisted.

After a day or two of nosing around, I learned that there was a Marine colonel who was the G-2 on the MAAG staff so I went to the MND where he had his office to see if he could point us in the right direction.  Fortunately, he was tuned in and told us that a Navy captain was enroute who was to be the J-2 and instructed us on how to rendezvous with him, which we did.  We were the cadre of the working party that took over what became the TDC building as Western Enterprises, the CIA cover organization, moved out to new digs and a new identity as the Naval Auxiliary Communications Center.


As more TDC people arrived, I moved to a new western style house on Chien Kuo Pei Lu that had been rented by a Maj Haggerty, USMC.  Capt Al Wilson, USMC, and Lt. Harvey Decker, USN also stayed there until Haggerty's wife arrived.  Then, I rented a new house on the same street where my wife and daughter joined me in August '55.  All of the aforementioned were J-2 types also.  We were joined on CKPL by the Schremshers, and by fellow J-2 officers Ltjg Jed Hazel and Ltjg Ed Moser and their families.  This string of houses was just a couple blocks -- easy walking distance -- from the Taipei American School where my wife later taught.

I can't for the life of me remember how we got to and from our quarters to TDC.  I recall that while at the hostel we were picked up by sedans with Chinese army drivers.  I am inclined to think that practice continued, for there was scant parking space at TDC for our private vehicles that came with our dependents.  Also, although pedicabs were the primary mode of getting around Taipei, I can't remember taking them to TDC.  Amazing what time does to memory -- very selective!!

Semper Fidelis,
Darrell Davidson

I sent COL Davidson a photo of Hostel #1 on Grass Mountain and asked if that's where he was initially quartered and he replied that it was not.  He said that they were somewhere close to the airport.

I'm really looking forward to reading more of COL Davidson's recollections in the future.

Where is the Ship's Bell?

I have often wondered whatever happened to the ship's bell that was located just outside and to the right of the main entrance door at TDC.  I suppose it probably was either given to one of the last senior naval officers assigned to the building or else it's on display somewhere.  Does anyone happen to know?

The bell was on some sort of stand, I believe similar to the one shown in this photo and of course it had a rope attached to the clapper.  As I recall, the bell was only used when we raised the flag at the far left corner of the parking lot on Monday through Friday mornings at 0800 hours (8:00 AM, eight bells).  On weekends, when BMC Gagne (in my day) wasn't there, the person on watch just blew a whistle (one long blast) to raise the flag and then three short blasts to signal whoever had raised it that it was okay to drop his salute and return to the building.  I don't think they trusted us with that bell.

I think I mentioned a couple of years ago that one day another chief in the building had to do the honors of ringing the bell when Chief Gagne had an appointment elsewhere.  Now the backup had never done this before and apparently forgot that it was supposed to be done in four groups of two rings:  ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding.  So when his little radio beeped the 8:00 AM signal, he just clanged out eight bells...all at once:  dingdingdingdingdingdingdingding!  It sounded like the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

I happened to have flag detail that morning and I clearly remember watching the J-1 (a Navy captain 0-6 at that time) flying out of his office door in the lobby and getting up in the chief's face, inviting him back into his office for a little talk after the ceremony.   The captain was not happy and the chief was definitely not happy.  But the rest of us, including the Chinese color guards who I'm pretty sure were laughing as they raised their flag, all thought it was pretty cool.  But I always felt badly for the chief, who was a really nice guy.  Sometimes these things just happen.

So if anyone knows where the USTDC ship's bell is today, please let me know.  I'd love to ring it a time or two, if only because I wasn't allowed to back in the day.

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.

Building Layout -- Continued

I recently asked for input on the layout of the USTDC building and I received this email from Ed Bunting:

I was assigned to the photo lab in the quonset hut in '57-'58. The building next to it housed a 24" X 24" horizontal copy camera and darkroom. The back of the building had a printing press for our only lithographer's mate. The building behind that was the photo commander's office and a storeroom. The photo interpretation unit and crypto unit was in the basement of the main building. There was another quonset hut off to the left that doesn't show in the photo that was the Seabee unit. That is about all I can remember. I hope it helps.

Ed Bunting (PHG2)

I know that some offices were moved around over the years, but I don't remember the quonset hut when I was there in 1973-74. Does anyone recall if that's true and, if so, where the photo lab was moved to?

Also, I have no memory of a basement in the building. I believe that the photo interpretation guys (Larry and Pete, in my day) were up on the second floor somewhere. Does anyone recall where the basement stairs were?

My Job at USTDC, Such As It Was

It occurred to me today that in the previous 433 posts I've made here, I've said very little about my job at TDC. It probably has something to do with the fact that the personnel field isn't all that glorious to begin with. I mean if you ask a special forces guy what he does, he'll come up with something suitably impressive like, "I neutralize threats and break things." I'd have to say something like, "I typed and filed a lot and told people they couldn't have what they wanted." It's just doesn't have the same macho ring to it, does it?

I completed basic training in August of 1962 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. I have two clear memories of that place: We got yelled at constantly and there was no air conditioning. I'm sure there must have been other things going on, but I can't remember any of them right now.

Anyway I was then sent off to a small base in Mississippi (that ceased to exist decades ago, by the way) to learn all about processing records, assignments, job classifications, awards and decorations, military pay, and a host of other tasks. Pretty exciting stuff, huh?

So after I mastered all the blocks of instruction, more or less, I was sent forth over the next ten years or so to apply my skills in places like Okinawa, Florida, California, and Colorado. Some time in 1973 I received word that I was going to a joint service outfit in Taipei, which turned out to be USTDC and that was fine with me. The Air Force had some really nasty remote areas where I could have been sent and I figured that 15 months in Taipei beat the heck out of 12 months in some other cold and lonely places I knew about.

So on my first day at TDC, the guy I was replacing explained the kinds of things I would be dealing with there. It was like stepping onto a new planet; almost none of it was what I'd been trained to do. And what the heck was a quarterdeck anyway? But I vowed to soldier on, or whatever it was that we Air Force people were supposed to do.

One of the first things he introduced me to was something called a staff summary sheet. Now I'd heard of these things but I never actually had to deal with one before. In a nutshell, for those who've never had the pleasure, it is a sort of routing sheet that you attached to some document that you're sending to someone else, usually higher in the food chain, so they know what the item is, why they should care about it, and what they're being asked to do with it.

At this point, I should explain that at TDC I worked for an Army lieutenant colonel. His boss was a Navy captain (06). The captain's boss was an Air Force brigadier general who also had the additional duty as commander of all the Air Force guys at TDC. Of course the general's boss was the Navy vice admiral.

So here's how the staff summary sheet worked in practice: Let's say I got an immunization roster from our (Air Force) support unit in Hawaii. On it would be a list of names of our Air Force guys who were due for an immunization booster shot or some such thing. I'd contact each one and give him a card to take over to the hospital where they'd get the shot, bring the card back and I'd check them off the list. No problem so far.

The problem arose because the roster itself had a line at the bottom for the unit commander's signature, certifying that everyone received the shots they were due. Now on a normal base, I'd just trot over to the commander's office, ask him to sign the thing, and then drop it in the mail. Life wasn't that simple at TDC because my commander was The General.

So I'd fill out the top of the summary sheet with date, a title that I'd make up, the regulatory authority for the action (which I usually had to scramble around to find), and several other blocks of information so that everyone in the chain up to the general could see what was needed. They would then scribble their chop in the appropriate block and send it forward.

However, it wasn't at all unusual for documents to come bouncing back because one of those in the chain had a question that I hadn't addressed sufficiently or there was something they wanted me to change on the SSS. So I'd make the changes and route the package back up again. Sometimes it would come back again because someone higher in the chain wanted another change made. Something as simple as a shot roster could take days to work its way up and down the system.

The funny thing is that I don't think anybody really cared about the thing. They just wanted to be sure that if their boss had a question, they'd be able to answer it.

So I guess you could say that much of my time at TDC was spent explaining the obvious about the unimportant to the disinterested.

That was my job.

What about yours?

Linkou Annex Menu

I received a note from Ted Walker, who was an ETR2 in J-6 at TDC from April 1968 to July 1969. He talked about how much he enjoyed his tour and how he's still in touch with several swabbies from back in the day. He also enjoyed working with the Army techs and communicating via TTY with the folks on Grass Mountain.

He mentioned that HSA had a rugby squad and several guys from TDC, including Ted, played for the team. Are those bumper stickers right when they say it takes leather balls to play rugby? Just wondering.

Anyway, he sent along some scans of a few pages from the Linkou Club food menu. Sorta makes your mouth water, doesn't it? Of course I'm talking about the prices. The food was pretty good too!

Passing of RADM Linder

I just learned that Rear Admiral (Retired) James Benjamin Linder, of Oro Valley, Arizona and formerly of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, died at 4:21 a.m. on Tuesday, April 7, 2009. He was born on October 13, 1925, in Osceola, Iowa, to Merlin D. "Sarge" and Gracia I. McKay Linder. He graduated from Mount Pleasant High School and enlisted in the US Navy on May 18, 1943, in Des Moines, Iowa.

He is shown here receiving an award from US Ambassador Len Unger in Taipei.

Rear Admiral Linder was the last Commander of the US Taiwan Defense Command, arriving in 1977. He supervised and executed the withdrawal of all US military personnel and dependents from the island in 1979. Before retiring, he served under the CINCPAC from May to July, 1979.

Admiral Linder's obituary can be found here.

USTDC Commanders

Left to right: VADM Gentner, CNO ADM Moorer, Admiral Feng Chi-chung, Chinese Navy commander-in-chief

The last time I updated my list of the admirals who commanded USTDC was in April 2008. Though I've have never found any historical documents that contain a complete list, I believe these are fairly close.

Today I found a Time Magazine article from April 1964 that described President Johnson's new top command team and one of those mentioned was Vice Admiral William E. Gentner Jr. (misspelled as "Centner" in the first sentence of the article). I believe that he was the third COMUSTDC.

The article describes VADM Gentner as follows:

Vice Admiral William E. Centner Jr., 56, new commander of the Taiwan Defense Command on Nationalist Chinese Formosa. A taut, efficient planner and a professional perfectionist, Gentner demands that his subordinates be thinking men as well as fighting men, regularly flew "guest lecturers" out to speak aboard the big carriers when he was boss of the Sixth Fleet. Though Bill Gentner probably won't need it, there will be plenty of advice available to him on Formosa. U.S. Ambassador Jerauld Wright is a retired four-star admiral.

Once again, here's the list of COMUSTDC admirals that I've been able to find. If anyone has any additions or corrections to this list, please let me know.

Vice Admiral Roland N. Smoot: 1958

Vice Adm. Charles L. Melson 1962 to 1964

Vice Adm. William E. Gentner Jr. 1964 to 1967

Vice Adm. John L. Chew 1967 to 1969

Vice Admiral Walter H. Baumberger: 1971-1972

Vice Admiral Philip A. Beshany:  Sep 1972 – Sep 1974

Vice Admiral Edwin K. Snyder:  Aug 1974 – Aug 1977

Rear Admiral James Linder:  1978 – 1979

Vice Admiral Doyle: ???? - ????