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.

Ray's Mementos

I posted some comments from Ray Richardson a few days ago.  He was an Army E-5 who worked in the Command Center from March of 1978 until USTDC was closed in early 1979.

Ray sent me images of a few items that he brought home from Taipei.  The first two have to do with the Meritorious Unit Commendation that was awarded to USTDC for the period 1 May 1977 through 30 Apr 1979.

I hadn't thought about it before, but I wonder if the US Taiwan Defense Command received any other unit awards during its existence.  They would most likely have also been Navy awards.  Does anyone know of any others?

Next is Ray's certificate of Achievement for his time spent at USTDC.

 

Finally, here's the chop that he bought while there.  These were a very popular item with American military folks and they probably purchased hundreds (thousands?) of them over the years.

Taiwan Mementos Follow-Up

I was asked if there was some way to contact LTC Ellinger to find out if he was interested in certain Taiwan-related items before actually sending them to him. He has set up an email account for these inquiries: us_maag_taiwan@yahoo.com. This would also be a good way to send digitized photographs as well, as long as you include a note explaining the "who, what, when and where" for each photo.

As I said in my last post, I'd very much like to have copies of photos that are at all USTDC related, as well as photos of any items that you ship, along with your okay to post them here on the blog. Email them to me at: USTD[at]yahoo.com. Also please do the same for the Taipei Air Station website (email TaipeiAirStation@hawaii.rr.com), the Taipei Air Station blog (same as the Taipei Air Station website) and the Shu Linkou vets website (email Phantom@dawgflight.com). The Linkou website focuses mainly on the individuals and activities in and around the former Air Station on the hill, while the Taipei Air Station sites cover most anything that is Taiwan related.

I explained to a good friend recently that my kids have no interest in my Taiwan stuff (except maybe for the furniture I gave them) and the grandkids have even less. I'd just hate to see those things get thrown out or end up on eBay after I'm gone, so this is a chance for me to send them back home again for "permanent" display. I know that my situation may be quite different from that of many others, but if you're in a similar situation, this would be a way to preserve some of the stuff you've kept in the bottom of a drawer or the back of a closet for many years.

Taiwan Mementos

I received the following request from Lieutenant Colonel Scott Ellinger:

History is not to be forgotten. All who were once stationed in Taiwan please look through your old boxes, scrap books, and photo albums.

I am LTC Scott J. Ellinger, currently stationed in Taiwan at the American Institute in Taiwan – Taipei. I work in the Technical Section (Technical Section is the term used for the US MAAG after 1979) as the Army Programs Manager.

Our office wants to line our hallway with items from yesteryear in honor of those who once served in Taiwan, and to maintain a history of assigned units. We want to collect old memorabilia from persons who were stationed in Taiwan with any unit (USTDC, MAAG, Army/Navy/Air Force/Marine units and DoD civilians assigned to any of these units). So far, we have chosen 10 photos (blown up to 12x18) to line the hallway (these photos were downloaded from the USTDC and Taipei Air Station BLOGs). We would like more photos to fill up the white spaces on the walls.

Secondly, the collected memorabilia items will be put into an enclosed glass casing for their permanent home.

Lastly, if anyone has write ups (or wants to do a write up) of unit histories with unit photos, please send them. A historical file is to be created.

For those who are willing contribute to this endeavor, please notify Don Wiggins.

As years go by, I often think about the mementos from my military days that I've stored away in a box somewhere. Chances are good that most of those things will mean very little to my kids and grandkids and it's likely that they'll eventually disappear.

LTC Ellinger is offering a home for photos and objects from those days that will provide a record of our service in Taiwan. I already told him that I'll be sending him the "Gemo Medal" that I received while at USTDC.

I encourage you to take a look at what you have and if there's anything that you would like to see on permanent display at AIT in Taipei, just drop me an email and I'll send you LTC Ellinger's mailing address. Note: Overseas postage is NOT necessary.

TDC Plaque

Some time ago I wrote that I was looking for a photo of the USTDC plaques that were presented when individuals departed Taiwan back in the 1970s. I disposed of mine years ago and haven't seen one since.

Retired SCPO Craig Chapman was Boatswain's Mate at TDC during 1975-1977, and he provided this photo of his plaque and presentation case. I don't think the presentation cases were used during 1973-1974 because mine just came in a cardboard box. Hmmm...maybe that was just mine.

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone knows how long these plaques were presented. They were definitely presented from 1973 through 1977, but what about the years before and after?

Yet Another Bird Sighting

Titojohn alerted me to this shot of TDC's C-118 aircraft. I never left Taiwan during my 15 month tour, but many at TDC rode this bird to other shopping meccas like Hong Kong. I sometimes "house sat" for TDC families who were making those trips.

The funny thing is that back in 1963-64, when I was stationed at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, I caught a hop on a C-47 to Taipei for a shopping trip. I was able to get a hop back to Kadena on a C-130 whose pilot and crew had flown to Taipei (on a "training mission" I'm sure). They came to the standby counter right after they landed and offered several of us a ride home if we'd help them load all the furniture and other stuff that they intended to buy.

By the way, even with the earplugs they gave us, the C-130 was by far the noisiest aircraft I ever flew in!

Blue Angels Invitation

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

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

Sea Dragon Club

Larry "Skip" Byler provided these menu pages from the Sea Dragon Club, which I think may have also been known as the Fleet Reserve Club. I don't believe that it was still there when I arrived in 1973, but I can't swear to that. He wrote:

The Sea Dragon Club (Navy Club) was several blocks south of the downtown Lin Kou Club, on the west side. I remember that the Suzi Wong Bar was across the street. A lot of R&R guys went there and they had a live band most nights. I can't remember the band leader's name, but I recall that they were all from the Phillipines.

National Palace Museum

Barbara Auch has sent me all sorts of cool stuff to post, including these two postcard images that I don't think I've seen before:

I found these two postcards (1978 vintage) of the National Palace Museum from my visit there. The special exhibition I went to was focused on their cloisonne snuff bottle collection. I remember that the museum changed out all exhibits every three or four months. The exhibits that were removed were then put back in some cave for storage.

The history of their exhibits was rather interesting also. When the Communists seized the mainland and people were fleeing to the island of Taiwan, they took with them all kinds of artwork, pottery, etc. That is what was being displayed at the National Palace Museum...all the stuff they were able to take off the mainland with them.

We were stunned by the sheer volume of artwork and culture they were able to save.

"National Palace Museum located in the scenic suburb of Waishuanghsi, 20 minutes from downtown Taipei, Taiwan, the Museum has the world’s largest collection of Chinese objects, totaling more than 240,000 items, representing the essence of Chinese culture spanning more than 3,000 years."

"The front gate of National Palace Museum located in the scenic suburb of Waishunghsi, Taipei, Taiwan"

Merry Christmas

***UPDATE***

Kent Mathieu, over at the Taipei Air Station blog, reminded me that he recently posted an article about a book called "Dragon Hotel." The book was published in 1969 and it talks about the same place that Sarj's Christmas card came from.

**************

Sarj provided these great images:

Here's a Christmas card I saved from the Dragon Hotel. Manager Johnny Huang was a friend of mine.

Chop!

Still More Postcards

Three more early 1960s postcards from Sarj. Once again, I've included the descriptions on the reverse above each photo.

The Presidential Mansion, Taipei. On October 10th, Chinese National Day, the President of the Republic of China may review spectacular parade and pageantry colors. The new tradition has become one of the tourist highlights.

Yangmingshan Park, in the northern suburb of Taipei. A most popular scenic spot

during the cherry blossom and azalea season in the spring.

Taipei is modernizing herself everyday. This is one of the administrative centers right under the newly-built overpass at Chungshan and Chungshen Roads, two main thoroughfares.

More Postcards

More postcards from the early 1960s contributed by Sarj. (The writing on some of the cards was contributed by his kids.) I'll post more of these tomorrow.

The descriptions printed on the reverse side of the cards is shown above each image.

"Sun Moon Lake in Central Taiwan" and "Confucius Temple, Taipei, Taiwan"

The Golden Dragon Lobby. The Grand Hotel, Taipei.

Taipei. A part of the northern city with Yuan-shan (the Round Hill),

The Grand Hotel, Tansui (the Light Water), the Kiddie Playground,

and the Zoo in view.

Hotel Postcards

The hotels in Taipei used to sell little packets of postcards. I don't remember what they cost, but I'm sure it wasn't very much.

Sarj sent me these photos of one such assortment along with the envelope they came in. He purchased these at the First Hotel, the same place where he experienced the earthquake that he described here in May. He says that the center photo is the hotel, of course; the one in the lower right is the lobby and the other three are the different restaurants in the place.

By the way, the First Hotel is still there and you can read about it at this website. It's not exactly a luxury hotel by today's standards, but it doesn't sound too bad. Well...except for that water leaking through the ceiling thing that one reviewer talked about.

USTDC Lighter

Does anyone know if these USTDC lighters were presented by TDC, maybe as a going-away gift, or were they sold in the Navy Exchange or by local merchants?

Many of us smoked in those days but this lighter looks like it was used very little, if at all. I don't recall ever seeing one during my tour.

USTDC Commemorative Patches

Several months ago I came across a Club 63 commemorative patch during a Google search. I wrote a short piece at the time, asking if anyone had ever seen one like it. I eventually learned that it came from an eBay store that sells similar patches for military organizations and bases all over the world.

I contacted the guy a few weeks ago and asked if he's still adding patches to his inventory. To make a long story short, he designed one for USTDC and had a few manufactured. I just ordered one and if you're interested in having one, you can find it here. He said he'll order more if they sell out.

If you're interested in this sort of thing, you should check out the full inventory in his eBay store. There's a search box at the top left of that page and if you type in "Taiwan" you'll find all the Taiwan themed patches that he presently has in stock.

For the record, I'm not receiving any compensation for any of this. I just think it's a neat idea and I thought I'd pass along the information.

Pedicab Drivers

Sarj writes about the hard-working men who drove the pedicabs that were common in Taipei when he was there during the early 1960s. (Photo courtesy of Stev Pitchford)

I woke up this morning thinking that I had to make amends for the term I used, as others did, calling these hard working men "pedicab boys." They certainly were not boys; they were indeed very hard working men. These men in their prime would make Lance Armstrong finish last in a race. They pedaled their cabs for hours and hours all day, up hills and down busy streets, sometimes as many as two adults and two children as passengers.

There was not an ounce of fat on their bodies and their calves were large and extremely well-defined. They ate raw garlic like some folks would take a chew of tobacco. Only once did I try to drive a pedicab. My friend and I thought we would show the driver that we could do his job and asked him to sit in the back while we pedaled. He was very apprehensive about doing this. Well, we took turns trying to pedal the cab and it took great effort to get it started. After my turn, my legs were burning. I understood now why he was so apprehensive; this was his livelihood and if anything would happen he was out of a job and a life. We were young and insensitive, I regret to say.

Some of the pedicabs were very nice. They had fender skirts and chrome and were very polished. If there was a middle class in Taiwan, these are the people who had their own pedicab and driver at their disposal. You could see the pedicab drivers in front of the houses always cleaning and polishing their machines, waiting for their employer to take their next trip. It certainly was a show of class to have your own driver taking you around town and shopping. Everyone recognized you were not an ordinary person, but a person of means.

These poor men took abuse in all kinds of ways. Not only being called pedicab boys, but being disrespected by the police and customers alike. No one wanted to pay them what they asked. You would always argue about the price. It was the thing to do. I wish now that I would have shown more kindness and tipped a lot more than I did.

Pedicabs were such a way of life during my days in Taiwan. I hardly ever took a taxi, but of course I had a car too. When it came time for me to leave Taiwan I thought about what kind of present I could take home to impress my older sister's two children. They were five and six years old and ready to ride bikes so I thought, what better present than a pedicab?

I found a place that sold half-size pedicabs and they were really nice. It was maroon and tan and complete in every way like a full-size one. I really can't remember how much I paid for it but I think it was $100 or maybe $125. The Navy shipped it home for me with my household goods. My sister, her kids, and the whole family thought it was really great. My sister drove it with the two kids as passengers in the 1963 Annual Christmas Parade in my home town of Tiffin, Ohio, and it was the biggest hit.

So in conclusion, I just want to pay my respect to all those hard-working men that for probably generations supplied transportation for people at a low cost and at the expense of their health. Every time I think I have it rough I should think back to those men and others like them that pedaled pedicabs and carts up and down streets and alleys for such little pay and respect.

English to Chinese Name Translation

This has nothing at all to do with USTDC, but it's an interesting website that I found today and I thought I'd pass it along.

During their assignments to Taiwan, many military folks had their names translated into Chinese. The characters might then be engraved or imprinted on something like a plaque or coffee mug. It was a nice souvenir of time spent in that country.

Those of us who never got around to having our names translated can now do it on-line by going to this website. There are first names for both men and women, as well as many family names. It displays gif files of the Chinese characters that you can then save to your computer. I don't have any idea how accurate these are, but I thought you might enjoy them. There are several other links at the site (tattoos, anyone?) so be sure to do some exploring.

Chow Chow Club Revisited

Back on May 6, 2008, Sarj Bloom wrote about the Taiwan Chow Chow Club, a group that met once a month at local restaurants to eat lots of food, as sloppily as possible.

In that article, Sarj mentioned a metal medallion that each member wore to these affairs. He just located his, and here it is. I don't know what the Chinese characters mean. Perhaps they're ""Ta Fan Tung," which was printed on a menu in the original post, and which Anonymous translated as "Big Rice Barrel."

As I said earlier, I never heard of this group in the 1970s. How about the rest of you?

Club Card

Sarj Bloom sent in this image of his old 63 Club (Club 63/MAAG Club/China Seas) membership card. He described it as the best place in town to eat, like some exclusive restaurant in the States (no argument from me!).

He couldn't remember how much the monthly dues were but, like everything else in those days, they wouldn't have been very much. I honestly don't remember paying any dues or even having a membership card when I was there. Was it possible that the navy didn't charge dues? I think they took over the operation of the club not very long after I arrived at TDC in 1973.