Slides of Taiwan 1968-69

Titojohn found this YouTube presentation that was put together by a former Air Force guy who was stationed in Taipei during 1968-69.

Walking Tours of Taipei

A couple of months ago I mention that Kent Mathieu (Taipei Air Station blog and website) has been posting videos to YouTube of his walks around Taipei.  He has now done several of these videos, pointing out where things are (or used to be) located.  The most recent video (30 Sep 2010) is a walk along Sung Shan North road in the vicinity of the hostels and HSA compounds.

You can find his videos HERE, and I've also added an item under "Taiwan Links of Interest" in the right-hand column of this blog.  Look for "Kent Mathieu's walking tours of present-day Taipei."

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!

Walking Around Taipei

I mentioned in my last post that Kent (Taipei Air Station) is thinking about coordinating another visit to Taiwan for Taiwan veterans during November 2011.

I just discovered that he has also made a series of short videos as he walked around Taipei earlier this month.  He explores parts of town that were familiar to many of us from back in the day. The videos are on YouTube and can be found at THIS LINK.

Enjoy.

Hsiminding Random Shots

I've received a number of photos from Les Duffin recently and I want to share as many of them as possible.

The images shown below, according to Les, were shots that he took of Hsimending and the street between the Hilton Hotel and the railroad station.  He thinks they were taken sometime between 1975 and 1978, probably closer to the latter date, but they’re not labeled and he just doesn't remember much about them.

Blast from the Past

Old friend Larry Markum just sent me this photo of the two of us standing in front of what appears to be a shop that sold and developed film and slides.

Larry is on the left and I'm on the right, apparently fascinated by something around (or perhaps under) my feet.

This is the only picture I've ever seen of me in Taiwan and I don't remember anything about it at all. Can anyone identify the shop?  It was most likely within easy walking distance of the HSA compound.

Chung Shan T’ang

Over the past couple of years, I've posted four separate pieces about the Bob Hope USO show that came to Taipei in 1962.   Hope described Taiwan as an island "bounded on the east by the magnificent Pacific Ocean and on the west by the beautiful 7th Fleet."

At the time I wrote those pieces, nobody could remember exactly where the show was held.  Until today, that is.  Les Duffin sent me some photos of the location and identified it as the Chung Shan Hall.  Here are his comments:

Here are the photos I mentioned earlier of Chung Shan T’ang – Chung Shan Hall.  We Americans had a habit of calling it Taipei City Hall, which was misleading.  We should have called it the Taipei City Auditorium or maybe just Chung Shan Hall.  This was the site of Bob Hope’s Christmas 1962 show and of many other concerts and shows.  I was there at least twice, the first time for the Hope show, and again for the Double Ten Day concert in October 1966.  I was poking around on Google Earth a couple of weeks ago, looking to see how much Hsimending has changed now that the Hsin Sheng Theater and the Chung Hua Market buildings are long gone and was amazed to see that the hall is still there.  I wonder if it is still the main venue for major concerts and state shows in Taipei?

This is a shot I took in the 70s, probably in 1972 or 73.  On the left is the tri-level Chung Hua Market and on the right the Hsin Sheng Theater.  Just behind the theater, the dull-looking brown building is the rear of Chung Shan Hall.

This one is similar to the above photo, this shows a better view of the building’s rear.  I’m not sure where I got this photo but I probably pulled it off the internet somewhere.

This is Chung Shan T’ang:  I took this badly-lighted shot of the front of the hall in 1963, not long after the Hope show.

And these two photos are ones I pulled down from Google Earth – the present day hall!

******** UPDATE ********

As a result of the comments to this article, Les sent the following additional comments and photograph.

I believe the attached photo is of a court building that was somewhere in the general vicinity of CS Hall.  I don’t recall exactly where it was, but my photos of the two buildings were sequential which means this was the next shot I took after the one of the hall.  I believe this was in fact a court building of some sort and you’ll notice how similar it is in appearance to CS Hall.

More Tien Mou Housing Photos

Les sent me another batch of photographs of his quarters and neighborhood in Tien Mou.  Here's what he had to say about them:

After looking through my photos, here are the ones that I think give some idea of what the New BOT housing compound in Tien Mu looked like.  As I said, we lived in BOT 106A which was the first unit in from the main street and was separated from the street by a concrete wall.  The photos were taken in 1976 and 1977, though we lived there until our departure in June 1978.

BOT 109

Barbara sent me another shot of their quarters in Tien Mou (BOT 109), around 1978:

The Bridge -- The Final Chapter

These will be the last shots of the bridge across the Keelung River that I'll be posting here...unless, of course, somebody sends me some more.

Les sent me a batch of photos a few days ago of both the old and new bridges.  The first shots were taken sometime between 1962 and 1966 while the second group shows the construction of the new bridge when the north-south super highway was being built during 1978.

First the batch from the 1962-1966 time period:

And these photos were taken during 1978 as the new bridge was being constructed:

And Even More Tien Mou

Barbara Auch sent me a great photo of the BOT quarters where she and her husband lived during the late 1970s.  Here's what she had to say about it:

The last photo under Tien Mou in 1984, Part 1, was very interesting to me.   Things changed so much just from 1979 to 1984!

You said that photos three through six are of the west side of the street where the Japanese school now stands.  I believe that the apartment buildings behind the school (photo 6) are the same apartment buildings that were being built behind my house (BOT #109 in the west compound)!  If you blow up the picture, you can see the bamboo scaffolding.  There was a big earthquake when we were there and I was amazed that the scaffolding didn't come down.

Burning Bridges Behind Me

Just kidding.  I'm not really burning anything but whenever I think of bridges my mind always seems to wander back to when that song was popular.  It's too late to turn back now.

I've written several times about the bridge that has been called the Hirohito Bridge, the Keelung River Bridge, and probably various other names that I've never heard.  I'm not obsessed with the structure or anything, but I crossed it so many times on my way to the Club 63 and elsewhere that it is very much a part of my Taipei memories.

The bridge that existed when I was there was built in 1923 for Japanese Emperor Hirohito's visit to the Taiwan Grand Shrine.  The shrine was located on the spot today occupied by the Grand Hotel.  You can see the bridge toward the bottom of this painting.

 

 The photo below is how it looked when I was at USTDC in the 1970s.

 

 I recently received a couple of images from a friend that show the previous bridge that spanned the river at that point.  I don't know if this was the original bridge or if there was another one there prior to this one.

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.

Taipei Area Videos From The 1950s

John Quinn recently sent me links to these three great YouTube videos:

Tien Mou in 1984 - Part 4

Les sent three more photos of Tien Mou that were taken during his 1984 trip, including the Tien Mou tree, which he said anyone who lived there would remember.

Though I didn't live there during my stay at USTDC, I hope these images bring back some happy memories for those who did.

Tien Mou in 1984 - Part 3

These are the last of the Tien Mou photographs that Les took during his 1984 visit to Taiwan.  They are also of the east side, where the recreation facilities were located.  The second to the last photo identifies that area as the intended site of the new Taipei American School.