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!

Rules of the Road

Driving in Taiwan was different in many ways from what we were accustomed to in the States.  There were differences with the local laws, of course, but there were also some differences in traditional customs and courtesies on the streets and roads.

To make the transition to a new driving environment a bit easier, the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command and the Military Assistance Advisory Group co-published a guide to driving in Taiwan.  Scott in Taipei recently came into possession of the 1958 version of the guide and has been kind enough to share it with us.  I was especially fascinated by the rates for pedicabs (which were no longer in use when I arrived in Taipei) and the taxi rates.  I believe that the $NT to $US conversion rate was probably the same 40-to-1 ratio in 1958 as when I was there during 1973-74.  I didn't own a car while in Taipei so I often took taxis to wherever I needed to go.

As always, you can click on any of these images to view a larger version.  I'll be converting this document to a single PDF file for downloading in case anyone is interested in having a copy.  When it's ready, it will be posted in the column to your right, in the same area as other PDF files that I've previously made available.

Taipei Transports of the 1960s

Here's another group of photographs from Bill Amborn.  He wrote:

"Here is a small photo collection of ways in which goods and people were moved around in 1963-1965. I was intrigued by how things moved and stationed myself in a spot to photographed whatever came by. The photos were all taken in the same area, probably along Zhongshan Bei Lu. This is more part of the general history of Taiwan than anything to do with the military, a different slice than one might usually encounter.

 

I don’t know how much had changed in the ten years between my tour and yours, but now when I cruise around the roads on Google today, it is just incredible."

I believe I saw most of these methods of transport still being used during 1973-74, though probably far fewer of them than were around ten years earlier.  The exception would be the pedicabs.  I think they had been banned from the streets of Taipei by then.

 

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.

Auto Insurance Applied

I wrote a piece a few days ago about auto insurance and how it was handled for American military people in Taipei.  In response to that, I received a note from a guy who was in Taipei during the 1960s.  He described an unusual accident that he was involved in and how things sort of went downhill from there.

I only had one occasion to use my insurance while in Taiwan. I was visiting a friend and his wife at their home. The street was very narrow, as most were in those days, and it was also a dead-end.  There was no room to even turn the car around, especially at night when you couldn’t see because there were no street lights. Upon leaving, my friend said I had no choice but to back up to the main street and stay to the one side away from the houses where the benjo ditch was.

With my wife watching the ditch side, I slowly backed out toward the main street. About half way to the cross-street I felt a bump and not knowing what it was I pulled forward, felt another bump, and then heard someone scream in pain.

My first thought was that someone had thrown himself under my car. It was near Chinese New Year and we had all heard stories of nationals doing this to collect money and not enter the New Year in debt. Americans passed this story around but I don’t know if there was any truth to it.

My wife and I got out of the car, with a flashlight, to see what had happened. Half way in the street was a man in a chair who I guess had been napping. I’ll never know if he did this on purpose or not. Very soon after, another man appeared and was shouting something in Chinese. I could his leg was broken but it was too dark to see a lot.

I told my Chinese wife to tell them to hurry into the car and I would take him to the hospital. He got into the car along with his friend who later I found out was his brother-in-law. The brother-in-law was shouting a lot of stuff at my wife. I’m probably glad I didn’t understand it. I’m sure it would have angered me.  Finally with translation from my wife I was told the brother-in-law insisted we go to the Chinese police before going to the hospital.  Even as I drove to the nearest one (as I remember it was on the corner of Nan King E Rd and some other road) I tried to argue that it was best to go to the hospital first.  He wouldn’t have it so I went to the Police station.


As soon as the brother-in-law finished with the police he got back in the car and asked to go to the hospital.  I was quite upset with him and told him, "No.  Now we will go to my police."  So although he talked all the way I went to the Provost Marshal in the compound and reported to them what had happened and then went to the hospital.

Inside the hospital they just laid the guy on the floor in the hallway along with all the other people who were laying and sitting there up against the wall.  I went to the admittance window and showed them all my IDs, including my insurance card.   I insisted they put him in a room, but to no avail. I guess I thought I was different -- maybe somewhat entitled? Because I had insurance and was able to pay, I thought I would get special treatment, or rather the injured man would get better treatment. Well, it didn’t work out that way and I finally said goodbye to all and left. It was a very strange evening full of confusion and made me wonder about the differences in our cultures.

This all happened on a Friday evening and when I got to work on Monday my friend told me “Thanks a lot buddy. The neighborhood is picketing my house now with signs saying 'Go home Yankee', and asking me for money to help the family since the guy can’t work now." I told him what had happened because we were far enough away from his house when it happened that he didn’t know anything. He said it was the brother-in-law who approached him about money and came by daily until my friend told him to stay away or else.

Thinking back now I wonder how the guy knew that I was at my friend's house.   I guess I’ll never know, and I’ll also never know if the Insurance paid for his hospital bills etc.

*** ADDED ***

Old friend Kent Mathieu reminded me that back in December 2007 I posted an account of his experience with Taiwan Fire and Marine Insurance when he wrecked his 1965 Mustang.  

It still breaks my heart when I think about that poor Mustang!

Auto Insurance In Taiwan

Page 88 of the Taiwan Report, the newcomers guide to living in Taipei, described the procedures for registering and operating a motor vehicle in Taiwan.  It stated the minimum insurance requirements as well, and said that your insurance had to be through a company that had a claims agent in Taiwan. I didn't own a car during my tour at USTDC, but I'm wondering if anyone who did can recall what company he/she was insured by.  Also, where was your agent located -- in the compound, in Taipei or elsewhere?

Does anyone recall how much you were paying for insurance in Taipei back then?  I remember that as a young airman with a clean driving record, my car insurance rates in the States were through the roof.  I was stationed in Sacramento when I turned 25 and got married in the same month and my car insurance rates plummeted.  It was like I magically became a model citizen overnight.

*** UPDATE ***

Sarj Bloom just submitted his insurance card from 1961-62.

 

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:

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.

Selling Vehicles in Taipei

I received a note from Sarj Bloom a few days ago describing how he went about selling his car in Taipei. 

Some time ago someone posted a note about not being able to sell your car in Taiwan. I sold mine and still have the MAAG form used for the contract.  In August of 1961 while on leave I bought a 1957 Chevy in Ohio and drove it to California knowing that the Navy would transport it to Taiwan for me.

My car arrived about a month after I did (Oct '61).  The day it arrived I was told I could sell it for $1,500.00 US easy, but I would have to wait for [reassignment] orders first. I wasn't interested in selling it until I was supposed to leave in Oct. of '62 so I did nothing.

In Oct. of 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis happened and I volunteered to extend at TDC for another year. I had already written a contract with a local for the sale of my car upon orders to transfer. 

Well, when I extended my tour, this poor guy, who thought he would get the car in a month or so, was told he would have to wait another year.  He was very upset but I didn't plan it and my hands were tied.

So the story goes that in 1961 I paid $900 for a great car, drove it across the country and all over Taiwan for 2 years, and still got $650 for it.

A Bridge Too Complicated

More pictures from Kent, this time showing the bridges that now span the river on the way to the old Club 63, Tien Mou and other areas to the north of USTDC.

When I was there in 1973-74 it was just a single bridge, built by the Japanese as I recall. I often crossed it on foot, looking down at the water and whatever happened to be floating by at the time.




This is a Google Earth view showing more or less what it looks like from the air.

Film Clip of Taipei During the 1950s

If the Babel Fish text translator is correct, that's what this short film clip on YouTube is about. The quality isn't great, but there are still some great images from back in the day. The actual title: 民國50年代的台北街頭

More Roma Hotel

Barb just sent me a couple of photos taken in the late 1970s. She wrote:

I found these two pictures in my stash of stuff. We were traveling on Ming Tsu East Rd (probably in front of that book store where I got all my cook books) getting ready to make a left hand turn (to go north) onto Chung Shan N. The first scan shows the intersection and you can see the Roma Hotel on the left. The second scan is a closer shot of the Roma Hotel as we were turning left (north) onto Chung Shan N. Rd.

There are a couple of things that I noticed about these pictures. At the left border of the first photo, at the hotel's ground level, you can just make out what looks like a dark square area. If you zoom in on it you'll see that it is a partial image of Romulus and Remus, the mythological founders of Rome. I have included the full image at the bottom of this post. I was beginning to wonder if my memory had faded even more than I thought because nobody else seemed to remember that. But sure enough, there it was in this pic.

In the second photo, as Barb and Walt were making their left turn to head toward the compound, I noticed that they were turning in front of oncoming traffic. One of the first things I noticed about Taipei traffic was that when lights turned green at intersections, the first few cars waiting to turn left always pulled in front of the oncoming traffic. The oncoming traffic would creep forward and after a few cars made their turn (was there some magic number?), the oncoming traffic would continue across the intersection. I've often wondered if they still operate under that system, which seemed to work pretty well for all concerned.