TDC Memories -- Bill Roadman

Bill Roadman was stationed at TDC from February 1967 to April 1968. He contacted me a few days ago with several of his experiences during his tour:

I worked as a Radioman at the USTDC building that held the radio communications. I was a Radioman with the Navy. I lived in the signal compound barracks and my houseboys’ names were Ting and Jimmy (Hu?). Not sure of the spelling of Jimmy's last name. I remember they were both at least 40 years old. Jimmy was planning to retire and move to Argentina (someday). I used to get my hair cut at the signal compound barbershop -- very pretty barber. They would always massage your shoulders with a small electric massager that felt so good.

I ate almost everyday at the F.A.S.D. restaurant in the Signal compound. I made friends with two Taiwanese students who graduated from Soochow University - Harry and Eugene. Harry eventually graduated and moved to the Boston area in the states. I was able to contact him in the late 70's, but have lost contact with him. He was doing post graduate work at one of the big colleges there. Eugene got a job with China Air Lines and is probably retired now. Also lost contact with him due to neglect. I wish I had kept up with them. I recall how they always insisted on taking me to the noodle stands in Shimending (not sure of the spelling). There were times when my stomach was doing flip-flops, but I did not want to offend them. I got even though; I took them to the F.A.S.D and bought them chili dogs. I thought they would puke.

I had a 1953 Triumph 500cc motorcycle that I bought from Lee Olsen in early 67, as he was getting discharged from the Army. I hung out with mostly Army guys. We used to get off midnight shift and go running all over Taipei just goofin’ off. We would get breakfast then buy lots of fireworks and set them off. We especially liked the ones that cost a nickel each. They were about the size of a stick of dynamite and about as loud when you set them off. You stood them vertically on the ground, lit the fuse and they would rocket about 100 feet in the air before exploding

I believe I worked in building 18. Also note the small L shaped building to the right of 18. I think that is where Comseventhflt Det A had their shore to ship voice communications. I was TDY there for I think 6 weeks or more. There was one sailor on duty in that building for 8 hours each day. I think there were at least 4 of us. Weird things happened in that building. We all thought it was haunted and hated to stand the mid-watch alone. There was nothing to do except monitor communications and log in every 15 minutes or half-hour whatever happened. One night I was sitting there reading something, when a loud band struck the ceiling just over my head. I jumped up shaking. I ran outside to see if something fell on the roof, but nothing. Then I went back inside. In a couple of minutes there was another loud bang. I was getting nervous. We had a military 45 loaded and were ready to defend the building if need be. For the next couple of hours a loud band would strike about every 15 minutes. I figured one of my buddies got into the attic and was trying to scare me. I went back outside and walked around the building. No entrance could be found to get up there. Needless to say I was on pins and needles the rest of the night. I could not wait to get relieved by the following watch. When they came, I didn’t say anything, thinking they would think I was crazy. I went to the barracks and tried to sleep. That night I had to go back for my next watch. When I got there, I asked the guy I was relieving if anything unusual happened. He said, “Sure thing; something was banging on the ceiling.” He was scared and too had tried to find an opening to the attic. These continued for weeks and everyone who worked there heard it and was not amused. One guy got so frustrated he took the 45 out and shot a hole in the concrete barrier fence behind the building. We never told anyone else about the events figuring they would laugh at us.

The barracks I lived in was either 26 and 25 or 25 and 11. For some reason I had to move. We referred to them as the Signal Compound barracks. I think that only the barracks were referred to as the Signal Compound, but may have included the ball field and the MAA’s office, barbershop etc.

TDY/TAD Trip

I'm going to be out of town for about a week, which is why I posted more than the usual number of items during the past couple of days. I'll be checking in from time to time, whenever the wife and I aren't busy spoiling the grandkids, but probably won't be posting any new stuff until we return home.

In the meantime, feel free to add comments to anything here and if you have more photos or narratives, please continue emailing them to me and I'll start sorting them out when I return.

Once again, thanks to everyone for all the great material that you've submitted over the past few months. Less than a year ago I was concerned that all memory of USTDC and the area around it would disappear. I think we're assembling a great archive here that should be around for a good long time.

See you in a few days.

Don

Stev Pitchford & USTDC Photo Lab Staff

This is a photo of the USTDC Photo Lab staff, probably taken sometime in 1959 or 1960. The young man in the dark cap, second from the right in the back row, is Stev Pitchford.

Sarj Bloom At Work

Sarj has provided several great photos here and this is one of the man himself. That's him in whites hiding behind that camera. This was his first photo assignment at TDC, probably early in 1962, and he believes it was taken aboard the USS Oklahoma City and that the officer was probably Vice Admiral William A. Schoech, Commander of the US 7th Fleet.

Grass Mountain Park Scenes

More Stev Pitchford photos. These were taken at the park next to the Grass Mountain hostel #1 during September and October, 1959.

On The Way To USTDC

Stev sent these three photographs that were taken on the road from his quarters on Grass Mountain to the USTDC photo lab during September, 1959. Great shots!

Another MIG

Here's another photo from Stev Pitchford. This one is of another MIG whose pilot defected to Taiwan.

Stev writes:

Here is a crowd viewing a MIG-15 on display in downtown Taipei. It was flown to Taiwan by a Chinese Communist defector in late 1959 or early 1960. While the details are written on the poster by the plane, my Chinese never got past recognizing a few symbols on buses so I'd know which one to catch, so I can't translate it for you.

One of the photo lab's functions was processing aerial reconnaissance film. In the spring of 1960, Lt. Colonel Tinsley walked into the lab proudly pointing to a spot in the middle of a print he was carrying. The spot was flying at well above 40,000 feet and whatever took the picture was way above that. Because it was a long time ago, I may be mixing my MIGs, but I think he said it was a MIG-21. In any case, it was the first evidence they had that a MIG of that generation was flying in Communist China.

Aerial Photos of the Compounds

Stev Pitchford sent these great shots, taken during the spring of 1960.

When I was at USTDC, these areas on either side of Chungshan North Road were just the Headquarters Support Activity (HSA) compound. When I've written about them here, I usually refer to them as the east and west compound, but that's just to identify which side of the street I'm talking about.

I'm posting Stev's comments here, followed by mine (in brackets):

If you walked south behind the TDC compound, you came to this area. The long building at the bottom of the picture was the Bachelor Officers' Quarters. The building above the right corner of the BOQ was the base exchange. The building at the back of the parking lot was the base theater and the building at the left of the parking lot was the commissary. [The BOQ became the first of two buildings that the hostel occupied. The second building was directly behind this one. Next to the theater at the far end of the parking lot was the library. I think that there were other new buildings later on and some of those shown here may have been gone by the time I got there.]

Across Chungshan North Road from the BOQ was the MAAG compound. [This area was no longer called the MAAG compound when I was there. I'd have to go back and look at some of the other photos and maps that I've posted here, but I think that there were more structures here also.]

Navy Hospital Photo?

**** UPDATE ****

Kent just reminded me where I saw that navy hospital photo. It's an official ROC historical photo at a website that reader Misty pointed out recently. You can find it here.

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Someone has asked for a photo of the navy hospital in Taipei. I could have sworn that someone sent one to me some time ago, but I can't locate it anywhere. If anyone out there has one, please email it to me and I'll post it here.

Thanks!

Don

Grass Mountain Hostel

On April 7th, I wrote about an article I'd read regarding the historic preservation of Yangmingshan (Yangming Mountain). This article described numerous buildings that were former homes or dormitories for American military personnel.

I wasn't sure where that area was, and readers explained that it was the Grass Mountain area.

Stev Pitchford sent me these two photos of Hostel #1 on Grass Mountain that were taken during October, 1959. Here's his summary:

In the area around the hostel were a small police station, a Chinese elementary school, and the International Hotel. I believe the hotel is still there. Next to the hostel was a park with a spring fed swimming pool and the water in it was really cold. There was also a basketball court where the Chinese kids regularly ran us ragged.

On the other side of the park was Chiang Kai Shek's summer residence. In the winter (it never really got that cold) months, he stayed at a residence on what was then the outskirts of Taipei.

A short walk below the hostel was the American housing and recreation compound. I made pretty good use of the bowling alley, movie theater, and tennis court there.

A short walk above the hostel was the Chinese War College. From there to the communications site at the top of the mountain was further than you'd want to walk, so any time I was up there I rode. I don't remember what it was called, but I've seen it referred to as STRATCOM, AFNT, and ICRT in your blog. What I do remember were the two huge microwave antennae pointed at Okinawa. If birds flew in front of the antennae when they were active, the birds died.

Does anyone know if the hostel building is still standing? If so, what is it used for?

In the article that I linked to at the top of this piece, there is a reference to preserving "...dormitories of the US Taiwan Defense Command," but it's not clear that they're talking about Grass Mountain. Opinions?

Coincidentally, Kent Mathieu, who operates the Taipei Air Station website and blog, just sent me another fascinating article, this one from the Asia Times, dated 6 Mar 2003. It describes in some detail how part of Grass Mountain is (or recently was) being used for some very hush-hush kinds of things.