The Night of the Wrecked Mustang

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with Kent Mathieu, who owns the Taipei Air Station website. He recently offered to pass along the story of how he wrecked his 1965 Mustang on the road to Beitou and I'm delighted to include it here.

I think it was in late spring of 1966 when a team from Clark Air Base flew into Taipei to inspect our Communications Squadron Personnel Office at Taipei Air Station.

We wanted to be good hosts, of course; that was part of the game. Normally someone was appointed to "take care" of the folks who were inspecting each office. I was single at the time and so was “volunteered” to host the two inspectors who were visiting our Personnel and Admin shop.

All of Inspection Team's folks were housed downtown, probably at the Ambassador or one of the other hotels on Chung Shan North Road, because there were no visitor lodging facilities at Taipei Air Station.

After our two inspectors finished their work each day – usually after a long lunch somewhere -- they headed to their hotel to rest and refresh. Most of team probably had dinner at one of the military clubs downtown and then dispersed for other recreation, the bar, the movie theater or whatever.

After the second day of the inspection, I arranged to meet up with the team at Club 63 for dinner. We ate, swapped stories for a while at the bar and then jumped in my car to visit a couple of clubs in the area -- those places we all remember down Chung Shan N. Road from the Linkou Club and Navy Exchange.

After a couple of hours of bar-hopping, I suggested we visit one of the hot springs hotels in Beitou. We discussed all possibilities of what we could do after a hot tub soak and everyone was anxious to get to Peitou.

It was drizzling as we made our way up the narrow two-lane asphalt road toward the village in my 1965, three-speed Mustang that night. About halfway to Beitou, I came upon a taxi that had stopped right on the road in front of me. This was 1966 and there were very few civilian automobiles on the road. I read in some publication recently that many Taiwan taxi drivers believed they were exempt from observing traffic laws. Most were ex-pedicab owners, who made u-turns anyplace, would drive on a sidewalk to get a fare, constantly honked their horns, and who believed that turning on their headlights caused their engines to burn more fuel. I thought of them as kamikaze drivers, living without fear or care. Who could ever forget those white knuckle rides in the back seat of a red taxi?

Anyway, I slowed down and pulled left to pass the taxi, probably shifting down to second gear to do it. In the 1960s, the asphalt type roads were constructed without the use of machines. They were built by a team of men and the surface was heavy with tar and sand. As I passed the taxi, my wheels hit a very slippery spot in the pavement. The Mustang began to slide. I tried to brake and turn the wheel; everything I did to regain control of the vehicle was useless. The car was out of control as it moved down the road. We did a slow 60 degree turn sliding along the left side of the road and onto a small dirt area, straight into a solid, heavy duty rock wall.

The whole thing happened in a few short seconds, but to me it was in slow motion. My passengers, one in the front and another in the back had consumed too many adult beverages to react to the slide, or grab something to hold onto before the impact. The collision mashed in the driver's side of the hood, front fender, grill, etc. My car was a mess. The two Inspectors had minor injuries, mostly a lot of small cuts. The inspector riding in the front seat plowed his head into the windshield. He looked terrible the next day, but there were no serious injuries to any of us.

I was both embarrassed and frightened, as these were the Inspectors from Clark Air Base and now they were busted up and I was the cause of all their aches and pains. Today as I look back on the situation, I suspect they were as embarrassed as me. Nothing official came of the incident, but I am sure the wreck story has been told numerous times by both of the inspectors throughout their lives.

I called the Navy Exchange Garage from someone's house close to the accident. The garage offered 24 hour towing service and they came out immediately and hauled my Mustang back to the HSA West Compound, NEX Garage and Gas station.

The next day, Taiwan Fire and Marine Insurance Company came and hauled my car to a repair shop close to Club 63, just next door toward the Grand Hotel. (During my visit to the area in 2006, I found the property where the garage once sat, today is a beautiful park.) The Navy Exchange garage helped me order new parts from Ford Motor Company and everything was completely paid for by the Insurance Company.

It took the repair shop 6 weeks to get the bumper, grill and other parts shipped in. The hood and fender were pounded, welded and layers of thick Bondo were applied. The paint job came out only so-so, but I was not too concerned; I had already sold the car and had another two-plus years to drive it before I turned it over to the new owner.

What I remember most about the accident were the workers in the repair shop. Most of them were very young boys; not more than seven or eight years old, with a few older boys in their teens and one or two men. Any time of day or evening I stopped by the shop to check on my car, the shop was always open. I mean any time, day or late at night, many times after I had dinner at one of the military clubs. I always found everyone at work doing something; no sitting around in this shop. My car sat for a long time waiting for parts, but the garage was always full of cars in all states of repair and it probably never closed it's doors. It seems now, as I think about the youngsters, I would guess that they were probably hired out to the shop by their parents. No child labor laws existed then and life was extremely tough for just about everyone in Taiwan. It’s a lot different today for the average Taiwan citizen.

This was another learning experience for me, and I always say that I grew up during my Taiwan tour. I began to really see things there that woke me up to the world as it really was. My life up to this time had been unblemished and free of want or need. Those years in Taiwan made such an impression on my life that I continue to feel that Taiwan is a second home to me

I had no other auto accidents during my sojourn in Taiwan, but neither my accident nor anything else could have changed this precious time in my life. How did your time in Taiwan register in your life? I'm sure most of us still alive today would put it right up their toward the top.

God bless Taiwan and its wonderful, free people!

Club 63

I received a note from Kent (owner of the Taipei Air Station website), along with some photos from the old days, and he was kind enough to let me post them here. He's obviously right about the Club 63 name which just proves that memories (mine, in this case) do tend to fade over time. In my own defense, I have to say that we always called it the "63 Club" or just "The Club," which probably just proves that our use of the English language was about as refined as our feeble attempts at Chinese.

As I've mentioned earlier, the Club 63 became the China Seas Club when the Navy took over its operation. I recall that they did some remodeling and also installed slot machines, which the Air Force and Army had removed from all of their clubs some years earlier.

Here's Kent's input:

I saw in your latest blog you referred to the club as "63 Club." When I was in Taipei, the club was called "Club 63" or the MAAG NCO Open Mess. It got its name from APO 63 which was the old APO number before the APO's and FPO's were reorganized and added the 5 digit ZIP Code. Here is a copy of the cover of the Club 63 Magazine for June 1968. Rudy Arevelo is shown in the center pages celebrating his 10th Anniversary at Club 63, probably in May 1968. The picture is bad, but you judge for yourself. It was printed on the old offset press and the quality is typical of 1968.

[...also sending a...] picture of the Club 13 band at Taipei Air Station.

[Additional Note: Kent advises that the Club 13 photo was provided by Rick Ferch, who was at Site 4 and Shihmen.]

63 Club/China Seas Club House Band

During my two tours in the Far East (Okinawa 1963-1964 and Taiwan 1973-1974) the enlisted clubs always had pretty decent house bands that played just about every night. They could play all the popular songs of the day and many other tunes as well. Basically, if there was a demand for it, they could play it.

Most of these bands, including the two that I was familiar with, were from the Philippines. We used to joke that Filipinos must all receive horns, drums or guitars at birth.

The house band at the 63 Club when I was there was called Conrad and His Band, and they were really good. The band's renditions of popular hits like the Doobie Brothers' China Grove were very close to the originals and the dance floor was often packed.

I remember that they had a beautiful young vocalist who sang lead for some of their numbers. She articulated each word and phrase as if she'd been singing them all of her life. However, I found out one day that she spoke almost no English. I don't think that any of the musicians did either, except for Conrad. I talked with him a few times and he seemed like a good guy.

I don't know whether it's true or not, but I was told that Conrad owned all of the house bands at all of the military clubs in Taiwan. The story was that he had some agreement with someone in the Taiwan government that only he was allowed to import any musical instruments into the island.

Anyway, I'd like to hear from anyone regarding the house bands in those days. If you happen to have a picture of any of them, I'd sure like to see it.

Traffic Court Justice -- Supplemental

Looking back over my last post, it occurs to me that I may have implied that American military people were more or less immune from Taiwan law. That was certainly not my intent. I never once felt that I could expect any better treatment than any of the locals if I managed to break any laws, and I'm sure that those around me felt the same.

I know for a fact that there were Americans incarcerated in Taiwan jails for various crimes. My lawyer friend used to visit them on a regular basis. In fact, I wrote earlier about Americans who were still in confinement during the withdrawal of American forces.

The one possible exception was an army guy I knew who drove his 240Z over a local guy's foot one night while drunkenly navigating out of the China Seas/63 Club parking lot. He told me about it the next morning and said that he wasn't worried because both he and his boss, an army lieutenant colonel, were Masons. I never heard another word about the incident, so apparently something magical happened to make it all go away. I doubt that it had much to do directly with the Taiwan government.

UPDATE

I just remembered something else on this subject: I was once told by a general officer's enlisted aide that part of his job was driving the general's wife wherever she needed to go in Taipei. This was not an ego trip on her part and it had nothing to do with her skill as a driver. It was done solely to eliminate the possibility that she might ever be directly involved in an auto accident or receive a traffic citation. Such an event might result in a delicate diplomatic situation that could be an embarrassing distraction to the command. The decision was made somewhere along the line to just eliminate that possibility.

I mention this only to further illustrate that local traffic laws did apply to all U.S. military personnel and their dependents when I was in Taipei.

Traffic Court Justice

I apologize for the thundering silence on this blog recently. I've been preoccupied with family matters, winter blahs, and writer's block -- especially that last thing.

I was just thinking about a conversation I had with one of the USTDC lawyers, an Air Force captain whose name I've long since forgotten. We were discussing an auto accident in which an American military guy driving home from work was hit by a Taiwanese, who was riding a motorcycle.

I don't know about today, but in 1973-1974 there were separate lanes reserved for bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles on the major thoroughfares of Taipei. They were usually separated from the streets by fences or traffic islands, with openings every few yards to get on and off the thoroughfare.

In this case, the American automobile driver was making a left turn at night, which of course involved crossing the motorcycle lane on that side. The motorcycle rider did not have his headlights on. The driver didn't see him and the cycle ran into the car, killing the rider.

According to my friend, a case like this would normally be resolved under Taiwan law as follows:

• The American driver would be charged with vehicular homicide (or something similar) because he was crossing the motorcycle lane. Never mind the fact that he couldn't see the cyclist.
  
• He would be fined and sentenced to a lengthy jail term.
• He would also be ordered to pay monetary restitution to the victim's family.

The actual result, according to my friend, was normally something like this:

• The driver would be released by the Taiwan police immediately after the trial.
• The U.S. Government would pay the fine and the family.
• The driver and his family would be sent back to the States.

I can't swear to the accuracy of this story, but that's how I remember it. If anyone has had experience with this sort of thing, please post it or drop me a note.

Street Characters

It's been more than thirty years since I left Taipei, but I've been thinking lately about some of the characters that I used to see on the sidewalks near the HSA compound. These were folks whose main objective was to separate a young GI from his money. It was probably easier if the young man had been hitting the local watering holes for a few hours.

For example, there was a guy who sold some sort of bird-like marionettes similar to the one shown here. It seems to me that he also sold a fuzzy snake puppet that was pretty cool.

One duo I saw all the time was a blind guy in dark sunglasses, being led down the street by a friend. The friend would walk up to you and ask for a donation. Sometimes you'd notice that the friend played the role of the blind guy and the blind guy became the friend. Hey, it's a living.

And there were kids peddling everything under the sun. You learned pretty quickly that the trick was just to avoid eye contact, hold up your hand, and keep walking. They'd quickly head off in search of someone new to the island.

I honestly don't remember any hustlers standing outside of clubs encouraging you to come inside, or at least nothing like I'd experienced ten years earlier on Okinawa. I really didn't run the clubs in Taipei, so maybe someone else can comment on that, purely in the interest of historical accuracy of course.

Selling In Taiwan

Bill Kling was assigned to an Army unit in Taipei for two separate two-year tours, and he has graciously offered to share some of his memories of what it was like to be a service member in Taipei during those years. Today he writes about the common (and legal) practice of selling certain items to the local citizens:

I was fortunate enough to serve two separate tours on Taiwan as an American Serviceman. As such, I had the ability to actually live well during my two, two-year tours and then sell many items at a good profit when I left the island.

I seem to remember that as an American serving in Taiwan we were allowed to bring into country, or purchase via the PX, items that Taiwanese could not normally obtain, such as American cars, washers & dryers, stoves, refrigerators, air conditioners, dehumidifiers, etc.

It is often expensive for service personnel to move because they often have to buy or replace many of the items listed above. However, I was able to buy new appliances, use them for my two year tour and then sell them for a nice profit. One example is a Whirlpool in-window air conditioner that cost $220. Upon leaving the country in 1975, I was able to sell it for $450. This is quite a deal when you consider it was then two years old and well used because of the sub-tropical climate.

The reason I could do that was because Taiwan had a very large luxury tax on such items. While I don’t know the exact percentage, I was led to believe it was over 100% and there was a quota on the number of units that could be imported into the country. That, combined with Taiwan becoming an Asia Tiger as their economy was really booming, meant that there was a big demand but very little supply.

The way the process worked (again, to the best of my recollection) was that shortly after an American serviceman moved into a Taiwan house or apartment, he would be approached by people who wanted to “chop” these items. This means that they would make a deal to buy your goods upon your departure, give you a deposit (10%), get you to sign a contract and then when you were ready to leave, they magically appeared, paid the balance owed and took possession of the goods.

While this was a great thing for the Americans, sometimes it got to be annoying as there were many of these chop people. Where I lived in the Tien Mu area in Bank of Taiwan housing, they used to go from house to house in this almost American type neighborhood. Some were very devious and even if you told them you already had a deal they would try to pay you a premium to get you to sell to them anyway. You had to be careful and luckily for me I was introduced to a very ethical and fair businessman the week I arrived on the island by my military sponsor. I was lucky and tried to help other new people as they arrived, but still many people had issues when they left the country due to disputes, sometimes real and sometimes imagined.

It was required to fill out an official CHOP form from your personnel office which included the terms, item description, and serial number of each item. When you processed out of Taiwan, all of those documents had to be submitted to the Provost Marshal’s Office (PMO) for review.

The hardest thing to dispose of was a vehicle. You had to return your license plates, registration, and have it inspected by the PMO prior to turning the vehicle over to the Taiwanese. I remember very clearly that during my second tour in 1977 the vehicle which got the best return would be a black or silver Ford Granada sedan. I was able to get $12,000 for my car in 1979 and it cost about $3,800 new in 1977. Another key piece of the process was getting approval to deposit large amounts of money in your Bank of America account. Since there was a black market and all transactions were paid in New Taiwan Dollars (NT) it was necessary to get approval to deposit these monies from your personnel office and the PMO. Once again you needed to take your completed contracts with the approvals to the bank for review before they accepted and converted your NT dollars to US dollars.

I think the opportunity I had to serve in Taiwan, doing a job I enjoyed, learning and soaking up a different culture, completing my college education, and making life-long friends, made my tours in Taiwan some of the most important and memorable periods of my life.

USTDC Front Entrance

At the top of this blog is a shot of the front entrance of the United States Taiwan Defense Command as it appeared around 1978. The picture is a cropped version of one sent to me by Les Duffin some time ago and I thought I'd post it as well. It gives a little better idea of the shape of the place. Click on the image to view a larger version.


I believe the flagpole for the U.S. flag was just to the left of the camera and the Chinese flagpole was in the opposite corner of the parking lot to the left.

The porch overhang in the center of the photo was the main entrance. I always called it the front entrance, but whenever the call was put out over the speakers to bring the admiral's or general's staff car to this front door, it was always worded as, "Admiral's car alongside!" Don't ask me why. Good enough for John Paul Jones, I guess.

It seems to me that I once heard someone say that the building was originally built by the Japanese. I suppose that's possible, but I wonder if anyone out there knows for sure.

More Photos

In my last post I mentioned that Dennis McNelis had sent me a few images from his time in Taipei. Today I'd like to post some of those that might bring back some memories of long ago in a galaxy far, far away:


As I said some time ago, the final approach to what was then the international airport was directly over the hostel and the east and west compounds. This photo gives some idea of what it was like, but the planes appeared much larger as you looked out the window. Now only could you see landing lights, but you could actually see the cabin lights at night, and the noise and vibration were just incredible.








Most people called this area Sugar Daddy Row. 'Nuff said.








This is a shot of his apartment building in the Shihlin district of Taipei. It was pretty common for a group of single military people to share an apartment in those days and many did. It was also fairly common for a single GI to share an apartment with a local friend.

I knew one group of apartment dwellers made up of two navy females, one navy male, and one marine male. I have no doubt that there was plenty of activity in the place, but the folks who lived there were more like brothers and sisters. Today, that would be like any campus area apartment in the US, but it was sort of unusual then. At least I thought so.




This was a view of Shihlin from his apartment. A Google search reveals quite a different picture of the place today.

Memories & Recollections

Dennis McNelis has been writing to me recently with some things that he remembers about his tour at USTDC. Actually, Dennis was one of those ASA guys who worked behind the big steel door, but he and I were there about the same time. Here are some of his comments:

I was in Taipei from Aug 1973 to Nov 1974. I was in the Army - Army Security Agency. At TDC I was assigned to the office on the first floor that had a bank vault door for its front door. It would be to the left as you faced the front of the building and down the hall from the mail room. Like you I lived in the Hostels next to the East Compound. Jerry Ball was my room mate at the Hostel. Jerry was US Army assigned to the Army unit in the building in the East Compound behind the theater and across from the baseball field. I believe it was Jerry who introduced us. Jerry married a local girl that worked in an office in the West Compound. I can't remember her name. Lost contact with Jerry.

I then moved into an apartment that was just West of the Grand Hotel ( I believe that area is Shih-Lin) with Donald Machowski. Donald was also in the Army assigned to STRAMCOM at TDC. Ski, as we use to call him, died in Taiwan after I left in Aug 75 on a Hash House Harrier. Don drowned attempting to cross a river on the run. He was traversing a low area in the river on some rocks and apparently he slipped and was dragged down river by the current. Don was familiar with this area and apparently it was just a freak accident.

I dated Cindy one of the waitresses from the FSA Cafeteria in the East Compound. She later Worked at the PX East Compound. I did return to Taiwan many times throughout the 70 and 80s as I was working as a Merchant Marine and on oil rigs in Asia. I ended up living in Thailand. Still I have to say the 15 months I spent in Taiwan was one of the best times of my life. Presently back and working in the States.

I was a single 21 year old on his first assignment overseas. I must admit though, I was a bit miffed when I first landed in TPE and recall the ride from the airport to TDC. The smells where very strong and I know you know what I am referring to. The contrast in the living conditions - looking at people living in lean-tos against modern new buildings. I said to myself, "What the hell did I get myself into?"

My office was located - if you look at the picture at the top of your blog - to the very far left at the end corner on the first floor. There was also an entrance there. I recall the ramp you are talking about somewhere off to the right after going past the main desk and if I recall correctly it also lead to the rear entrance of TDC that lead to the East Compound where the baseball field was. My office comprised of about 5 civilians and 4 military while being run by the civilians. We had a Navy Lt Commander, a Chief and two army enlisted. We where somewhat isolated from the rest of TDC although we did work closely with the Navy Intelligence Agency on the second floor. Most people remember my office because of the big bank vault type door that secured the entrance. The only person I really remember from my office is Chief Jerry Jett - everyone else kept coming and going.

Do you recall where the barber shop was in the back? Then beyond the barber shop was the graphics shop. Do you remember the 3 Navy guys that worked in that shop: Ortiz, Henry (can't remember their first names) and another guy - all enlisted? I have a slide of two of these guys.

[Yes, I do remember the print shop. It was the first time I ever saw one of those humongous machines that can slice through a ream of paper like it was hot butter! I'd completely forgotten about that place and the three guys who worked there.]

As for lunch here are some of the places I use to go to: the FAS run cafeteria in the East Compound by the baseball field, hot dog cart in front of PX, the HAS/MAAG PX run cafeteria that was in the East or West Compound. If I remember correctly the HSA/MAAG PX cafeteria was in the East Compound and then relocated to the West Compound or visa/versa. My buddies and I use to also run down to the 63 club. We would eat a quick lunch of the daily special and then go play pin ball in the game room. Like you I do not recall any vending machines at TDC but you would of thought with the military there would of at least been a soda machine.

One more note about myself that my help jog your memory: I use to drive a 350CC Honda Motorcycle. I would drive it to TDC on most days - just too lazy to walk through the compound to go to work.

If anyone has additional info on any of this that you'd like to share, please post it below, or you can contact Dennis directly at: shiphorn1@msnDELETE.com. Be sure to remove the "DELETE" portion of the address.

Dennis recently sent me a few photos that he took in Taiwan and I'll post those in a day or so.