Life In And Around The HSA Compound

George Dean wrote me today about his time with the Headquarters Support Activity (HSA) in Taipei:

I was stationed at HSA (Headquarters Support Activity) in the West Compound and served as a Navy YN3 between 1965 and 1967. My home was the barracks across the street in the East Compound, so that meant I had to cross Chung Shan North Road several times daily. I remember the strange local guys trying to lure us with "hey joe" or whatever and we basically ignored them. You will never see this now if you've been back to Taipei lately.

We hung out in the East Compound at the Theater, and spent a lot of time at Club 63 and the Linkou Club Annex just outside the compound gate. What a life changing experience that was. I learned some basic Mandarin, made many wonderful friends, and eventually earned an MA degree in Chinese Language at San Francisco State in 1974. I married a local girl and now my son is grown and also speaks Mandarin.

It's really ironic that all we heard back then was complaints about this and that, and now we are all old guys looking back with fond memories of our service time in Taipei!!

George Dean

Main Entrance

Okay, all you old guys whose memories are sharper than mine, I need your help.

Some time ago I posted diagrams of the East and West HSA compounds. These came from a military telephone book, published somewhere around 1977, that was provided to me by Les Duffin, who worked in the TDC building until about six months before it closed.

This is a cropped version of the East compound that shows USTDC and some of the surrounding structures. The top of this diagram is approximately due north. According to the map legend, circled number 18 was "TACF" and circled number 19 was "TDC." The area that's circled 17 is where the tennis/basketball courts were.

First of all, what did TACF stand for? Next, where was the main entrance to the TDC building? I'm defining the main entrance as the door that the Admiral and the General usually entered and departed through. As you came in that door, the J-1's office was to the left and the BMC's office was directly ahead. The "ship's bell" was on the porch area and to the right. I think the entrance must have been where I've marked #1 or #2, and I think that it was probably at #2.

If you can help, please click on "Comments" at the bottom of this post and share that info with the rest of us.

I doubt that anyone has an actual diagram of the building that shows what was located where, but if something like that exists, I'd sure love to be able to post it. Also, if anyone has any photos of the interior of the building -- or the exterior, for that matter -- please let me know.

There's almost nothing on the web about USTDC, except for the Military.com Unit Page, and of course my ramblings and your comments on this blog. That's why I always welcome input from those who served in or around the place. I'd hate to see this important part of military history just disappear.

Bus Stop

Here's another one from Jim Sartor:

One rainy day, as usual, the local bus company had a repair spot on the street in front of the Taiwanese police station at the top of Road One in Tien Mu. After doing a brake job on one of their busses, one of their 12 year old mechanics took the bus down our street to test the brake job.

He jumped on the brakes, the bus went 90 degrees left, off the road and into our master bedroom, narrowly missing our yard boy. When we got home, the Taiwanese Police were there and a very nice Taiwanese Police Sergeant told us that the bus company was owned, not by a Taiwanese but by a Chinese man and if we wanted our house repaired as well as compensation for the destroyed furniture in the bedroom we shouldn't let the bus company take the bus until AFTER we have been paid.

Sure enough, the next day, a big black American sedan pulled up and out got a very officious Chinese and his driver/translator who informed us that it was his bus and a tow truck was on the way to get it. Remembering what the Taiwanese Police sergeant said, we told the bus company owner that they could have their bus ONLY after we had been paid for our damages. Much yelling, faces reddening and translations later, the bus company owner demanded his bus. I calmly told him that I was going to the Taiwanese Police station to get their help and, unless and until we were paid, we were going to keep their bus exactly where it was and, if necessary, I was going to paint it green and make a flower planter out of it. This was translated to the Chinese man and I thought he was going to have a heart attack.

At about this time, the Taipei newspaper crew showed up and started taking pictures of the bus in our house and the Chinese bus owner immediately agreed to pay anything we wanted and we agreed and said he could have his bus when we got paid. The next day the same Chinese gentlemen showed up, cash in hand, followed by his tow truck.

Ah yes, just another Taipei tale. One must have a sense of humor to last for 4 years in Taipei.

AWOL And Hiding Out At USTDC

Here's another one from Dennis Page:

Thought I’d share with you a little story that sort of sums up the lengths that USTDC shipmates would go through to help out one another. In May of 1969 I was getting ‘short’. My 15 month tour in Taipei was about to end and so I went to the hospital for the shot card updates and the chest x-rays we were required to get at the time of departure. The Navy doctors also decided to do upper and lower GI tract tests on us as well. I guess they were bored and wanted to do doctor stuff.

Well they discovered that only one of my kidneys showed up on the tests so they decided to ship me out to the Navy Hospital in Yokuska , Japan for further tests. Wow!! R&R in Japan ! I flew out of Taipei on a medevac from Viet Nam that had stopped to refuel. Being ambulatory and free to walk about the cabin I helped the flight nurses tend to the wounded on our trip to Tachikawa Air Base, Japan . Once there I made a helo flight to Yokuska and spent a week there where I had what was called “Cinderella Liberty”, which meant I had to be back in the hospital ward by midnight.

The tests showed that I really only had one kidney to begin with and so it was no big deal. I was then shipped to the transit barracks where I hoped to catch a flight back to Taipei . It was there I was told that I would be shipped out to whereever the government felt I was needed and it didn’t look like I’d get back to TDC.

While I was in the hospital, Admiral John Chew, our senior officer at TDC, had to make a trip to Japan for official Navy business and so he flew into Tachikawa aboard his own DC 10. He brought with him our leading Petty Officer, Mel Pennington, RM1 who stopped by to visit me in the hospital. He also stopped by to see me in the transit barracks and I told him my problem.

He made a phone call (I believe to the Admiral) and then told me to be outside the barracks with my seabag at 1700 hours. As the hour approached I threw my bag out the window and told the security guard that I was going outside for a smoke. (I don’t smoke) At 1700 hours the Admiral’s staff car pulled up and he told me to throw my gear aboard and climb in. We went through the security gate with me on the floor in the back of the car and drove out to the airfield where his plane was tied down.

Several hours later we were airborne and on the way back to Taipei . I was never so glad to smell the binjos and feel that humidity as we deplaned. I think that in some logbook somewhere I must be listed as AWOL but I was home.

Keep up the good work with this blog.

Well, I've had my share of experience with people going AWOL, but I don't think I ever met anyone who went AWOL to his own base!

Sand Pebbles

A few days ago I heard from Dennis Page, who was a Navy E-4 Electronics Tech in J-6 Maintenance at the TDC comm center in 1968-69:

I found out about your blog from an old shipmate who also served there, Ted W. I had not heard from in 38 years and today he calls me on the phone from the other side of the US and he told me about this blog. It was really great to find out what had happened to the old place. There has to be many more stories out there and I hope to be able to contribute some in the future.

For example, some of the short-timers when I got there told stories about how during the filming of the movie, The Sand Pebbles, Steve McQueen and a few of his fellow actors would visit the 63 Club and go motorcycle riding together. I even had tailor Loo, the East Compound tailor make me a set of liberty cuffs identical to the ones McQueen had on his dress blues. I still have them along with many great memories. Thanks.

If anyone was in Taipei during The Sand Pebbles filming, and has a story or two about it, I'm sure we'd all love to hear about it. I think I read somewhere that they used some local Navy personnel as extras in the film. Any truth to that?

Surprise Reunion

Jim Sartor sent me some more stories that he remembered from his USTDC days. I got a real chuckle out of this one:

One of the Navy draftsmen at TDC came to Taipei, leaving his new wife in the U.S. One fine evening at the Club, the place was jam packed and this particular Draftsman was there with his "local friend". His wife had, unbeknownst to him and everyone else, flown into Taipei on a commercial airline and had tracked him down at the club. Believe me, it was truly a sight to see when American wife meets "local friend" and American wife's hubby in the middle of the Club 63. Needless to say, this got back to the Admiral at TDC and hubby and American wife were on the next plane back to the U.S. Much amusement for one and all that were there that night.

I'll bet!

I don't think I ever saw anything exactly like this, but I did know a couple of American wives who packed up and headed back to the States because their marriages fell apart in Taipei. It was an easy place to go wrong, that's for sure.

One of my favorite stories that made the rounds while I was there concerned a married military guy who left his family in the States while he served the shorter, unaccompanied tour. Well, before long he had himself a "special friend" with whom he shared his apartment.

But at some point he and his wife decided that he should apply to have her join him, which of course meant that his "friend" would have to make other housing arrangements.

Well the wife arrived, got moved into her new digs, and everything was sweetness and light.

But then this genius decided that he would hire his "ex-friend" to be the family's amah, or maidservant.

The next morning at breakfast the amah poured our hero a cup of coffee and started to add cream. The wife spoke up, "Oh, he doesn't take cream in his coffee." To which the amah sweetly replied, "Oh yes he does!"

Oops.

Lots More Memories

I just heard from Jim Sartor, who was in J-22 (Op Center) at USTDC from 1968 to 1972. He wrote about some of his experiences during that time and I’m pleased to pass them along here:

My wife and I landed in Taipei after a long flight from Travis AFB and as soon as the doors on our plane opened we were hit with the "Taipei smell." I found out later that it was mainly the open benjos and humidity. Even after 4 years on Taiwan, we were reminded of the smell on returning to the US when our household goods crates were opened and EVERYTHING smelled like Taipei.

Spent our first nights in a guest house near the Linkou Club and we were awakened the first night by the sound of rats running through the AC ducts. Our first welcome to the idea that "If it creeps, crawls, or slithers, Taiwan has it in spades.”

Bought a '62 Impala on our third day in Taipei and, after having driven in MANY countries in the world, I was truly scared to death the first time I hit the streets. Traffic rules in Taipei were "different.” The first person to blow their horn had the right of way. If a driver didn’t look at you, well then you just didn't exist and he could, and did, do anything including running you off the road. Traffic rules were only "suggestions" and didn't apply to taxis.

Rented our first house in Tien Mu and since it had just been completed we (wrongly, as it happened) assumed everything was going to be great. Wrong!!! The nice new aluminum framed windows looked great until it rained! That was when we found out that the Taiwanese didn't bother with rubber seals around the glass and the rain water just poured in around the edge of the glass. All of our towels were used to soak up the water as it poured into the house. The steps to the second floor were not of equal height and we constantly banged our shins going up stairs.

By the way, how many of you remember having "grass mats" made up to cover the floors? Also, do you remember having to hire a "guard" for your house? Either you hired one or you would mysteriously have your home broken into by one of, as the guard called them, sneaky boys. One night, we heard our German shepherd growling and woke up to find Bonzai, our dog, sitting under a window with a piece of someone’s pants in his mouth and a screwdriver and pair of pliers on the window ledge. We never had anyone try to break in after that.

We moved to our next house in the BOT housing at the top of Road One in Tien Mu. These were built by the Japanese during WWII and even had a bomb shelter in the yard. Ours was sort of "U" shaped and, after getting several of the Navy CB neighbors drunk, they came over one weekend and built us a family room in the open part of the "U". Made a very great house and only cost the materials and the beer. Also, we could restock our bar at the Double Ten Store for about 20 dollars. This was great when my wife would invite the entire bowling league to our house after bowling at the lanes in Tien Mu.

We had all of the furniture in our house made by a Taiwanese in Tien Mu by the name of Singer Le. We still have most of it even after all this time. For example, we had a curved bar built, including brass foot rail and four swivel stools, for about $200.00. Helluva deal!!!

You could go to the book/record store near HSA and buy bootleg copies of LPs and books for 20 NT.

I remember hiring an amah for $40.00 a month and she cleaned, cooked and baby sat for 6 days a week for that. Yard boys were about $30.00 a month.

The Club 63 is good for several stories if anyone would believe them. So was the Linkou Club. The "Stag bar" at the 63 was great when the new copies of Laugh-in came in. Whenever they got a new stock, we would go for "lunch" and stay the rest of the day watching Laugh-in. One day, just before Christmas, one of the regulars came out of the Mens Room, turned left and walked right into the Christmas tree. Since he has been telling war stories just before going to the mens room, I guess he was still thinking about Nam when he hit the Christmas tree and he immediately proceeded to attack it and ripped it to shreds before we could stop him. You could also get your car washed at the club for 20 NT while you were in the club and you also could fill your household water jugs at the outside tap at the Stag Bar.

"Chops" were another interesting idea they had. We had chops on everything! A friend of mine, however, did pull a "swifty" on the buy-sell men on his car. The night before he was due to turn his Ford over, he had one two many adult beverages and wiped out the right side of his car. Being a clever sort of chap, he parked the car, right side against his house and played dumb. A couple hours after the buy-sell man picked up the car he returned screaming about the damage. My friend simply said, gee it looks like someone hit YOUR car and went back into his house, leaving the buy-sell man screaming in the street.

Cars were a great source of entertainment in Taipei. I had a 65 Mustang coupe that was bronze in color and I had baby moon hubcaps and cream painted "mustang coves" on it. Last car was a 72 240Z that had everything!! It was red and had spoilers, mags, custom exhaust built by a guy near the Navy Hospital and EVERYONE on the island knew the car. My wife, daughter and I went to Camp McCauley one weekend and, after returning on Monday, got a call from the PMO who was complaining that I had "escaped" from pursuing Military Police on the way to McCauley. I told him, truthfully, that I had never seen them and I probably didn't since they were in an old, worn out, Dodge panel truck.

How many people remember the little tailor shop just outside the back gate of TDC? We used to go in there and get shirts custom made for $2.00 for short sleeve and $2.50 for long sleeve. Don't remember the cost of suits, etc., but they were dirt cheap. The only thing you had to remember was to provide your own thread from the States. The thread they used wasn't really good and I even had the seat of my suit pants pull open once as I got out of a car to go to a party at the Club 63 one night. Not a good thing.

Do you remember the "typhoon parties"? When there was a severe typhoon scheduled to hit Taipai, we knew from past experiences that the power would go out and be out for several days. We would pick one couples house and everyone would get together there and cook all of their perishable meats so they wouldn't go bad when the typhoon hit and the power went out. We would then party thru the typhoon since there wasn't anything any of us could do about the storm so we might as well party.

Remember the outside hot water heaters that the amah had to build a fire in so you could have hot water?

I still remember the child mechanics. When you took your to a local garage to have some work done, it was usually done by a gaggle of kids that looked to be about 12 years old. They did absolutely great work though.

Thanks for the chance go remember so much about a wonderful time that we had in Taipei and thanks for the blog that lets many of us tell others about our times there.

Jim Sartor
San Marcos, Ca.

I don't like to publish private email addresses on this blog because they tend to become a magnet for spam. But if you'd like to contact Jim, just drop me a note and I'll pass it along to him.

Aussies at the 63 Club

I don't have a lot to write on this topic, but I just wanted to mention it while I was thinking about it. Maybe some others will chime in later with more info.

One of the occasional "drop-ins" at the 63 Club (China Seas) stag bar was a group of Australians who worked on the offshore oil rigs around Taiwan. I don't know how much time they had to spend at their work site, but every now and then they would come ashore to blow off a little steam. Nobody ever checked club membership cards at the stag bar so it wasn't a big deal for non-members to be there.

I just remember them as a friendly and hard-partying bunch who consumed large quantities of adult beverages, buying occasional rounds for the house along the way, before heading out for town later in the evening.

They'd sometimes get a bit rowdy, as you might expect from a group of guys who'd been isolated for weeks or months at a time, but I don't think there were ever any serious incidents at the stag bar when they were in town. They'd mostly just shoot pool, play shuffleboard, drop quarters in the jukebox, hit on any female sailors who happened to be there and keep bartenders Pete and Bobo very, very busy.

Christmas & New Years in Taiwan

A few days ago I mentioned that I spent the Christmas holidays back in the States with my family in 1973, but I wondered what it was like for the American military folks who spent the holidays in Taipei.

I just received another excellent piece from Bill Kling, who earlier wrote about military people selling merchandise in Taiwan back in the 1970s. Bill was in Taiwan during the 1973, 1974, 1977 and 1978 holiday seasons and here are his holiday memories of that period:

I can remember spending 1973, 1974, 1977, and 1978 holiday seasons on the island. Among the things I experienced was trying to get my one year old son the latest toys in 1973. A new Toyland had just opened on the HSA compound across from the USACC HQ’s and next to the FASD eating facility just down the street from the back of USTDC. It was always tough to get toys and when the Navy Exchange held a grand opening of the new Toyland I stood in line on a rainy Saturday morning hoping to get some of the toys that supposedly just arrived. Also important was to get my son a picture with Santa Claus. Well, as only the military can do, the rumor spread about this BIG shipment of toys and although I got to Toyland at 7AM for a scheduled 10AM opening there was already over fifty people in line to get in the door first. As it turned out the BIG shipment of toys did not arrive and the grand opening was a major letdown for everyone involved. We were told to check back often as the toys would be in soon. Between myself, my wife, and friends we checked daily until finally almost two weeks later on a weekday (don’t remember which day, mid December) we got the word that the toys had arrived. My wife frantically drove from our BOT house in Tien Mou and was successful in getting a few of those important toys.

I must say that the holidays in Taiwan brought out many emotions. I worked shift work on Grass Mountain in the Tech Control area and we always felt “Why do I have to work XMAS eve, or New Years Eve”, but such was our duty. The Tech Control handled communications off the island and I remember playing XMAS Carol’s over the circuits to Okinawa, Japan, Korea, and the rest of the world. We were able to call the “States” and speak to our families and also help friends do the same. It seemed like a big deal back then, as we didn’t all have cell phones, IM, or email. Many people were sad as they missed their homes and loved ones, but we also enjoyed many parties thrown by our buddies, the 63 Club, and the Linkou Club. I do not remember prices, but I do remember that normal prices were slashed and we all were able to share XMAS I still have the “fake” XMAS tree that I used in Taiwan in 1973. I haven’t taken in out of the box in several years so it may be in pieces but I do have it. The available XMAS ornaments and lights were not of a very high quality on the island but they were always better than nothing. I remember attending XMAS Mass at the St Christopher church down the street from the HSA compound. We had the holiday and almost everything we would have had in the States, except our families. It seemed there was always some military person either leaving during the season or a new person arriving and those people really had a challenge to learn a new job, get them and their family settled, as well as remembering the season.

On XMAS Eve 1974 the USACC personnel from USTDC Tech Control actually invited us “down” to the compound to share some cheer. As we were not allowed to have liquor in the building we actually met outside the back entrance to TDC (by the tennis courts) and had a drink and/or toast or two. Perhaps we had more than a few as the off duty Chinese guards joined in the fun as we sang Carols and laughed and joked. I remember that several of the USACC team visited an orphanage and someone played Santa and we had a good time helping those little Chinese kids. As the years went by and the US presence was reduced it seemed much easier to get toys, appliances, BOT housing, etc.

New Years Eve was a little different story. If you were married you either went to parties held by your friends in their homes or maybe you went to the 63 Club for a more fancy night. Single people seemed to gravitate towards either the Linkou Club or go down town to Sugar Daddy Alley. Either way we were able to share a night of cheer. That is unless you worked shift work, and many Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel had such jobs. In my section we tried to split the duty up so you either got XMAS Eve or New Years Eve off. Again, married people preferred XMAS off and the single people preferred New Years Eve.

New Years 1978 was interesting as my family and I were in the Guest House waiting to leave the island in early February. We had shipped all of our household goods by mid-December were just waiting for our flight assignments. During that time President Carter recognized the mainland and it was decided that all troops would leave the island by 4/30/1979. So while it was the holidays, some of the fun was taken out of it as the US forces were looking forward to their new assignments, but with a some concern about the Taiwanese reaction to the drastic reduction of the American military population between 1975 and 1978.

If any other former military people have any stories that they'd like to share about their Christmas holidays in Taiwan, please let me know.

Christmas & New Year's In Taipei

During my tour at USTDC, I flew back to the States to be with my wife and kids in Colorado during the 1973 Christmas season. So how did the rest of you in Taipei celebrate the holidays? Did the military clubs and local watering holes have special New Year's Eve parties? Okay, silly question. Tell us about it.