The Sea Dragon Club (Navy Club) was several blocks south of the downtown Lin Kou Club, on the west side. I remember that the Suzi Wong Bar was across the street. A lot of R&R guys went there and they had a live band most nights. I can't remember the band leader's name, but I recall that they were all from the Phillipines.
I found these two postcards (1978 vintage) of the National Palace Museum from my visit there. The special exhibition I went to was focused on their cloisonne snuff bottle collection. I remember that the museum changed out all exhibits every three or four months. The exhibits that were removed were then put back in some cave for storage.
The history of their exhibits was rather interesting also. When the Communists seized the mainland and people were fleeing to the island of Taiwan, they took with them all kinds of artwork, pottery, etc. That is what was being displayed at the National Palace Museum...all the stuff they were able to take off the mainland with them.
We were stunned by the sheer volume of artwork and culture they were able to save.
Barbara also sent this item:
When you were in Taiwan, did you get any of those "complimentary" copies of the "China Travel & Trade" magazine? It had colorful pictures of all the different shops around town, tips on where to go and what to do, overview of holidays & special celebrations, upcoming events, maps, money exchange rates, a "list of useful Chinese terms" etc. - all kinds of different stuff. It was a nifty thing to have.
Well, I have one of those -- No. 43 to be exact, dated Dec 1978. This calendar is in it and I found it particularly interesting. [NOTE: Click on the image to see a larger version.]
Jimmy Carter slapped our allies in the face by recognizing Peking. But when you look at this calendar, you realize the full scope and flavor of just how hard that slap was! Remember that it was Jan 1, 1979 when Carter signed on to "Full diplomatic relations with the communist government of China" and broke off all relations with Taiwan. Choosing THAT particular day must have been the ultimate insult to Taiwan. I don't know how you could explain that to someone who has never been there, do you?
The information I had at that time was that Rear Admiral Linder [COMUSTDC] didn’t even know about Carter's speech until an hour before it actually happened.
By the way, right after the riots on Taiwan, there were "unofficial" orders not talk to anyone, particularly the press. We pulled in to a gas station and this poor Taiwanese guy came up to my window with tears in his eyes and said: "Why Jimmy do it? Why Jimmy do it?" It broke my heart.
As I recall, the day that Jimmy Carter made the announcement was either a Friday or Saturday. Either way, I remember that it was the beginning of the weekend because that fact alone hindered information getting out to our personnel and their dependents -- information that I felt would have kept many of our people out of harms way had they known beforehand about Carter’s intentions. Our military personnel found out the same way the locals did: AFRTS radio! It caught everyone off guard.
I was working in the comm center when it happened and we were notified that we shouldn’t expect our relief watch to show up because there were 10,000 demonstrators outside the gate and the base was “locked down”. We were told that rioters were throwing balloons full of paint over the entrance gate and that things might get ugly. Off base was a different story. It did get ugly.
The article said: “Some of these demonstrations resulted in minor personnel injury and property damage, but nothing serious.” I can tell you that there was LOTS of property damage at the EM (enlisted men’s) club. The rioters showed up there and cars were destroyed, flipped, smashed, or burned. There were only three cars that remained undamaged. One Chief Petty Officer tried to make a run for it and ended up with a spear in his side!
The on-scene Taiwanese Chief of Police was telling all the locals to leave the club. When a few of the local women there responded that their (American) husbands were also inside the club, the Chief of Police said, “if you want to stay in there with the Americans, then you can die with the Americans.”
Elsewhere, there was a group of dependents trapped inside the movie theater. Also, I had a friend who worked at Personnel or PAO (can't remember which or even remember her name now) but her husband was walking down the street when the violence broke out and he got knifed in the back, which punctured his lung! He ended up leaving the island via ship instead of a plane because of his injury (cabin pressure in the plane could have killed him).
After the rioting calmed down, my husband (also a CTO) and I had already pulled a double shift, (standing watch for 24-plus hours) before a relief watch made it in. I believe that was made possible (although I don’t know for sure) through the efforts of Adm Linder, who sent his car AND driver to take us to our home in TienMou! I remember the trip on our way home. There were protest signs and banners all up and down Chung Shan Blvd. There was one in particular that sticks in my mind. It was a really big long banner near the University. It was a picture of an eagle and a long dotted trail leading to a chicken with a caption that read, "See Americans turn chicken".
Afterwards, Jimmy Carter decided to send an entourage from CINCPAC to "smooth things over" with the locals. Admiral Weisner and his right hand and left hand men had arrived on the island and were met by 100,000 demonstrators at the airport. Their car was destroyed by demonstrators and Weisner’s right hand man had been hit in the back of the head with a tire iron (after it went through the glass of the car).
They abandoned their demolished car and arrived at the base in a Yoolung cab. When I arrived at work for my shift that day in the comm center, I was given a blow-by-blow account of how Adm Weisner showed up covered in eggs and various vegetable & fruit matter. But that was not nearly as shocking as the words that came out of his mouth. He asked our people “Why are they (the locals) so angry?”
Unbelievable! This admiral didn’t have a clue about the history of how the ChiComs forced so many people to flee from the mainland to Taiwan, or the deeply held belief on Taiwan that “Someday, we will take back the motherland."
In the days following the riots, many people were concerned that they would have to make a hasty departure from the island, leaving all their worldly possessions behind. That was a very real prospect at the time, but things cooled down rather quickly. The following weeks were incredible because things were moving so quickly. I think there were something like 100 families per week having their household goods packed up and leaving the island. It was quite a strain trying to pack out that many households per week. Things were closing down very quickly and near the end of my tour, you couldn’t even get anything to eat over at that cafeteria near the Exchange.
As I recall, it was a typical Taiwan day: HUMID. The picnic was for all military people and I really enjoyed that day, eating burgers, watching kids playing and their parents laughing...a pretty typical American picnic (except for the water buffalo of course).
Burt Schneider was officer-in-charge of the Armed Forces Network in Taiwan from 1967 until 1969. He recently launched the Armed Forces Radio Blog, detailing his broadcasting experiences in Taiwan and elsewhere.
The USTDC Chief of Staff -- USAF Brigadier General Burrows, in my day -- had an enlisted aide. By regulation, an aide's job was to help maintain the general's quarters, assist at receptions and other social events, and pretty much do whatever else the general needed to have done. I wouldn't call them butlers, exactly, but that's probably close to how many of them served.
I am a LTJG in the Navy of Taiwan (ROC). I have read the articles on your blog and felt proud and suprised about the connection between US and Taiwan throught the history.
Some of my crew would like to buy the navy blue coveralls from the Navy Exchange. Some officers in the Navy got those coveralls when they participated in [a project in North Carolina]. Because of the coveralls' great quality, some of my crew would like to get them as well. However, most military on-line shops don't sell the kind sold in NEX, and the Navy Exchange requires US military identity and SSN to access.
