This aerial view of Taipei Air Station was taken in 1975.During the past couple of months, I've ridden the MRT (subway) to the old site of Taipei Air Station a number of times to look around. Every time I walked the streets in and around the area I discovered something new.
I took many photographs of the buildings and area. Each day, back on the MRT and returned home to down load the pictures into my computer and review them for posting to this Blog.
It became a difficult undertaking to go through all of the photos and come up with a few to post on the Blog which showed the buildings as they look today. It seemed impossible to present the area as it looks today in a few photos.
As I was watching a video on You Tube, it occurred to me that I could really show Taipei Air Station just as it is today, if I used You Tube. Everyone else was posting all kinds of video, why not me? I decided to take a video and see how it looked.
During a trip to Keelung the next day, I took video of the old port area. Many of you were in Keelung to pickup your POVs after they arrived from the Oakland. I remember my trip to Keelung in January 1966 to pickup my 1965 Mustang.
When I returned home from Keelung that evening, I downloaded the video onto my laptop and reviewed it. It looked pretty good. I decided to up-load it onto You Tube. I was already a member of You Tube by virtue of having this Blog Account. It took just about 5 hours to up-load the Keelung video to You Tube using ADSL from Taipei. Here is the Video of Keelung Harbor area, which was very close to the Keelung Main Railroad Station.
The rest is history... When I saw the quality of the video I had taken in Keelung, I was convinced that a Video Tour of Taipei Air Station would be my next project.
Today, in the series of videos listed below, I want to take you on a visual tour in and around the remaining buildings of Taipei Air Station.
Many who visited or were stationed at TAS in the mid 1970s and later will remember these buildings.
The buildings that remain today are here because they were returned to National Taiwan University (NTU) sometime after we closed-up shop in Taiwan.
As I remember, Taipei Air Station was originally constructed on farm land belonging either to the Agriculture Department of NTU or the Taiwan Department of Agriculture.
NTU has bulldozed some of our old buildings, constructed new buildings and some of our old TAS structures are still in use by NTU. One is being used as a Children's Nursery and School.
These 4 videos cover what's left of TAS. Not much remains, but our hand is still seen today in these structures, particularly in the old Chapel, which is now some type of Arts building.
I hope you enjoy these videos. If you worked at TAS from the mid 1970s on, you will recognize the buildings.
If you would like me to take videos of other spots in Taipei, please add a comment below.
I will also take video of other cities as I visit them and will try to find what's left of other sites and bases, BUT, I need to hear from you, pointing out the spots you would like to see again. If you could give me the coordinates on Google Earth I can probably find the site.
It has been my pleasure to present these videos for each of you who read my Blog.
I'm having the time of my life walking the streets and trying to explain what you're seeing on these videos. I know I have made some verbal errors in the films, please excuse my mistakes.
Here we go - Taipei Air Station as it looks in the Summer of 2010:
Video of the club and barber shop, we look outside and inside the building....
Video of the old 327th AD Headquarters Building, I walk up three floors and down a couple of halls to see what's there today.....
Video from the 10th Floor of the School of Business Management, looking out the west window
Video from the 10th Floor of the same building, looking northwest.
Four video's totaling about 30 minutes, viewing the old area as it looks today.
I'll be looking for your comments and ideas for more videos.
Tsi Gen -
I took many photographs of the buildings and area. Each day, back on the MRT and returned home to down load the pictures into my computer and review them for posting to this Blog.
It became a difficult undertaking to go through all of the photos and come up with a few to post on the Blog which showed the buildings as they look today. It seemed impossible to present the area as it looks today in a few photos.
As I was watching a video on You Tube, it occurred to me that I could really show Taipei Air Station just as it is today, if I used You Tube. Everyone else was posting all kinds of video, why not me? I decided to take a video and see how it looked.
During a trip to Keelung the next day, I took video of the old port area. Many of you were in Keelung to pickup your POVs after they arrived from the Oakland. I remember my trip to Keelung in January 1966 to pickup my 1965 Mustang.
When I returned home from Keelung that evening, I downloaded the video onto my laptop and reviewed it. It looked pretty good. I decided to up-load it onto You Tube. I was already a member of You Tube by virtue of having this Blog Account. It took just about 5 hours to up-load the Keelung video to You Tube using ADSL from Taipei. Here is the Video of Keelung Harbor area, which was very close to the Keelung Main Railroad Station.
The rest is history... When I saw the quality of the video I had taken in Keelung, I was convinced that a Video Tour of Taipei Air Station would be my next project.
Today, in the series of videos listed below, I want to take you on a visual tour in and around the remaining buildings of Taipei Air Station.
Many who visited or were stationed at TAS in the mid 1970s and later will remember these buildings.
The buildings that remain today are here because they were returned to National Taiwan University (NTU) sometime after we closed-up shop in Taiwan.
As I remember, Taipei Air Station was originally constructed on farm land belonging either to the Agriculture Department of NTU or the Taiwan Department of Agriculture.
NTU has bulldozed some of our old buildings, constructed new buildings and some of our old TAS structures are still in use by NTU. One is being used as a Children's Nursery and School.
These 4 videos cover what's left of TAS. Not much remains, but our hand is still seen today in these structures, particularly in the old Chapel, which is now some type of Arts building.
I hope you enjoy these videos. If you worked at TAS from the mid 1970s on, you will recognize the buildings.
If you would like me to take videos of other spots in Taipei, please add a comment below.
I will also take video of other cities as I visit them and will try to find what's left of other sites and bases, BUT, I need to hear from you, pointing out the spots you would like to see again. If you could give me the coordinates on Google Earth I can probably find the site.
It has been my pleasure to present these videos for each of you who read my Blog.
I'm having the time of my life walking the streets and trying to explain what you're seeing on these videos. I know I have made some verbal errors in the films, please excuse my mistakes.
Here we go - Taipei Air Station as it looks in the Summer of 2010:
Video of the club and barber shop, we look outside and inside the building....
Video of the old 327th AD Headquarters Building, I walk up three floors and down a couple of halls to see what's there today.....
Video from the 10th Floor of the School of Business Management, looking out the west window
Video from the 10th Floor of the same building, looking northwest.
Four video's totaling about 30 minutes, viewing the old area as it looks today.
I'll be looking for your comments and ideas for more videos.
Tsi Gen -
5 comments:
Kent, I enjoyed the video of Keelung. I have many fond memories of Keelung from my younger days. Back in the early 60's it reminded me of an old Chinese port that one sees in the movies, with all the mystique. Before the MacArthur freeway was built, it took quite a while to get to Keelung from Taipei in a taxi. If I'm not mistaken the negotiated fare was $1.
John
Kent, I know I came over to TAS once or twice to coordinate some personnel stuff at the CBPO. I don't recall much of anything about the base, but I'm wondering if the building that housed the Personnel shop is still there. If so, which one is it? Seems to me it was almost directly in front of the main gate, but I can't swear to that. Been a long time!
Regarding the Personnel Shop at Taipei Air Station... I departed Taiwan in 1968 prior to the buildings shown in this Blog entry being built.
I was assigned to the 2165th Comm Squadron and worked in the Personnel Shop which was located on the 2d Floor of the Comm Squadron Building which was just across the street from the old Club 13 (NCO Club) close to the main gate.Our CBPO was actually back at Wheeler AFB in Hawaii. Wheeler was given to the Army sometime later and is now know as Wheeler Army Air Field.
Can someone point out the Personnel Office in the new building? I would guess their offices were in the HQ Building, which you can explore with me on a video above. Kent
I was in the Director of Material office, and we were right next door to the Military personnel Office (1970 - 1972). The building was a low, one story building, of the kind that was next to the barber shop. The building we were in was torn down sometime in 1972 or 1973, when they took over space for the Keelung Freeway, so I was told. On the areal view of the old station on Kent's website, it is the leveled area just to the top of the boundary line drawn. We were just maybe 30 feet or so from the barber shop. In the photo you can see the leveled area where I believe the building stood. Kent, I think I sent you a picture of my little green Datsun parked in front of the DM offices, with a view of the buildings across the parking lot. Anyhow, that's my recollection.
I'm a student of the NTU College of Management,which is located in the old TAS area. I'm very impressed by your article. These articles unveiling the history of my campus really make me realize more about the past of my classrooms. Although some of the TAS buildings had been destructed, we students still use some old constructions as our classrooms or club houses. You really did a great work to collect numerous marterials and to put them together to show the scenes and the pictures of the old time. I do know more about the hidden past of the old buildings of my own college. Thanks a lot and wish you could have a wonderful journey in the coming 2011.
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