Memorial Day, at noon, alongside the old Taipei Prison wall in Taipei.
According to all available military records, there are no known US Military personnel resting in Taiwan. All remains have been repatriated from Taiwan.
As we Expats have done for the past few years, we spread the word amongst the community to come out to honor our fallen service members.
The old stone wall, all that remains of the Taipei Prison, was again the place where we gathered this morning.
Standing, talking story, before the ceremony.
It was warm today. The sun was bright, the only relief was a occasional passing breeze.
View of the area from the opposite direction of the photos above.
The dark stone wall, where the flag drapes, is all that remains of the large prison that once occupied the area where both of the large buildings seen on the left as well are other buildings more to the left, not seen in this photo, stand today.
Our bugler today, a 14 year old young man, seen above.
Looks like everyone planning to come has probably arrived.
Lets begin.
Today's video is sometimes hard to hear because of the loud noise coming from the street just outside where we are standing.
Most of the noise is coming from motor scooter mufflers. This is life in Taiwan.
Side view of the wall.
Today's video is sometimes hard to hear because of the loud noise coming from the street just outside where we are standing.
Most of the noise is coming from motor scooter mufflers. This is life in Taiwan.
Side view of the wall.
The plaques seen on the wall are permanently attached.
Our flag was placed on the wall only for the ceremony.
We appreciate all of you who came today.
After the ceremony, just about everyone walked or drove about two blocks east to a restaurant. We were alone on the third floor and had a wonderful lunch consisting of many many different dishes of tasty Chinese cusine. My favorites today, roast duck and hot and sour soup. Oh, can't forget the 4 different types of steamed dumplings.
Great meal, good friends, watermellon juice and hot tea.
Be sure to come out next year, we missed you today.
If you're interested in what happened in previous Memorial Day gatherings, here are a couple of links to previous ceremonies on Memorial Day in Taipei.
2012
2011
In this blog, I try to present the history of the US Military in Taiwan. Most of the photos that are displayed in this blog came from ordinary military and civilian folks, who spent some of their careers in Taiwan, from the south point of the island to the northern most point, we have something from just about everywhere.
If you love to see the past, take a peek at this blog.
Stories which are being prepared for publication shortly:
The aftermath of a typhoon in Tainan, 1960s
Many photos of the area around Taipei Air Station late 1950s.
A trove of photos along the north shore including Shihmen Radar site and Gold Mountain.
More photos of Tsoying and Kaohsiung. Hostels and the KRC club, bowling alley Officers Club.....
Hope you'll check-in with your stories, we would love to post them here.
5 comments:
My family and I stopped by the wall early on Monday morning on our way to drop our boys off at school. We laid flowers, talked about the men who served and were killed, and said a prayer. It's become a Memorial Day tradition for us. Some day we'd love to join the larger group that meets later in the day (work and school commitments have prevented us thus far).
Morgan E. left a comment about stopping by to leave flowers and spending time at the wall earlier on the morning of Memorial Day.
When I arrived about 11:20 AM, Memorial Day I noticed the white flowers. They had wilted from the heat and lack of water and were drooped over.
The walkway had a lot of dead leaves and trash, so I went to the phone company next door and borrowed a broom to sweep up before the ceremony started.
When I came to the flowers, the stocks were folded over and the white flowers wilted, so I picked them up as I cleaned along the wall and asphalt drive.
I should have left them there. Next time any remembrance articles or flowers left at the wall will not be removed. My error in judgement. Kent - Taipei Air Station.
Do not worry about it. We knew they wouldn't be there for long--someone would pick them up, or they'd die in the heat. The act of remembrance with our children was what was important.
Hi Kent -- Thanks I enjoyed seeing the Ceremony for Memorial Day that was held in Taipei. Everyone did a nice job. When I'm back in Taiwan I would like to come see this area. Warm Regards Akiko & Jim
Thank you all for remembering and honoring our former POWs and fallen service members. Thank you Kent for sharing this.
Post a Comment