tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5252080048017373240.post8015613273151300014..comments2024-03-23T19:41:22.620-10:00Comments on Taipei Air Station: MAAG Flight Section TaipeiTaipei Air Stationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686488354629456728noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5252080048017373240.post-53745016828807879292016-09-17T05:26:23.747-10:002016-09-17T05:26:23.747-10:00This Beni, who leaves a comment and then disappear...This Beni, who leaves a comment and then disappears (Shadow Man), is most likely associated with the University of Michigan's International Institute.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5252080048017373240.post-34663588574986479732012-05-07T05:02:15.496-10:002012-05-07T05:02:15.496-10:00The message from "Anonymous" signed &quo...The message from "Anonymous" signed "beni" should include my email address: unlisted@umich.eduAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5252080048017373240.post-82785724975935889402012-05-07T05:00:06.801-10:002012-05-07T05:00:06.801-10:00I'm 98.32% certain that the "MAAG Flight ...I'm 98.32% certain that the "MAAG Flight Section" building in the photograph is the one we called the "Flight Shack" or "MAAG Shack," located in the restricted military area of Taipei Sung Shan (or Songshan) Airport (IATA: TSA, ICAO: RCSS; Chinese: 臺北松山機場; pinyin: Táiběi Sōngshān Jīchǎng), the civilian portion of which was officially called Taipei International Airport (Chinese: 臺北國際航空站; pinyin: Táiběi Gúojì Hángkōngzhàn), to and from which I flew 5 or 6 times on a Civil Air Transport (CAT) Consolidated PBY-5A amphibious aircraft, nicknamed "Blue Goose 2," owned by the CIA and crewed by 2 CIA pilots when I served a combat tour with the Matsu Defense Command Advisory Team (MDCAT)on Matsu (Nangan Island) in 1959-60. Both passengers and pilots were required to check in (with, I think, US Army personnel) at this building prior to each flight to Matsu, and I think we had to check out with the staff each time we returned to Taipei. I never saw any other aircraft parked anywhere near the shack, and assume that all aircraft that boarded or discharged passengers there simply taxied there from some other location at Songshan. I suspect that the shack was used only for internal flights carrying US military personnel to or from locations within Nationalist China. Unlike any other aircraft on which I've flown, US military passengers were required to be armed with .45-caliber pistols, and the CIA pilots carried a virtual arsenal in an extremely heavy-looking golf-club bag, including fully automatic weapons (or so I was told by fellow passenger and friend Father John J Dahlheimer, SJ, "Chaplain to the Matsu Complex"). Aside from those Matsu trips, all other flights to or from Taipei on which I embarked or debarked used the international (civilian) airport building. The original Blue Goose was a PBY-5A owned and operated by Foshing Air Transport (aka Foshing Airlines) under a Ministry of National Defense contract, which mysteriously disappeared while enroute from Matsu to Taipei in October 1958, and I suspect that it too probably loaded and unloaded at the MAAG flight shack. --beni (you can contact me directly atAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com