Tainan Air Base 1972

I've been writing about the United States Military in Taiwan since October 2005. 

Since those early days of posting stories and photographs, I've not had a hint of a Tainan "base map" of the US Air Force area that could be read.  The one map that we had, courtesy of Les Duffin, was too small to really see with much clarity

Rick Slater, administrator of the Tainan Air Base Facebook pages asked many who joined the Tainan Facebook,  if anyone had a copy of the old base map.

 Rick was aware that large maps of the base existed and were posted on the walls of at least two law enforcement offices at Tainan.  
 

Anyone having one of those old maps would have left Tainan 35 to 40 years ago.

Today, we have our “first” clear and clean map of the US Air Force area at Tainan AB. 

The map clearly shows how every “nook and cranny” was utilized in the small footprint the US Air Force utilized at Tainan AB. I don’t believe they missed anything. 

The area in 1972 was such a big change from the early 1950s, when MAAG first arrived and bamboo huts were constructed. 

From the archives of the "USAF History in Taiwan" is this entry:

August 1956:  A construction project at Tainan AB consisting of Bamboo Huts for living quarters was started in June and completed in August.  Twenty additional huts were completed in December 1956.

Some of those 1956 "huts."

 In the late 1950s, new construction began on Tainan and it grew to what is depicted on the 1972 map of the US Air Force area of Tainan Air Station. 

Special thanks to James Taylor who scanned his yellowed and faded copy of the Tainan map, sent it on to Rick Slater,  the administrator of the Tainan Facebook pages. 
James Taylor was the Law Enforcement Desk Sergeant at Tainan during his tour. 

Also much thanks to Bruce Rayle for his help in cleaning, lightening and darkening areas of the map so that it was presentable to our readers. 

Bruce spent some of his younger years at Hsinchu.  Bruce's father was an US Army Officer assigned to MAAG in Hsinchu. Here's a link to Bruce's Family's story.

In October 2013, a group of former military men and their spouses, including myself, were invited onto Tainan Air Base to renew our memories of the base.

We were blessed to arrive on a bright, sunny day, no showers to hinder our visit.

We were met by a group of Taiwan Air Force Pilots and military officers who would be our hosts and guides as we toured the base. 

Our Taiwan Air Force hosts, welcoming us onto Tainan Air Base. 

Walking toward the Tainan AB Museum.

Up the steps into the building which housed the Museum. 

Signing the Guest Book..

The display area is very large and has many photographs showing US personnel and equipment.

We moved onto our bus and proceeded to the Fire Station to begin our tour. 
One of the men in our group had worked at the Tainan US Air Force Fire Station during his tour at Tainan.

Our first stop in the old US Air Force area was along Bolling Street.

This was one of the buildings that was still being used along Bolling Street. 
 I believe this leads to the swimming pool.

At the east end of Bolling street,  the Gym, with what looks like Aborigine markings.

Here's an old gate just next to the Gym. 

There has been some talk about the gates at Tainan.  I'm not sure if this gate was in use during our sojourn at Tainan, perhaps someone can explain if this was an active gate during your assignment at Tainan.

 

 

Two of our group were encouraged to display their best military bearing, "waving em in."

The Theater, the roof is about ready to fall-in.

Going about business in 1973. 
Back-in-the-day, the Theater was a "Favorite" in many of our lives.
 Photo courtesy of Roger Trzebiatowski 

The Rendezvous...  Looks like it had a face-lift.
What was your favorite dish from the Rendezvous kitchen?

Across Fourth Street from the Theater/ Rendezvous parking lot, the empty area where the Motor Pool once stood.

Those two warehouses in the distance, are they buildings 213 and 214, seen on the map below.

This map is very large, so keep clicking on the map until it enlarges....

 

Please leave your Comments below.

 

Veteran's Day 2015

When I think of Veteran's Day, my mind is drawn to some of our oldest living Veterans.

This film touched my heart.

One Presidential Canidate Recognizes Taiwan's Needs

In today's (Tuesday, 10 Nov 2015) Taipei Times newspaper, a front page story on Marco Rubio's remarks concerning the needs of Taiwan.

Nice to see someone speaking-up for Taiwan.

HERE is the story.


 

Tsoying Naval Base Open House

It was hot, sunny and humid as three friends and I met up at the Kaohsiung Metro, Word Games station, in north Kaohsiung, early on Saturday, October 24th.  My friends had driven down from the Taichung area, I rode down on the High Speed Rail from Taipei.

We came together to visit Tsoying Naval Base's "Open House." 

Because Tsoying Naval Base is so large, automobile parking, overseen by Marine Corps personnel, was located on empty parking lots and grass fields close to, but inside the Tsoying Naval Base boundaries.   


Everyone then walked to a central point, close to the parking areas, lined up and passed  through a security check before loading onto buses for transport to the "Open House area" of the base, which was some distance away from the parking areas.
  

Google Earth view of the "Open House" area.

This newspaper was handed-out as we off-loaded the bus. 

The Google Earth photo and the newspaper drawing just above identify the display and performance areas.

Please click or double click on the photos for very large views.

My friends, all of us retired US Military personnel, standing just outside the Metro Station.

We walked from here to the security point and bus loading area along the street.

Jim had parked his car a few minutes earlier at one of the base parking areas.

We off-load from the bus and walked 30 yards toward the display area.

This was probably about 9:00 AM. T
The large crowds had not yet arrived.

Everyone loved the Marines.

How bout this Camo pattern the Marines are wearing.

More and more visitors arriving.

 

Taiwan Marines carrying Combat Rubber Raiding Craft.  Every Marine also carries a weapon. 

US Navy Seals also use this type of craft.

The Marine team consisted of about a dozen craft and crews.  They did some water exercises where all crew members were in the water, while 2 men upped the craft after which time the craft was overturned completely by two different men, all the while, these Marines were also carrying their weapons and gear will in the ocean.   Impressive!

The sun is beating down and the breeze has disappeared, it's HOT!

This family knows how to keep cool, dampen down the hats and keep you neck and face covered as the little boy in the orange shirt is showing us.

These three Marines were happy to practice their English with us as they stood in front of this military vehicle.

What's you opinion on this Camo?  

An Apache helicopter on display.  

Taiwan was the first country outside of the US to receive the helicopter.  
There are a number in Taiwan and more on the way.

We stayed around this area for a long time.  

All sorts of military vehicles, helicopters and equipment was on display.

It was hot and our water bottles were long empty, time to head down to the refreshment tent area to find some cold drinks.

Walking toward the food tent area.

The food and drink tents seen here,  orange and white tops.

We purchased cold bottled drinks and wolfed them down in a couple of gulps, I was dry!

Got back in line and got another cold Coca Cola orange drink with pulp.  
That orange drink was really refreshing.  

A couple of hours later, we were starving for a cold drink again.  

We walked back to the tent that sold us drinks a couple of hours or so earlier, but, the tent was gone.  Guess they sold out.

I understand that last year's "Open House" had many less attendees.  I suppose the drink tent we visited earlier in the day wasn't prepared for the tremendous attendance at this year's event and ran out of stock.

We moseyed down along the pier past a number of large Taiwan Navy Vessels.  

Everyone vesicle was open for visitors.  If you wanted to climb up inside the vessel, the lines were long.  

This looks like one of the newer "stealth" type vessels.

Lots of folks lined up to visit this ship, long lines at each of the ships.

This ship looked to be the largest on display.  I believe it's a "supply" vessel.    

The breeze has picked-up down here along the docks.

The crowds are large, and the buses keep unloading visitors.

We spotted some porta potties over behind the trees.  

Didn't really have to go, all the liquid in our bodies was pouring out as sweat, it was hot, in the high 80s with 88%  humidity...

We sat down in the shade of the trees for a bit until we all got back together.

It was after 3:00 PM, and everyone was ready to head out.

We caught one of the buses and found ourselves at a different parking area that where Jim had parked his car.  

We decided to walk off base and catch a taxicab to where our car was parked.

Here we go, hoofing it out toward a the base gate, off in the distance.

The gate is just across the street from those large buildings off in the distance, straight ahead.

 

Hey Benny, "We're about half-way to the gate."

Finally, outside the gate, we started looking for a taxi.  

Thanks to one of the Marine guards on duty, there were quite a few men on duty around this gate today, a Marine used his cell phone to call us a taxi.  Thank you sir!

Beautiful photo.  

Be sure to enlarge it by clicking or double clicking a number of times.

As former US Military men, we appreciate and understand the feelings of the Taiwan Military personnel.

It was a great honor to visit the base today. 

 We sincerely appreciate the work and efforts of those who helped us secure the invitation to visit the Open House.

Thank you to the all of the citizens of Taiwan.

We love Taiwan and it's people.....