Grass Mountain, Taipei, Taiwan, 1969

Taken in August 1969, these pictures show the Grass Mountain facility from several different views.  Three of these have been added in September, 2011.

Gary Roske, who worked Tech Control at Grass and Gold Mountains contributed them. They are in the 1969-70 time frame.

The first picture is the classroom and office building along with what I think is the sewage plant in the background.* 

About 1/2 mile up a steep, narrow road, the site was carved from the side of a mountain.  Looking at the background, you can appreciate the beauty of the area. 

The equipment we had was state of the art.  Built like a fortress, the main building housed the punched paper tape relay, tech control and NARC (Non-Automatic Relay Center), and teletype repair. 

There were offices throughout the place, but most of us only saw a few rooms based on the need to know.

So, in early June of 1968, 16 of us became USASTRATCOM Long Lines Battalion members.  We had a home for the next 15 months, at least. 

*Since this was first posted, Dan Tsuhako, who was with Carrier Microwave in Taipei from 1967-1970,  identified this building as the power plant. So, now the question is what happened to the sewage?



The classroom building is plainly visible at the right. There were offices in the building as well. 

Servicemen on TDY from Southeast Asia honed their skills in the classroom. They stayed in hotels in Taipei and were transported to and from work by the Army bus.  

There was a General Court Martial held in the main classroom. Three STRATCOM soldiers were found guilty of assaulting a soldier on R and R in Taipei.

Windows were papered over, and guards were posted outside the doors. They were all found guilty.

Upon entering the main building, we were given our ID tag by the MP. We then went to our work stations. 

We at DCS major tape relay were at the extreme back end of the building. We served all the Air Force locations on the island. 

A large glass wall separated us from Tech Control. Further up the hall was NARC which used punched cards to send and receive messages.

All of these pictures were taken about 06:00, Taipei time. I witnessed the MP from our building and a Chinese Army guard from his barracks appear at the same time for the raising of the flags.

They saluted each other, then ran their respective country's flag up the pole. They each secured the rope, saluted each other again, and the day officially began. 

Photo by, and courtesy of, Gary Roske

The day shift at Grass Mountain always filled the main parking lot with cars jockeying for a good parking spot. 

Some vehicles parked at the side would be waiting for a soldier when the shift ended.

Blown up from the panorama collage, you can see how the main road at the front gate looked.

The perimeter of the entire place was enclosed by a chain link fence with a few strands of barbed wire at the top.

The guard shack looks pretty forlorn, but it wasn't used much as our ROC Army friends spent most of the day shift on their feet.

The vapor lamps that lit the place up at night are visible. They were also placed around Grass Mountain's perimeter.

Notice how overgrown the vegetation was and how narrow the road outside was. No vehicles accidentally came up this road.

Photo by, and courtesy of, Gary Roske

Once a year we had to take a fitness test. This looks like the guys have made their way outside the main gate. The water plant is in the near background.

Up and to the left was Gold Mountain JOSS. There is evidence that the overseas switchboard building, called Gold Mountain, is still standing today somewhere nearby.

Photo by, and courtesy of, Gary Roske

This picture was taken on the tennis court which was on a hill overlooking the Grass Mountain work site. It looks like part of the training is taking place here.

The fence with barbed wire can be seen clearly. It surrounded the entire complex.

To me, this is an interesting picture. The flag raising ceremony had not yet taken place, but the ROC guard is ready.

The area by the tennis court/basketball hoops had a deep trench to carry away the sometimes monsoon downpours that fell during the rainy season.

Here, also, is the water treatment plant directly down the hill from where I was standing. We had a couple of 10-gallon jugs we would fill from an outside spigot of the classroom building.

Finally, the ROC barracks can be seen in the background.

On the far left is the back entrance road. If it had to be used, it was an emergency or else something couldn't be brought up to the main entrance.

It was a long ride down, possibly twice that of the main road. Travel was slow and the road was extremely narrow.

It descended into a neighborhood of white houses and the exit was south of the main road exit of JingShan Road and GeZhi Road.

I believe the back road down is now called ZhongYong Road.

You are looking at the first floor mess hall. The rest of the building consisted of the barracks on the first and second floors.

Most of us began living here after processing in. Later, many of us found other quarters. The barracks was a cheap place to live if you didn't mind the noise, bad beds and lack of privacy.

There was a mail room next to the mess hall. The detached day room, in the background, had a pool table, sports gear storage area and a barber shop. 

The mess honcho was on a budget and he worked it to his liking. No matter what brand of beer we ordered on our off hours, all that he ever seemed to have was Lucky Lager. Two of the waiters were Jones and Snuffy.

For the Chinese Army guards, this was good duty. Their barracks building was down the hill behind the classroom/TTY repair building.

After midnight, they had the Day Room to themselves. There, they were able to hone their pool playing skills.

This is a literal cut and paste of the entire site. On the far right is the main entrance gate, guarded by ROC soldiers. 

Directly down the hill from the tennis court was the water plant. Notice the tower which was pointed directly at 7-Star. The back entrance is at the extreme left of this panorama.