Gold Mountain, Taipei Taiwan

The main purpose of this blog was to make contact with men who had served in Taiwan during the Vietnam War. So far, only one person with whom I worked has been e-mailing.

Gary Roske worked as a Tech Controller on Grass and Gold Mountains for over 2 1/2 years. He has provided many pictures and is, I hope just the first USASTRATCOM person to contribute to this blog.

  
Living in Tien Mou, (Tianmu) Gary commuted to and from Yangmingshan. We worked right across from each other in the Grass Mountain complex, separated by a large glass partition. We didn't know each other then, but have become friends through correspondence.  

Here is Gary, along with the people he knew best--fellow Tech Controllers. I believe the guys at Gold Mountain had a lot of fun at work. All of these pictures were provided by Gary Roske.

Shown here, Gary is hard at work at his training facility at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He finished there with 2 MOS certifications.

This would be the hard-working young man in the previous picture. Shaving, apparently, was part of his complicated road to graduation.

It all paid off as this diploma attests.

And here we find Gary, Rich, Dan and Tony in Japan awaiting the final leg to Taipei. 

Everyone I knew from STRATCOM bought one of these name badges. Gary's is in pristine shape. We all thought they were really cool. What our translated names meant wasn't as important as wearing this distinctive identification.

One of the Gold Mountain Joint Overseas Switchboards (JOSS)

Sp6 Whatanbe shown in front of some of the Gold Mountain Equipment

Staff Sergeant Henry Hankins at the audio board

SSGT Hankins and his children pose in Tien Mou. Don't you wonder when looking at these old pictures what everyone looks like today?

With no fear of heights, two young guys atop the Gold Mountain Tower

The story of this picture, as related by Gary, isn't the great-looking Honda, but rather the worst-ever sunburn he got that day! Many others who were out in the sun for extended periods could offer their own experiences with a Taiwan sunburn.  

All of us had best friends with whom we felt comfortable. Here, Dan DiThomas works on his 1956 Chevy. Many automobile parts were shipped overseas by friends or relatives to get or keep these fine machines running. Chicago's J.C. Whitney catalogs were used by servicemen to order specific parts.

There was a driving range near Taipei International Airport. Here, Gary takes a hack as Dan and Mary DiThomas await their turn. Dan must have gotten the Chevy running.

Kneeling, Gary and friend Jeff Blumberg work without directions putting a grill together. Nothing ever went wrong doing this, did it?

Now we see how exhausting assembling the grill was. It called for Gary and Jeff and Sue Blumberg to visit McCauley Beach.

SPC5 Gary Roske along with man's best friend at his Tien Mou residence

This might look familiar to some of you.It's the bus turnaround in Tien Mou.