2nd Missile Battalion, 71st Artillery

(Taiwan) Association

271 Shady Oak Drive

New Market, AL 35761

<http://www.2-71adataiwan.com>

Volume 13

Newsletter 1

May 2009

Members Trip to Taiwan

Four members of the 2-7 Taiwan Association visited

Taiwan 8 - 25 April 200 with family members and friends.

Reports from Tom McGranahan and Jim Telford follow

below. Additional pictures will be put on the 2-7 web page

shortly.

Tom McGranahan’s Report

On April 18, fourteen of us met at LAX for a long antici-

pated trip to Taiwan. For three this was a follow-up to the

2-71 visit in 2001, for six a first trip to Taiwan, and for five

of us including me and my family, the first return to Taiwan

in almost 50 years.

We did not find the Taiwan we left. Charcoal smoke,

peddy cabs, bicycles and night soil had been replaced with

high rise condos, and office buildings, fleets of automobiles

and motor scooters, and rice paddies fertilized with mod-

ern fertilizer and harvested by machine; a freeway system

rivaling LA, and a bullet train that took us from one end of

the island to the other in ninety minutes. It was an amazing

metamorphosis.

Thanks to Bob Mackintosh’s planning we ended our thir-

teen-hour flight to Taipei at night, allowing us to get some

real rest before our first day of touring.

Our guide, James Chang was a Taiwanese graduate of the

ROC Naval Academy, now retired, having since worked for

Fed Ex, and now has long history as a tour guide in Taiwan

as well as many other countries.

Over the next five days we explored Taipei, took the bullet

train to Tainan, and a bus to Sun Moon Lake. We returned

to Taipei by bus, and James, ever thoughtful, made a special

stop in Taichung, so that Kappy, our Taiwanese daughter

could see the city of her birth.

During the five days we saw numerous temples, (Ben,

Milo’s grandson once asked “Is there anything in Taiwan

besides temples?”), the National Taiwan Museum, Taipei

101, the 101 story, bamboo shaped skyscraper in the center

of Taipei, modern shopping areas that rivaled anything you

might find in the best parts of New York, and traditional

local shopping areas such as ‘Snake Alley’ in Taipei, and a

similar areas at Sun Moon Lake and Jioufen an old gold min-

ing town near Keelung. The one thing that has not changed

in 50 years are the traditional markets. The products for sale

and the aroma of the traditional shopping areas are just as

we remembered. On a beautiful sunny day we visited the site

of the first European colony on Taiwan, the original Spanish

Fort (Aping), outside Tainan. There was a boat trip around

Sun Moon Lake, and a visit to Yehliu Geological Park on

the north west coast. This is a beautiful area of beach with

eroded, naturally sculptured rock formations.

The highlight of the trip of course was the visit to a missile

battalion near the site of the original 2-71 A Battery. James

was on his cell phone numerous times trying to make ar-

rangements for our visit. Once he even had me talk with a

Col. Lee. In 2001 the site visited was apparently very close

to our original site and was a Patriot site. In the meantime

air defense has passed from The ROC Army to the ROC Air

Force. Another confusing factor in arranging our visit was

that the term ‘A Battery’ had no meaning for the current mili-

tary. As we found later the ROC number their batteries, and

2-71 Taiwan Tour Group, April 2009

Milo Morin and Hawk Battery Officers