During this visit the Association presented a plaque to General Ku.

Click here to see it.

This trip was at the invitation of General Ku, Republic of China Commander of Air Defense Missile Command. Click here to read the invitation letter.

A special newsletter was produced detailing the trip and including photographs.

It is an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file and requires that the free Adobe Acrobat Reader be installed on your computer.

If you need to install the free Adobe Acrobat reader click here to download and install it.

The is excerpted from the newsletter.

Trip to Taiwan, 22-28 April 2001
By Bob Mackintosh

Trip Background
The 1998 Reunion in El Paso was a great success. Many of you had expressed an interest in going to Taiwan, sometime in the future. A tentative date was set for the spring of 2001, so we would be in between the reunions of 2000 or 2002. A survey was sent to everyone on the 2/71 Newsletter mailing list early in 2000 to determine the amount of interest in a trip to Taiwan. From the responses to the survey, we had over ninety members and family members who expressed an interest in going to Taiwan in 2001. With that information we initiated planning, and submitted a request to the R.O.C through the Washington, D.C., Taiwan and Economic Council Office. After a slow start, the TECO forwarded our request to the Department of Veterans Affairs in Taiwan and the Ministry of National Defense. (It took a little Congressional help from Senator Shelby of Alabama. Fortunately he was a very good friend of the TECO Congressional Liaison Office.)

Tentative plans were made, a tour company was selected, and they were asked to obtain bids for hotel accommodations and in-country tours. We selected the dates, 22-28 April 2001, to insure that we arrived between the time that income taxes had to be filed, and the arrival of unbearably hot weather in Taipei. The tour company, Hermes Travel of Torrance, CA., asked for bids from the airlines, and hotels and tour companies in Taipei. We then had a cost estimate for the trip, and asked for a down payment for each traveler by early December 2000. Our 90+ potential travelers shrunk to 24. By the time of departure in April, we had 22 happy travelers: although, not many were looking forward to the 14 1/2-hour flight from LA.

22-24 April 01 – Trip to Taipei from Los Angeles

Most of our group met the evening of 22 April in the LA Airport. We were met by the owners of Hermes Travel and Tour Company, Tina and Kambiz Hermes. (Tina was from Taiwan and Kambiz is Iranian. Tina had made our flight reservations with Singapore Airlines, had made the reservations with the Grand Hotel, and arranged for our travel within Taiwan with another Travel Agent in Taipei, Edison Travel Service, and set up special tour packages for those of us who wanted to extend our visit to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul, or Tokyo. The rates that she obtained for us were really great, and while they seemed high for many of you, they were a once in a lifetime opportunity that was taken advantage of by 22 members of the 2/71 Taiwan Association.) Bob, Lois and Brian Mackintosh were the last to arrive at the airport. Their flight was delayed out of Dallas, but they arrived about 11PM, two hours before flight departure. While we were waiting in the departure area, Bob distributed lapel pins with the U.S. and R.O.C. flags that he had received from the Washington TECO.

Our flight was due to depart LA, on Singapore Airlines at 1AM, Monday 23 April. The travelers from LA that day were Al and Sadie Havard, Bob, Lois, and son, Dr. Brian, Mackintosh, Casimiro (Milo) Morin, Jim and Carole Nelson, Harry and Lurye Phillips, John and Lennore Pohlman, Jim and Nancy Telford, Herb and Janet Terbille, Wes, and Gladys Wilson, with daughter, Dr. Linda Bell. Dan and Barbara Funamura departed from Honolulu and arrived in Taipei the evening before our arrival at 6AM,Tuesday, 24 April. (We lost a day when we crossed the International Date Line.) The flight time from LA was 14 1/2 hours, so with the flight time and crossing of nine time zones, we arrived in Taiwan at 6AM. Dan and Barbara spent the night in the airport hotel at Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, and met us when we arrived. Dan had his ukulele, Barbara, and nothing else. His luggage did not make the plane when he departed Honolulu. They had started out on the island of Koloa, and their luggage missed the transfer at Honolulu. So after a daylong flight, Dan and Barbara’s luggage had to wait for the next flight, which was to depart Honolulu on Wednesday.

24 Apr 01 (Tuesday) – First day in Taipei

After we got through Customs in CKS Airport, we were met by our tour guide, Paul Hsieh, Edison Travel Co., who would be with us all week. Paul had been a friend of Tina Hermes when Tina lived in Taiwan. This turned out to a great choice, as Paul was a wonderful guide. He would be with us every day, except Thursday, the day we spent with the Taiwanese government. Even that day he showed up before the 8AM-departure time to make sure that our hosts showed up as scheduled. Paul was very flexible and adjusted our itinerary as we went along – depending upon our needs or desires.

Paul had a large bus waiting to take us on a tour of Taipei. It would have been nice to go directly to the Grand Hotel to take a shower and change clothes, but that was not possible. The hotel could not let us check in until after 2PM, so Paul had us scheduled to see the sights in Taipei and have lunch before we could get to the hotel.

Paul advised us that we would have our first itinerary change at lunch that day. The schedule, developed between Hermes Travel in Torrance, CA, Edison Travel in Taipei, and Bob Mackintosh, included a Mongolian Barbecue lunch at the Magnolia Hotel in Taipei. Sometime during our flight to Taipei, Paul’s Travel Co., was notified the Department of Veteran’s Affairs planned to take us lunch at the Mongolian BBQ on Thursday, 26 April. There was negotiation and the Dept. of Veteran Affairs suggested the tour company select . . . .