Taiwan: Summer, 1968-004 I was with two other Security Policemen (SP) walking south, shoulder high in the waters of the Taiwan Straights. We rounded an eddy protruding out from the beach into the ocean. We maneuvered around the eddy and instantly froze. A Taiwanese soldier in a pillbox on the beach began firing his 50-caliber machine gun. All three of knew we were dead. Once he stopped firing we began wildly flaying our arms and yelling, “American, American, American.” We kept this up as we made our way out of the water to the beach. When we hit the beach we kept walking away from the ocean. Security Police work 24/7. There were four flights of around 30 airmen each. We worked three days from 1500 hours to 1100 hours. Then we had 24 hours off. Went back to work at 1100 hours; and work till 0700 hours for three days then another 24 hours off. We returned to work at 0700 hours and work till 1500 hours for three days. Then we had off 72 hours. We were on our 72-hour break. A security police surfer dude from California brought his surfboard over with him. He asked another SP and me to go to the Tainan beach to surf. However, there weren’t any surfing waves, so we decided to walk south in search of more favorable surfing water. Rounding that eddy ended our surfing expeditions in Taiwan. Why the Taiwanese soldier began firing his machine gun when we rounded the eddy, we do not know. Perhaps we strayed into a restricted area and it was warning shots or a bad aim. Perhaps he wanted a good laugh. Who knows? Here we were. Three very white boys in swim trunks walking gingerly but quickly away from the solder with the 50-caliber machine gun. Once we were out of sight, I spotted a Taiwanese woman vender. She had an icebox (a miniature refrigerator) on the back of her bicycle full of soda. I bought several big bottles of Chi-sway (Taiwanese 7-up). We must have dehydrated. The Chi-sway was heavenly delicious and handily quenched our thirst. Now the question was how were we going to get back to base without losing all of our dignity. I said to the other two, “All we got to do is ask the Taiwanese: ‘Tainan, where’?” We have been in Taiwan about one month now. Our Taiwanese was all but non-existent. We were in a village where most if not all did not speak English. Also, we didn’t even know if we could say “Tainan” correctly. To make matters worse, all we were wearing were swim trunks—not culturally appropriate. We started walking and I asked every Taiwanese (who were every where), “Tainan—where?” They were very polite. They responded in Taiwanese or Mandarin. We did not know the difference between the two languages, nor did we understand anything they said. They did point in a direction. We bowed our heads up and down and in our non-existent Chinese said, “Shei-shei” which we believed was thank you. Then these three white boys wearing only swimming trunks began to walk in the direction they pointed. It must have been some sight for them seeing three white boys towering above the Taiwanese, walking away from them wearing only swimming trunks with a surf-board towering over their heads. We finally came to a major road. It was a two-lane highway. I saw a traffic sign with the number 1 on it. I knew this was the road that went past Tainan AFB. We crossed the road and held out our thumbs to passing trucks. Finally a truck piled high with cabbage stopped. I said to the driver, “Tainan”. He shook his head up and down and pointed to the top of the cabbage in back. In unison we all said, OK, OK.” We climbed up to the top of the cabbage, sat down, sticking the surfboard into the cabbage mountain. This had to be a sight never before seen in history: A Taiwanese cabbage truck, with three white boys, almost naked, sitting atop a moving cabbage mountain with a surfboard sticking up in the air going down the road. The ride probably took about 45 minutes when the driver stopped across from the front gate of Tainan AFB. Well this was going to be embarrassing. We had to walk past fellow SPs on front gate duty to get to our barracks. We climbed down the mountain of cabbage placing the truck between the front gate and us. We profusely thanked the driver who had a deliciously grin of delight on his face. The truck took off. We stood erect, marched across the road, greeted our fellow SPs and said, “The surf was spectacular today.” They were speechless. However, as we were about 10 feet away making a beeline to our barracks, I did hear wild laughter emanating from the front gate. Security Police work was mostly boring. There was the occasional excitement that interrupted the boredom. For example: standing watch for eight hours in a category 4 typhoon, poisonous snakes, and a cobra trying to break into a guard shack. Those are stories for some other time. What I looked forward to the most was the 72 hours off when I could venture out and explore this exotic land—Taiwan. The places, people, and food were the most enjoyable adventures.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 21:27:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015