A nice and welcoming China

I have been following carefully the war exercises that Communist China has been doing over the Straits of Formosa or is it called the Straits of Taiwan? Obviously, some of the pictures shown on TV were taken from Chinese Communist Air Force (CCAF) aircraft. That tells me that Dictator Xi Jinping is putting on the show in an attempt to sway the American public not to resist any move that he might make to take over Taiwan. Hopefully, events won’t escalate into a war with the behemoth that is now China.

This old Nebraska-raised farm kid has lots of good memories, and questions, of the island country we now know as Taiwan. When we studied geography in high school it was referred to as Formosa. That was not long, ten years, after the end of WWII with the defeat of the Japanese who had ruled the island as a possession.

During WWII the U.S. had allied with the Nationalist government of China who was ruled by Chiang Kai-shek. It was with Chiang’s troops that our group of Flying Tigers fought against the Japanese. At that time much of China was ruled by the Communist Mao Zedong who had allied with Japan. A big mess!

At the end of WWII, the Japanese army was all sent home. Our U.S. forces were homesick and tired of fighting so we cleared out to let the Nationalists fight and become defeated by Mao’s communist forces. Chiang took his army and government and skedaddled to Taiwan. I think we probably helped with the move.

In the summer of 1958, I was fortunate to travel through the Pacific on a summer trip with the US Air Force Academy. We were well hosted by the Chinese Air Force, and Chiang Kia-shek’s troops there on the Island of Taiwan. Friendly officers many of which had trained during WWII at Colorado Springs. They were flying F-86s at the time and just received the new F-104 fighter.

As part of our reception in 1958 we were briefed on how Chiang has set up the Chinese Nationalist Government when he took over the Island of Taiwan. They had representatives for all the Providences, which were at that time still located back in the China that was then taken over and ruled in fact by Mao. It didn’t make a lot of sense and our US Government was careful to tiptoe around and not recognize the Chinese Nationalist fake Government so as not to make the Chinese Communists angry. At that time the indigenous people only consisted of about 2.5% of the Taiwanese population so obviously the Democratically formed Chinese Government of Taiwan was in charge. Still, our U.S. government didn’t recognize them as in charge of that Island Nation.

Such was the politics of an Island Nation that has become important to the economy of these old United States. Lots of opportunities squandered in the past to develop political and economic ties. Now the big greedy Communist regime, China, wants to take over Taiwan’s production of electronic parts that we sorely need plus they want to reign over that entire region of the Far East where we have expended so much blood and treasure over the years. We need much better leadership in our National Government.

Taiwan is a part of the world with good memories for our Trail household. During the Vietnam War I flew KC-135 tankers out of a Taiwanese Air Force Base we knew as CCK. Few of us “round eyes” could pronounce whatever those initials stood for. So just CCK. Generally, our mission was to depart CCK and fly down around the Philippines where we’d meet our flights of B-52s that had launched from Guam. After offloading great amounts of fuel in flight to them we’d recover back to CCK to do it again another day. The B-52s would drop their bombs somewhere, mostly in South Vietnam, and then fly back to Guam about a 12-hour trip round trip. Our missions were more like six hours airborne.

Accommodations for our crews at CCK weren’t plush but adequate. It was a short taxi ride into the nearest town of Taichung a perfectly modern city. When our wives would come over to visit we would rent motel rooms in Taichung. Off duty, I would walk through the farm fields near CCK to observe their crops of rice, sweet potatoes, cabbage — name it they grew it. Any people encountered in the countryside or in the cities were friendly and open to us Americans. It was a nice place to pull temporary duty.

Years later our son Don flew to Taiwan, this time to the capital city of Taipei, to study and learn the Chinese language. Han Chinese the official language; the language of commerce. He lived with a Chinese family to learn that language and taught English as a second language for ethnic Chinese students there. Becoming fluent in the language he secured a job with a local company that manufactured computer motherboards. He bought and rode a local motorcycle through that horrible Taipei traffic, learned to eat the local offerings, endured the frequent earthquakes and has happy fond thoughts of the wonderful people that he met there.

Closing on a happy note. I got a ride in an all-electric car back here at McCook. It is a Tesla. Other than no radiator it looks like a normal modern ride. Quiet with all the bells and whistles of a modern automobile — keeps you in the traffic lane, won’t allow you to brush fenders with another, big GPS console and more. What impressed me was the acceleration. Wow! The last time I felt the seat back pushing so hard on me was on a flight in an F-101 when the pilot lit the two afterburners. Awesome. And NO I am not in the market for one but then again it may be a Hill not too steep to climb. Who knows?

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail