USASTRATCOM

This blog was created for USASTRATCOM Long Lines Battalion Army personnel who served in Taiwan during the 1965-72 time frame. Specifically, those who lived and worked in and around Taipei are the target. If you worked at the Grass Mountain or Gold Mountain facilities or anywhere in downtown Taipei, we would like to hear from you. All are welcome to visit and contribute to this blog. Your comments and pictures are encouraged.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Gold Mountain, Taipei, Taiwan

When looking at the previous post, those of us who are interested found that Gold Mountain is still in the same location as it was in the 1960s.  

Gary Roske tried to get closer to it, but was turned away by Army guards.  

A call went out from this blog to ask for help in finding the location of the tower in Gary's two pictures.  


To the rescue came Victor W. Cheng, who has been a follower of this blog since its inception in August of 2010. 


From the 1973 overhead photo of Grass Mountain, Victor was able to find the exact location of Gold Mountain.  

Just as I had been way off on the location of Grass Mountain, it took Victor's skill to home in on the place.  It is south and east of the Grass Mountain complex. 

  
All these years, my assumption was that it was north and east of Grass Mountain.  

Now, it makes much more sense as to why the operators at the Gold Mountain JOSS (Joint Overseas Switching System) lived and ate at the Grass Mountain barracks.  




Photo courtesy of Kent Mathiieu

Here again is the 1973 overhead photo of Grass Mountain with Mandarin characters written on it. 

An overhead shot of the Grass Mountain station shows the coordinates and the much improved road system around it.  



Photo courtesy of Victor W. Cheng

Also from 1973, you can see the Grass Mountain station in the upper left corner of this picture and the Gold Mountain relay at the lower right. 



  
The same view of Gold Mountain, circled in red, in relation to Grass Mountain




Above is a red line leading from outside Grass Mountain, down and circling Gold Mountain.



Photo courtesy of Victor W. Cheng


A zoomed in photo of Gold Mountain shows the facility more clearly.


Photo courtesy of Victor W. Cheng


To provide a modern day closeup of Gold Mountain, Victor has sent this picture.  Now you can see the tower that Gary Roske had shown in the two pictures of the previous post.




The official coordinates of Gold Mountain

The unofficial coordinates of the entire Gold Mountain area

No comments:

Post a Comment