The base survey team of the combined logistics command is the only unit of its kind in the military, whose specialty has been recognized not just by the military but also by civilians.
The base survey team, which was activated in 1954 in Taichung, is responsible for the positioning of the country's control points, also known as triangular points, as the references in the making of military maps.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
These control points, over 2,000 in number, are mostly located in mountains and remote areas, requiring great physical strength and psychological endurance to reach.
Last year, the base survey team completed the first country-wide joint survey since 1980. The mission took one-and-a-half months. The team sent members to 20 control points in the country and offshore islands such as Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu to conduct the joint survey.
The survey was highly regarded by the military since it will greatly improve the accuracy of the control points and will thus lead to the upgrade of the capabilities of the military in the use of control points for combat purposes.
Besides the recognition from the military, the base survey team has also won applause from the civilian sector because of its contribution to most of the civil-engineering projects of the country over the past few decades.
The team has been assigned to conduct geographical survey for civil-engineering projects such as Taipei's mass-rapid-transit systems, the high-speed railway system, the Chungshan and Second North Freeways, a new center of Taipei County's Tamsui township, and many others.
The team's involvement in these projects has been little known since not many people would expect the military to have such a highly-specialized unit. Its members mostly graduated from the Chung Cheng Institute of Technology of the military.
Another lesser-known aspect of the team is that it had sent members to Saudi Arabia to help the then diplomatic ally of the country establish its survey capabilities and organs. Team leader Colonel Cheng Chuan-kao (鄭傳考), who had been to Saudi Arabia, reflected in a recent interview with the Taipei Times that those days in Saudi Arabia occupy an important place in his memory.
"We went there mainly to help them establish their own survey capabilities. There was much to do," Cheng said, declining to go any further on the topic.
A lot of senior members of the team had the same experience of working in Saudi Arabia. Younger members no longer have the chance to benefit from the exchange since Saudi Arabia has switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China years ago. The survey team's role in Saudi Arabia has been replaced by specialists in the field sent from China.
Although the survey team was kicked out of Saudi Arabia because of China, China might have to thank it for the Three Gorges Dam of the Yangtze River that has just been completed and put to use.
The survey team's predecessor during the KMT's rule over most of China had already launched a comprehensive survey of possible sites for a dam in the Yangtze River between 1945 and 1946.
The survey was done in large part by aircraft. The team has the original photos of the Yangtze River taken from aircraft on file. It refused, however, to make these photos public.
Cheng explained that it has yet to be found out whether China's Three Gorges project might have benefited from the efforts of the team's predecessor.
"We do not want to have any publicity in connection with the survey of the Yangtze River which occured nearly five decades ago," Cheng said. Cheng's attitude toward the matter is typical of members of the survey team, who prefer to remain unknown heroes.
While performing their duties, the team members are requrired to walk or climb long distances in remote and often treacherous mountain ranges, where they will stay for weeks or as long as a month to do the survey work.
A lieutenant colonel of the team, who preferred not to be identified, said survey jobs are pains-taking but always joyful upon reflection.
"We had, for instance, spent a whole month at a coastal site in Taitung near a local cemetery doing astronomical survey," the lieutenant colonel said.
"In the first ten days, we did nothing but adjusting the survey machine to the most exact conditions. After that, we started the survey but only at night. That's why we had to stay there for a month," he said.
"Now we could do the job in a much easier way because of the improvement in the survey machine. The survey machine of the present day is much lighter and has much better functions," he said.
The Global Position System device, for instance, is now one of the most useful tools for the survey team.
But despite the advance in tools, the survey team still needs physical strength and psychological endurance greater than ordinary people to keep moving forward.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard