The Ministry of National Defense yesterday touted the success of summer training camps after it conducted a survey that showed that nearly 94 percent of camp participants said they were willing to defend the nation in the event of war.
The military-run camps have made substantial headway in promoting civil defense, the ministry said, citing entrance and exit polls conducted last year at the camps, without elaborating on the survey methodology.
Before attending the camp, 82.1 percent of participants said they were willing to fight for the nation’s defense, but the number rose to 93.99 percent after they completed the training, the ministry said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
Camp graduates scored 89.6 percent in national defense knowledge tests, up from 59.4 percent before attending, it added.
Of the 3,529 people who attended the camps, 575 enlisted in the military, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
The registration period for the 14 winter civil defense camps that are to run from Jan. 23 to Jan. 30 is closed, the official said.
The camps are to be managed separately by the army, navy, air force and military police in ways that focus on the specialties of each branch, with the army camps featuring augmented-reality combat simulators and the navy camps featuring tours of the nation’s warships, they said.
Besides the service-oriented camps, the military is to organize camps that focus on defense technology-related applied sciences, creative and performing arts, and journalism, the source said.
Separately, the ministry is to organize national defense education and study camps on the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) for young people, with four such camps planned for next year, the ministry said.
The camps would facilitate public education about the nation’s South China Sea policy, the mission of the Itu Aba (Taiping Island, 太平島) coast guard garrison and history of the nation’s involvement in the Spratlys, while allowing attendees to experience life on naval and coast guard ships firsthand, it said.
Registration for the Spratly camps closes on March 8, the ministry said.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
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STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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