The Republic of China Army’s elite “Frogmen” unit on Kinmen Island (金門) demonstrated they are capable of undertaking dangerous missions and repelling enemy attacks, as the nation’s armed forces prepared defensive deployments for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.
In yesterday’s drills for inspection by Ministry of National Defense (MND) officials, the Army 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion (ARB 101) “Frogmen” unit strutted their stuff to display their martial arts and other close-combat skills, weapons training, explosives demolition and stealth amphibious landing skills.
The elite soldiers braved high waves in the cold coastal waters of Kinmen Island during their simulation of storming a beach via rubber boats and attacking shoreline fortifications.
Photo: WALLY SANTANA, AP
MND spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) said the inspection was for officials to ensure the armed forces are vigilant over the security of the nation during the Lunar New Year holidays.
ARB 101 units are deployed along the front-line islands, with their main base at Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣) in Kinmen’s southeast, and other companies stationed at Matsu’s (馬祖) Nangan (南竿) and Dongying (東引) islets, as well as on Penghu’s Siyu Islet (西嶼).
At the ARB 101 base, the specially trained soldiers displayed their frogman suits for diving, breathing apparatus and other equipment, along with field camouflage and weapons such as T91 rifles and M107 scoped sniper rifles.
Lee Han-sheng (李瀚生), a seargent who heads a sniper company at the ARB 101 base, said he would patrol Kinmen and the nearby islets for the defense of the nation’s front line, which is close to China’s Xiamen City and Fujian Province coastline, to protect Taiwanese during the Lunar New Year holiday period.
A university graduate who enlisted as a professional soldier, Lee said training for amphibious combat was difficult, especially enduring the cold ocean temperatures during winter.
“Although we had frogman suits on, our extremities became numb after a while in the cold water,” Lee said.
“At times it was quite painful, as if our hands were being pricked by many needles. However, with more training, we got used to the conditions and our bodies toughened up,” he said.
“I chose the military” because it is an honor to serve my country, and I feel proud to protect my homeland and the citizens of our nation,” Lee said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by