晚上8:14

In Memory of Black Bat Squadron:The Air Force 34th Squadron (by Vivien)

About 40 years ago, during the Cold War, the Taiwan Government wanted to get the support from The USA. On the other side, The USA government starved for the information of China and Russia. For this reason, ROC Air Force and the CIA established a special Ops Squadron, the 34th Squadron, to conduct electronic reconnaissance mission. The unit use Black Bat as the emblem, therefore the 34th Squadron was also known as Black Bat Squadron. You can see the emblem as below: The wings of the bat breaking through the red iron curtain represent the harsh difficulty of the mission. The Big Dipper is used to signify navigation, the 3 large stars and 4 small stars represent the 34th squadron. The reason for choosing the bat as the symbol for the squadron was that bats navigate by means of sonar at night, which is rather similar to the radar electronic detection work of the squadron.





When they carried out these tough and danger mission, the aircrafts must flied very low and was very easily caught by the spotlight or radar of enemy. As soon as you be found, you must be died because thousands of weapons would aimed at you at once! According to the official statistics recently year, there are 15 aircrafts crashed and 148 soldiers died, that is 2/3 personnel of the Squadron, between 1952 and 1972. But at that time, these brave guys were invisible and all the missions were denied by the government. So many young wives and their children lost their beloved without knowing the truth.

Last Sunday, I accompanied my grandfather, who is a member of Black Bat Squadron, to attend the opening ceremony of Black Bat Squadron Memorial Hall. The mayor of Hsinchu City and Ministry of National Defense hosted this ceremony. They also invited the surviving members of Black bats or other casualties’ matrons to share their stories. At the end, all the heroes included my grandfather was invited to walk onto the stage to be honored by everybody and sang the Air Force Song together. In the grey and rainy day, these old soldiers either stood with sticks or set on the wheelchairs but their song was still loud and clear. After so many years, they finally got the pride that they should be deserved long time ago.

At this moment, the tears came to my eyes. The only sentence floating on my mind is “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

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