It was one of Taiwan’s most secretive Cold War outposts: Shulinkou Air Station (樹林口空軍情報站), a joint-service U.S. intelligence base perched on a misty plateau west of Taipei.

Built in 1955 on a former Japanese airfield, Shulinkou became a hub for monitoring radio traffic, tracking radar signatures, and feeding raw intelligence directly to the NSA at Fort Meade.

In Part 1 of this three-part series, we focus on the early 1960s and the everyday world of the young servicemen stationed there.

Shulinkou was a place where secrecy was routine, boredom was dangerous, and history was unfolding just across the Strait.

This is Part 1. Parts 2 and 3 will take us deeper -- into the looming Vietnam War.

For this episode, we relied heavily on the excellent Shulinkou Air Station Taiwan website, which is run by men who served there between 1955 and 1977.

Pioneering researcher, physician and historical novelist Dr Chen Yao-chang passed away at the age of 76 on November 17. He will be deeply missed by family and friends.

John and Eryk had the pleasure of getting to know this kind and talented man through our publishing wing, Plum Rain Press. Our first book in fact was the English-language edition of his breakout novel, A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa. (wonderfully translated by He Wen-ching.)

In this special episode, you'll hear a recording from the highly-recommended podcast Books on Asia – With Amy Chavez, (the Formosa Files team recorded a ⁠BOA episode on “Three Tribes”⁠ in October '25), and snippets from a chat Eryk and Dr. Chen had back in June 2024.

Rest in peace, Dr. Chen... and thank you.

Ever taken Kaohsiung’s cable car across the harbor, had fun at Chiayi’s Universal Studios theme park, marveled at Taiwan’s Statue-of-Liberty-style gift to the US (a giant Moon Goddess monument)? Well, no, you couldn’t have because these projects were never realized. These are just a few of the many bleached bones we explore from the graveyard of broken dreams.

AND – there will be an extra episode coming this Saturday with a wild premise. Is it possible the ancient Chinese settled in Taiwan during the time of China’s first emperor, or in Japan, or crossed the Pacific and made contact with Central American civilizations such as the Maya?

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