The Black Bats: Commemorating the pilots and their loved ones

Last night, I attend my last Thinker's Club event at the university's auditorium. This was a unique event, and was unlike all the other Thinker's Club activities. It is about our own history, in fact, the history of war and of the city of Hsinchu. We first viewed a very interesting documentary film about the surveillance planes going into China during the 50s and 60s gathering intelligence information for the Nationalist government and the CIA. These pilots were trained by the Americans and all the planes and state-of-the-art technology came directly from the CIA, who regarded Taiwan as the most important military base for spying and surveillance missions as the Korean War continued. In fact, all the aerial photos and intelligence information gathered was delivered overnight to the CIA, and the information was crucial in maintaining the safety of Taiwan and in solidifying the US role in Asia. Over the years, each elite pilot went on an average of 70-90 missions, each time not knowing if they would live to rejoin their families. I should mention that since these flight missions were based in the Hsinchu air force base, all of the pilots' families were living in the military family housing (眷村）right here in Hsinchu, some only steps away from where I am.

After the informative and moving documentary, Professor Lung Ying-tai (yes, my idol!) chaired a discussion session with the ex-defense minister, three "heroes" (pilots who survived, now in their 80s), and one history scholar. We learned their personal stories on these extremely dangerous and highly secretive missions. The stories and discussion were followed by a poet's recitation of a beautiful eulogy commemorating the numerous pilots who died in crashes or were captured by the Communists. I don't think there was a single person in the audience of 1000+ that was not moved. I was moved sitting amidst the many widows and children of the pilots. Finally, a singer and song-writer sang to the unsung pilots whose names were listed, one by one, on the large screen.

Due to the highly secretive nature of these missions at the time and people's forgetfulness, these veterans were never publicly acknowledged, nor the dead mourned. This part of history was quickly forgotten. Most of the families were never even informed of how and where their fathers died, and were therefore never properly buried in Taiwan. Professor Lung and her students started doing research, including looking at declassified CIA documents, and they started learning more and more about the missions and this part of Taiwanese Cold War history.

The significant page of history has been long forgotten, the heroes never honored, the motives and backgrounds of the missions undiscussed. For me personally, this evening taught me the importance and the power of the knowledge of history. Lung and the students used a quote from J. F. Kennedy as the "take-home" message, with which I agree fully:

"A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers."