2 March 2010
Michael Snavely
PMB 152
78-670 HWY 111
LaQuinta, CA 92253
USS Twining 18 April 1959 to 2 August 1963. “SA” to SM1”.
Shipmate Glenn;
I
am sending you two “Plan of the day’ from the TWINING dated 26 April
1963 and 21 May 1963. DESDIV 172, USS TWINING, USS SHIELDS and
USS PORTERFIELD had been assigned FORMOSA PATROL. President
Eisenhower had established His HELPING HAND program and all units of
the Pacific fleet were expected to perform some worthwhile civic
function while deployed. Commanding Office A. T. Sprague
III called me to his stateroom and explained the policy to me and said
that he wanted me to be the TWININGS representative for a project while
we were in Kaohsiung. He congratulated me on my selection to E-6
and said he knew I would be successful in identifying a project for the
TWINING. He gave me two weeks to find and identify a
project. I was not expected to do any ship board work or training
nor was I expected to be aboard when the ship went out on her
patrol. I was to be given a set of orders that would allow me to
be berthed and fed at the Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG)
In
the area and/or any USN ship in harbor. The next day I went
ashore and about the only place I thought I might find someone to
advise me on a knowledgeable American living there was to go to the
China Fleet Club where it seemed many of the MAAG Sailor advisers hung
out. Almost the first two Chiefs I talked to recommended I
contact their section adviser Chief R. J. Kohler whose wife was active
with the Kaohsiung Ladies Charity League, in fact Mrs. Kohler was the
President of the League. I phoned her and briefly explained to
her my “mission” and she immediately came into town to meet with
me. She was well acquainted with all of the official and
unofficial projects and would be more than happy to take me around and
introduce me. I returned to the ship and briefly filled the XO,
C. N. Straney, in and got my gear together as the TWINING was going on
patrol in the morning. The next morning I went ashore and at the
landing was a boat from a USN oiler that had came into port. I
got in their boat and went out to the ship and asked to see their
XO. I showed him my orders and explained my mission and he was
very enthused about what we were attempting to do, and of course I
would be more than welcome to bunk and chow aboard and no restrictions
would be placed on my coming and going. I contacted Mrs. Kohler
and she picked me up and we started our tour of possible
projects. We visited a Catholic church and conferred with the
priest and he served us coffee and drank his laced with brandy.
He was Irish and had been in Formosa for many, many years and in fact
had been at the same church the whole time. He had a fine solid
church but he was the only one I ever encountered there. I had
been forming some ideas about what we might be able to do on the
TWININGS next port call and the needs of the church far exceeded our
time and physical abilities. I did later take him a five gallon
tin of USN coffee grounds which he greatly appreciated.
(Obviously I did not inform the XO of all our Helping Hand
efforts.) The next day we met with two representatives of a group
that was dedicated to helping the indigenous people of Formosa.
Actually it is not Formosa, but Taiwan. The name Taiwan it was
explained to me was a combination of the two major ethnic groups of the
island, The Tai’s and the Wan’s. The Tai’s and the Wan’s had been
severely decimated by first the Chinese and a long Japanese occupation
and after the war the Nationalist Chinese fled the mainland and they
were restricted to reservations, much like our own native
peoples. The two representatives we were meeting had not even
been allowed on the reservation near Kaohsiung. It appeared that
the only way we would be able to help them would be to force the issue
by embarrassing the Nationalist government. Not really what I had
been sent to do. They did indicate that anything we could do in
the way of food or cloths would be a great help. The next day we
visited the Kaohsiung Skin Clinic. The rather innocuous sounding
name did not prepare me for the reality of what it really was, a
leprosarium, in other words a clinic for lepers. Well, I had read
of lepers in the Bible and on Molokai in Hawaii, but this was really
something else for this Aberdeen, WA sailor to encounter. The
Facility was run by a Norwegian Doctor and his American wife, the
Kjorsland’s. In the course of the conversation I learned that the
Doctor was supported by an American church group and his wife was
supported by a Norwegian church group. Curious right? The
clinic was located well out of town latterly on a pad in a rice
paddy. The building was built in a square with an open courtyard
in the middle. The clinic medical facilities were located across
the front and patient rooms down both sides, maybe twelve to a side,
and facilities were located across the back. Doctor Kjorsland
gave us a tour beginning with the medical facilities which were very
simple. He had an ex-navy locker that he had obtained many years
before from a ship that helped him. He kept his small supply of
drugs and tools there. I say “tools” as the only tools he needed
was strong nippers to nip off diseased digits. The disease would
kill the nerves and stop the blood flow to fingers and toes so they
would just be nipped off. The medicines consisted mostly of sulfa
drugs to the best of my recollection. He also had an old
fashioned wooden tin lined ice box refrigerator. The ship that
had helped them years before had installed a little motor and Freon
coil in it so that he could keep the medicines fresh. The
electricity on Formosa in those days was not very reliable as to
voltage and availability. A particularly big surge had blown out
the motor on his reefer. He gave us a tour except for the last
four rooms on the left where patients who were is a very contagious
state resided. The Doctor and his wife impressed me almost
immediately of their sincerity and devotion to their patients that when
we were briefly alone I told Mrs. Kohler that this was going to be the
TWINING project. I felt that a refrigerator would be received
with welcome arms and assumed I could get one through the MAAG Navy
Exchange. I reported back aboard the TWINING and reported to both
the Captain and the XO as to my results. They concurred that the
Kaohsiung Special Skin Clinic would be our project and that I should
coordinate our efforts with the XO. Mrs. Kohler took me to the
Exchange; only MAAG personnel were allowed to shop there. I found
the perfect refrigerator for the clinic with the added feature of it
having been specially constructed for the Formosa electrical
grid. I returned to the ship with the amount need and also the
equipment needed to fix things up at the clinic. There were some
minor plumbing issues and some carpentry work needed as well as
considerable painting, 5 gallons of Red, 5 of green and 5 white.
I hoped we could get ten volunteers for two days to paint the offices,
all the doors and window frames and the building trim, all of which had
not been painted for years and never with an oil based paint. I
still have my notes of the number of rollers and brushes, tape, rags,
thinner, pots and ‘chow’ for the crew (box lunch) and drinking
water. The Doctor would arrange for ladders. We made the
crew aware of what we were purposing and asked for volunteers’ and
monetary donations for the refrigerator. The first day we had
eighteen volunteers, (Faircloth, Walker, Head, Hippen, Walker, Brown
LTJG, Hutton, Johnson, Misanko, Cook, McGown, Medley, Morton, Stone,
Zeien, Hogsett Bridgeford and Snavely.) The SOPA admin provided
the transportation and we went to the Clinic. In just a matter of
hours those 18 men had almost all the various jobs completed.
Talk about turning to and titivating ship they did and outstanding
job. At the end of the day the clinic was bright and TASTFULLY
trimmed out. We left all the brushes, rollers and left over paint
with the Doctor for future use at the clinic. The purchase price
of the refrigerator was raised in a few days and with a few companions
we got a truck from SOPA ADMIN and went to the Exchange to pick up the
refrigerator. When we arrived and told them why we were there the
CO of the facility told us that under no circumstances were we going to
be allowed to purchase a reefer and donate it to a resident.
People on orders there were only allowed to sell one refrigerator and a
car when they left, and they received many thousands of dollars above
their original purchase price. We returned to the ship and I
reported to the captain what had transpired. A. T. Sprague came
from a very famous naval family and it just so happened that the
American Ambassador to the Nationalist Government was a retired Navy
four star Admiral and had served with The Sprague’s. Apparently
the Captain contacted the Ambassador because before we knew it that
LCDR at the exchange was on OUR quarterdeck asking to see the CO, XO
and that Signalman. He explained that not only the Ambassador but
Madame Ch’ing Kai Shek had become involved and regardless of any Navy
regulation or Nationalist rules, regulations or laws the refrigerator
would be made available ASAP. Cap’n Sprague was about to bust a
gut with pride and all he said to us was, “Make it so”. The LCDR
from the exchange said he would have the reefer AND transportation
waiting for us the first thing in the morning. The next morning
as promised we passed over our crew donated dollars and drove off to
the clinic. The first vehicle went in first to ensure the Doctor
would not see the truck coming and the TWINING boys pulled up and
unloaded the reefer and then we brought the Doctor and His wife
out. I have a picture of The Doctor and Mrs.Kohler and
myself outside the sparkling bright Clinic. I still have my
Second class crow on, the next day I was a First Class.
The Doctor and Mrs.Kohler and Mike Snavely outside the sparkling bright Clinic.
Recent picture of Mike and wife, Sharon
Plan of the Day - 26 April 1963
Plan of the Day - 21 May 1963
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