Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Bonnie Bartel Latino

Columnist

Assigned to the 1958^th Communications Squadron at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in the summer of 1972, my husband Tom held several jobs as chief of the Telecommunications Branch. He managed various military communication systems, including a teletype terminal, radio operations and a MARS station. He also oversaw high frequency radio operations in the much of the north Pacific Ocean. These responsibilities, especially during this phase of the Vietnam War, would well-serve his military career.

Shortly after I joined Tom in Guam, he was sent on a
TDY (temporary duty) assignment to Taiwan, to participate in a three-day communications conference with the Taiwanese Air Force in the capital city, Taipei. I certainly didn’t want to stay alone in our jungle rental house with the haunting squeals of pigs being slaughtered every Saturday. Fortunately, an Air Force family from southwest Georgia, and whom Tom had come to know quite well on his flights from Los Angeles and Hawaii to Guam, invited me to stay with them. What a relief!

I soon felt as if I had known them for years. Charles, the father, was one of the funniest people I have ever known. After a couple of Saturday night beers, he was known to howl like a wolf. His wife, Pat, was a tiny brunette sweetheart. Anything she said that was unfiltered or a tad bit risque’ she blamed on her alter-ego, “Shirley P.” (In a former life I’m sure she was a Bartel sister.) Her daughter Anita, age14, and son Noel, 11, adored Shirley P. and often egged-her-on to come out. At 24, I was closer to their ages than to Charles and Pat’s. I absolutely loved them all, even the older daughter, Cathy, back home, I hadn’t yet met but knew through their stories.

Charles had been in the military for at least 15 years, and they had a pleasant apartment in a modern building near Guam’s capital, Agana, as Hagåtña was known in the 1970s. Charles obviously had a much better military sponsor for his family’s move to the remote tropical island than did Tom. I don’t believe we ever received one letter or phone call from a sponsor for this leg of Tom’s career.

Meanwhile . . . (Then) Capt. Tom Latino has agreed to share his, shall we say warm, welcome to Taiwan’s capital city.

“Traveling with me to Taipei were my second lieutenant assistant and a senior NCO (non-commissioned officer). When we arrived to check in at the hotel, the desk clerk asked if I wanted a separate room or to share with the lieutenant. We were standing together. I was married, so it didn’t matter to me, but the lieutenant was single, so I asked his preference. He chose to double-up with me, so we got a room with two beds, and the senior NCO officer got his own room.

“We hadn’t even unpacked our suitcases before we heard a knock at our door. I answered to find an attractive Taiwanese woman who introduced herself as ‘Nikki, the hotel social director.’ She explained the hotel’s available amenities and said to come to her office if we needed anything. I asked where her office was. She said it was in the bar.

‘Hmm. Interesting place for an office. I had hoped to have a bit of time for sight-seeing, so I asked if she could help us with a tour guide. She nodded yes with a wide smile. “For 400 New Taiwan Dollars, about $40 US dollars, I can provide a companion for 24 hours. That caught me by surprise. I was embarrassed that it took me several seconds to realize what she meant. I politely told her I’d get back with her later. After she left, my naive lieutenant from Louisiana asked, “Why didn’t you just schedule the tour now?” I took a minute to explain to him what she meant. His blue eyes glowed in his face that had immediately turned scarlet.

“Later in the evening we went down to the dining room for supper. The hotel bar was at the far end of the room. We immediately saw Nikki sitting on a barstool in her ‘office.’ In a short while, half-a- dozen beautiful Taiwanese women dressed in their dazzling finery approached Nikki. They held a brief discussion with her before they left and went directly to the elevator and left for the upper floors. I nudged the lieutenant and asked, ‘Got the picture now?’ He just grinned.

“We ended up spending a total of six days in Taipei due to a hiccup with our transportation back to Guam. However, we did tour the city including a visit to the Taiwan National Palace. We got our own tour guide.”-TJL

As for me, I’m not sure I could have survived that unexpected and devastating week on Guam without the fabulous southerners from Ochlocknee, Ga. They would be part of our Air Force “forever tribe” for decades to come.