President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday punished Chief of the General Staff Yen Teh-fa (嚴德發) with one demerit and Army Commander General Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) with two demerits following an outcry over visits on March 29 by unauthorized civilians to a restricted-access base housing US-made AH-64E Apache helicopters.
According to a press release issued by the Presidential Office last night, Ma said the visit to the 601st Air Cavalry Brigade base in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭) falls under the purview of Yen and Chiu and that their “lack of supervision” demonstrated a lack of military discipline that compromised military security.
Led by Minister of National Defense Kao Kuang-chi (高廣圻), Yen, Chiu and other military officials presented a report to Ma on a recent spate of military scandals after the military conducted a review involving all units on Tuesday.
Photo: CNA
Kao offered to resign to take responsibility for the Apache incident, but Ma asked him to stay to strengthen discipline and maintain morale in the military, Presidential Office spokesperson Charles Chen (陳以信) said.
Deputy ministers of defense Liu Chen-wu (劉震武) and Chen Yung-kang (陳永康), Navy Commander Admiral Li Hsi-ming (李喜明), Air Force Commander General Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴), Reserve Forces Command Headquarters Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Bi Hsueh-wen (畢學文) and Military Police Commander Lieutenant General Wu Ying-ping (吳應平) were also present at the meeting at the Presidential Office Building.
Earlier in the day, the ministry announced more punishments, focusing on Lieutenant General Chen Chien-tsai (陳健財), who was removed from his post as commander of the Army Special Forces Command’s Airborne Headquarters.
Taking blame for the fallout and security lapses arising from the unauthorized civilian visits, Chen Chien-tsai has been demoted and transferred to a non-supervisory post as a consultative member at the Army Command Headquarters (ACH) office.
“Chen Chien-tsai did not fulfill his responsibility as the commander in charge of the unit, and did not conduct the suitable followup work on the incident,” ministry spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) said.
“Major General Chien Tsung-yuan (簡聰淵), commander of the 601st Air Cavalry Brigade, was also removed from his post, and transferred to ACH as a consultative member. If the two officers do not take up other military posts within a year, by military regulations, they will be forced to retire,” Lo added.
The Army Special Forces Command Airborne Headquarters, which was headed by Chen Chien-tsai, has direct jurisdiction over the 601st and 602nd Air Cavalry Brigade, among other specially trained elite units, including paratroopers, amphibious fighting battalions, reconnaissance helicopter and attack helicopter operation units.
The 601st and 602nd brigades, based in Taoyuan’s Longtan District and Taichung’s Sinshe (新社) respectively, are the two units responsible for the service and operation of the helicopters, the last of which were delivered in October last year.
A total of 61 Bell AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters, obtained from the US in arms procurement packages during the 1990s, are also deployed at these two brigades.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most