A secret military mission to Yemen by the air force is commemorated with a special exhibition at the Air Force Museum that opened on Saturday, 40 years after Taiwanese troops were deployed to help North Yemen forces.
The now declassified military aid program, which the air force conducted from 1979 until 1990, began with a request from then-diplomatic ally Saudi Arabia to aid its ally, the Yemen Arab Republic, which had no ties with Taiwan, a Ministry of National Defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
North Yemen at the time was engaged in a rivalry with the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, which it fought during a brief war in 1972.
Photo courtesy of the Republic of China Air Force Museum
The countries in 1990 formed the Republic of Yemen, but strife returned to the region in 2017.
The air force denies ever flying any combat missions over Yemen.
In what was known as the Great Desert Program (大漠計畫), the air force deployed more than 1,000 personnel — including pilots and ground crew — to assist and advise the North Yemeni air force, until Saudi Arabia withdrew its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, ending the program, the official said.
Many participants in the program would rise to prominent military and civilian positions, including Deputy Minister of National Defense Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴) and former Civil Aeronautics Administration director-general Billy Chang (張國政), the official said.
The exhibition features records and documents, as well as uniforms, insignia and photographs from 200 veterans who participated in the mission, the official said.
On the opening day, the Air Force Academy presented a commendation of gratitude to personnel involved in the mission on behalf of the armed forces.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS