"Give Me Men to Match Your Mountains"--Taiwan's Retired Servicemen's Engineering Agency

Chrissie Lu

March 1982

中文

Beginning work on the East-West Cross Island Highway.

Look at the list of domestic and foreign construction projects at the end of this article. You may recognize some of them, all of them, or perhaps even none of them. Yet they all have one thing in common. They all represent major construction jobs completely done by or assisted by Taiwan's Retired Servicemen's Engineering Agency (RSEA) over the past twenty-six years. Some are still under construction.

RSEA is today a giant in the engineering world, with earnings over U.S.$1 billion in 1981 and with contracts all over the world, but it began in 1956 as a puny weakling, limited in funds, short of technicians and skilled workers, hardly any tools. The public regarded RSEA or Ret-Ser, as it is sometimes called, as a dumping ground for otherwise unemployable retired soldiers who had best be kept digging rocks out in the countryside away from the cities. The Agency's first major job, the East West Cross Island Highway, seemed to many a kind of mission impossible. Yet four years later RSEA, at the cost of one hundred dead and another two hundred men badly injured, finished the East West Cross Island Highway, much of it dug by hand and brute strength over unforgiving mountainous terrain. After that tremendous feat, the Agency's path was upward all the way.

Not that it was easy. Every advance had to be fought for--a mandatory retirement age, retirement benefits, medical insurance, on-site medical care, education for workers' children, even the provision of safety helmets--all had to be won against indifference and outcries against the costs involved.

The hero of RSEA's climb to its present position, if one person has to be singled out, is Yen Hsiao-chang, head of the Agency since its beginning. He gave his men his complete devotion and effort; they in turn gave him unswerving loyalty and performances seldom matched by other engineering firms.

Aside from its pioneer construction of the East West Cross Island Highway in 1956, perhaps the Agency's most grueling problem was its 1965 assignment to dredge the Mekong River delta in Vietnam. Vietnam's climate in the delta is at times oppressive beyond imagination. The monsoon season drowns the land. Nobody could speak Vietnamese. The war around them caused the workers to carry guns for self-defense. But like other tasks, that too was accomplished, and the fame of RSEA spread. When in 1966 the Agency finished an arduous road building assignment in Thailand forty days ahead of schedule, its reputation was secure.

Now that it is big and secure and powerful, RSEA still retains the essence of the spirit with which it first conquered the obstacles before it. A tremendous esprit-de-corps animates those who work for RSEA, from those old veterans now living in retirement homes to the newest graduate engineers just winning their spurs in present-day projects. Every Chinese New Year's there is a mammoth reunion of those who have served the Agency. Along with the fellowship, you may be sure there is many an exchange of tall tales of experiences in dangerous construction sites at home and in foreign lands. Taiwan can be proud of the RSEA, its work, and the awards it has won internationally. As soldiers like to say "It's a good outfit."

Partial List of R.S.E.A. Construction Projects

DOMESTIC

East-West Cross Island Highway

Northern Cross Island Highway

Southern Cross Island Highway

North-South Freeway

Tsengwen Reservoir Project

Chito Railway Marshalling Yards

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Building and Grounds

China Shipbuilding Corporation Project

China Steel Corporation Project

Suao Harbor

Taichung Harbor

Northern and Eastern Railway Extensions

Petro-Chemical Industrial Zone

Second and Third Nuclear Plant Constructions

Chilai Water Conservation Project

Liwu Stream Hydropower Project

Chung Hsiao Bridge

FOREIGN

Vietnam Mekong Delta Dredging Project

Thailand Highways Projects

Jordan Road Net Project

Indonesian Highway Project

U.S. Forces Installations, Saudi Arabia

Singapore and Guam Housing

Other Projects Kuwait, United Arab Emirates.

[Picture Caption]

1. Beginning work on the East-West Cross Island Highway. 2. Yen Hsia-chang has been head of the Ret-Ser Engineering Agency for 23 years. 3.4.5. Three of the Ten Major Construction Projects, respectively: Kaohsiung's China Steel Corporation, Suao Harbor, North-South Freeway.

1. The Lin Yuan Industrial Area, a project invested in by RSEA. 2. One of the Ten Major Construction Projects--the North Link Railway. 3. Tsengwen Reservoir. 4.-7. Foreign projects, respectively : Highway construction work in Thailand, Jordan's Safi-Aqaba Highway, work under guard in Vietnam, dredging in Diego Garcia.

Other foreign projects; 1. Highway construction in Saudi Arabia. 2. Construction in Indonesia. 3. Harbor in Saudi Arabia. 4. RSEA won an award from an American architectural association for the work they did building this military base in Guam. 5. Saudi Arabian national park.

1. The workers at RSEA offer a toast to Yen Hsiao-chang, third from right. 2. Many servicemen were honored at this New Year's banquet. 3. Yen pays a new year call on workmen and their families. This veteran shows off his martial arts. 4. A close-up of lively youngsters, the sons of many of the workmen. 5. Yen often dons workman's clothing and safety helmet to inspect working areas.

Three of the Ten Major Construction Projects, respectively: Kaohsiung's China Steel Corporation, Suao Harbor, North-South Freeway.

Yen Hsia-chang has been head of the Ret-Ser Engineering Agency for 23 years.

Three of the Ten Major Construction Projects, respectively: Kaohsiung's China Steel Corporation, Suao Harbor, North-South Freeway.

The Lin Yuan Industrial Area, a project invested in by RSEA.

One of the Ten Major Construction Projects--the North Link Railway.

Tsengwen Reservoir.

Foreign projects, respectively : Highway construction work in Thailand, Jordan's Safi-Aqaba Highway, work under guard in Vietnam, dredging in Diego Garcia.