GV October 1959 Letter from GOM BAY Group

Grapevine Volume 16 Issue 5 -- October 1959

A Letter From the Gom Bay Group -- CHINA

Received your most welcome letters. . . . You will never know how glad I was to hear from you. I immediately went over to see M--. Needless to say he was just as glad to see me as I was him. We had previously met in the course of our being advisers to the Chinese Armed Forces, but our previous contacts had been all under official business and neither of us had any idea that we were "bottle brothers."

The most important thing is, we got together and the letter you had sent was the most precious and nicest Christmas present I have ever received in my life�and M�said the same thing.

We have a group going now: four members and God only knows how many prospects to Twelfth Step, when the privilege occurs. We call our group the Gom Bay Group of Free China. Gom Bay in Chinese means empty glass�we hope to fill them up with 100 proof AA. I have eighteen months or better to do here, and will be looking forward to helping out any way I can. I look forward also to receiving the new 1959 World Directory. It gives me such a warm feeling to look through it and see how we are growing by the Grace of God and all the wonderful people in this fellowship. Thanks a lot for the pamphlets. The list you sent will be kept for reference as needed in the event I get to visit Japan, Okinawa, or the Philippines.

Seems as if M�and I have a lot in common with each other�the old boy is a "ham" radio operator and I have the bug too. So you might pass the word to any AA Amateur Radio Operators that if they want to do some long distance Twelfth Stepping give us a call or listen for us on the twenty meter band. Our call is BV1USC (Bravo Victoria figure One Uncle Sugar Charlie) from the Republic of Free China on Southern Taiwan. If you have any AAs listed who are "hams" would it be possible if you could send their call letters? You know how we are�be willing to go to any lengths�and that is the way we have to be here.

I hope my family can join me here pretty soon. My wife is a big help to me now that I'm sober and will come in handy when we have the "dry" mates to deal with. It's amazing how our "dry" mates get on this way of life too�or could it be we just look at them with a more uncalloused eye and heart? Many thanks for all you have done for us. Will keep you posted from time to time on our progress here. If you could get around Port Chester, New York sometime I "yak" with a "ham" through W2KFA�he usually comes up on the air before going to work in the morning, while it's around bed time for us here the next day. So for now so long and my love to each and every one of you.

M/Sgt. T. - BV1USC
Kaohsiung