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Iceland, July 1974 to July 1976.

https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/266428-keflavik-navy-base-iceland/

My sponsor met me at the terminal of the Keflavik International Airport in Iceland and greeted me with a comment on how glad he was to see me.  I would learn later the appropriateness of the greeting.

We left the airport and briefly toured the confines of the Naval Air Station Keflavik.

He took me to the command quarterdeck at the barracks housing Naval Security Group Activity, Keflavik sailors.  I checked in and was assigned a room in the barracks.

Anxious to have Lori join me, one of my first actions at the command was to apply for base housing.  She couldn’t join me until I had a place for us to live.

Time has dulled some memories.  I think it was September when I got a place to live, and Lori joined me in October.  We lived in a Quonset hut converted to living quarters just outside the fence surrounding the base, near the ”take-off” gate.

The take-off gate was where Americans with commissary goods or articles bought at the exchange store had to go through Icelandic customs.  Americans had a dollar limit on what we could take off base each month.  The gate agent examined what we took off and noted the dollar amount.  There were penalties for exceeding the monthly allowance.  Lori and I never had the problems some did going through the gate.  Our little beetle didn’t have a place to hide contraband, not that we would violate the rules.  LOL.

I bought a faded baby blue Volkswagen Beetle to transport us in anticipation of her arrival.  Later, we invested in (bought) a gold Beetle after the other gave us some issues.  We parked the blue beetle beside the hut until we sold it.  It showed us a moment of merriment after a significant snowstorm.  The falling snow and blowing snow piled up around the blue beetle, leaving just the top of the roof visible.

Lori and I had to transverse a road that passed near the town of Keflavik and enter the base through a different gate.  After one snowstorm, the road was barely passable in the beetle.  We were on our way to the base when a large SUV approached.  I pulled over, and it passed.  By pulling over, I caused us to become stuck in the deeper snow.  I wasn’t sure what I would have done if the SUV hadn’t stopped.  Several men emerged from the SUV, lifted the Volkswagen with us in it, and sat it back on the road.  After digesting what had just occurred, we waved thanks and completed our trip to the base.

We entered and left the base through a customs gate that was different from the take-off gate.  Iceland worried about smuggling American-made goods, requiring everyone to go through the take-off or this gate.  We could take food, used clothing, camera film, and drinks through this gate, but that would not count toward the monthly allowance.

However, what we took through this gate was limited to what was appropriate for a site-seeing trip or a day or two working at the Hafnir or Rockville operational sites.  Icelandic officers at the gates did the inspections.  If they considered we had too much of an item, we could take it home or leave it with them.  I don’t remember ever taking anything home.

I arrived at the command as Petty Officer Second Class.  After the next rating test, I was promoted to Petty Officer First Class.

Initially, I worked in the maintenance shop at the Hafnir location.  The UYK-3 computer and its associated extra memory cabinet kept me busy.  Besides routine weekly maintenance, I quickly learned it was a problem baby and the reason for the greeting my sponsor gave me at the airport.  He battled it for almost two years and was ecstatic to have someone to leave it to.  He soon transferred.

I soon found the computer would fail, most of the time, after I left work, requiring me to return to the site.  I often discovered the problem had disappeared when I drove out.  Sometimes, a new change tape from operations solved the problem; other times, I had to troubleshoot the solution.  Usually, I only needed an hour or two of troubleshooting, but once, I worked the issue for over twenty-four hours.  I came to hate this #$%^& UYK-3.

Lori was tired of having dinner interrupted or woken in the middle of the night by calls from Ops.  She often threatened to refuse to answer the calls but never did.  One time could have led to violence when a Navy Duty Officer refused to believe her when she told him I was in class.  He pushed past her to check the house for me.  (I was taking a University of Maryland business class then.) I raised the issue with my supervisors, and it never happened again.  Though even today, the memory irritates us.

After my promotion, my Department Head reassigned me as the Rockville maintenance shop supervisor.  The Rockville shop was about 14 miles from the Hafnir operations site.

I have memories of my time at Rockville.  Three stand out to this day.

The first was the command held an open house for our dependants.  Remember that this was a unique opportunity for them since the operations floor was off-limits to persons without the proper security clearances.  So, there were restrictions on how close dependents could get to the equipment, but it allowed them to see where their spouses worked.  One of the petty officer’s wives kept trying to enter the operations floor.  She created a scene for a time but ceased after a firm warning, but she was extremely frustrated.

The second thing was riding the bus to Rockville in the winter.  The command used front loaders to clear the road of snow.  Sometimes, the bus traveled between two piles of snow taller than its height.

Third.  It was winter when the Navy decided to conduct an antenna site survey at the Rockville site.  Two men performed the study, and I was their point of contact and escort.  The surveyors wore tweed suites while I ventured forth in my cold-weather parka.  They showed no discomfort while I shivered and prayed for them to finish.  It was the coldest I remember being until I was stationed in Adak, Alaska.

One day in our first winter, a friend who worked the airfield offered us a pup.  It was from a litter dropped by a stray.  We picked a female and named her Sandy.  She traveled with us to Italy, Pensacola, Panama, and Maryland before we lost her to a tumor.

Sandy was not house-trained when we got her.  I remember seeing her looking for a place to pee and picking her up as I headed for the door.  I almost made it before Sandy peed on me.  Angry, I opened the door and dropped her into a snow bank, where she finished her business.  It wasn’t long before Sandy became house-trained and picked her places outside to do her business.

Sandy had a quirk we couldn’t explain.  She had an issue with Icelanders.  Sandy liked to look out our on-base apartment window.  She barked her head off if an Icelandere walked by.  It was the same when an Icelander pumped our gas.  She barked at them incessantly until they finished.

Lori and I moved into quarters finally.  It was a one-bedroom apartment, one of four in the building.  We became friends with Sammy and Darryl, who lived across the street.  The four of us spent many, many hours playing Pinochle.  We estimated we had played some half million hands by the time Lori and I transferred.

Sammy and Darryl had a Jeep and a custom van.  Weather permitting, we packed food, drinks, and film for a sightseeing trip.  We checked out through the customs gate and began another adventure.

We made one trip to Hvalfjordur Whale Bay, where we saw some men harvesting a whale.  We watched for a time but didn’t interrupt their work.  Until then, I hadn’t realized how large whales can be.

Lori and I loved the sights at Gullfoss Falls and visited it several times, some in the Summer when it flowed freely and some in the winter with it partially frozen.  The falls have two drops.  One is 36 feet, and the second is 69 feet ( from https://guidetoiceland.is/travel-iceland/drive/gullfoss) .

We took a camping trip to Mt. Hekla over a July 4^th weekend.  Darryl drove the van, and I drove their Jeep.  We found a place to camp before taking the Jeep and exploring the slopes of the active volcano.  There were no indications it might erupt during our stay, having last erupted from May to July 1970.

Our campsite was below a power plant high on the slope.  After dinner, Sammy and Darryl settled in their van for the night.  Lori and I had a tent, sleeping bags, and lanterns we rented from the command morale, welfare, and recreation.

The ground was mainly lava, and driving stakes to secure the tent wasn’t an option.  Darryl and I relocated the Jeep and secured the tent between the van and it.  It was fortunate we did.

Lori and I were settled in when the wind began to blow.  It gradually grew in intensity until the tent rose off the ground with us in it.  Quickly, we left the tent and joined the other couple in their van for the night.

Other trips were to uncover beautiful sights while on long drives around the island.  We saw flocks of sheep, unique rock formations, and, on one trip, a tall waterfall that we walked to and under.  To reach it, we climbed a ladder over a fence and walked the tundra until we reached the base of the falls.  It was such a sight, the view of the water coming off the cliff (and avoiding getting wet.)

Many of our friends complained about Iceland.  They couldn’t wait to be reassigned and depart the island.  Lori and I found our time enjoyable, and I, with her support, requested to remain for an additional year.  We were disappointed when my request was denied (for the good of the Navy.)

The day to leave Iceland neared.  The Navy picked up our household goods for shipment, and we moved into guest quarters.  Sandy, our dog, wasn’t allowed to be with us, so Sammy and Darryl let her stay with them.

Two days before flying out, Sammy called.  She was crying, and we could tell she was scared.  I hurried over to find that Sandy had gotten her paw caught in Sammy’s dog’s choker chain.  The chain wrapped around Sandy’s paw, and her effort to get free was choking the other dog.

I tried to grab Sandy’s snout to keep her from biting me as I worked to free her paw.  I missed it, and Sandy bit through my thumb.  Surprisingly, Sandy stopped struggling once she tasted my blood, and I was able to free her.  Both dogs were safe, but I had to get my thumb treated.

I learned a dog was to be quarantined anytime it bit someone.  Base Animal Control wanted to lock Sandy up for two weeks.  I begged, pleaded, argued, and almost cried before convincing those in charge to let my dog leave with us.

So goes the two years spent in Iceland.  Well, I could find other stories to tell if I tried.  Maybe I will, but it will be at another time.

Which adventure should I recount in answer to this question? One from Iceland stands out in my mind, and one repeated many times. Let’s begin.

My wife and I were in Iceland. The Navy sent me there in 1974, and she soon joined me. We spent the winter living in a Quonset hut just off the “take-out” gate. We went through customs at this gate each time we brought groceries or other purchases home.

Iceland?

If you don’t know how Iceland was named: one story is a Viking climbed a mountain and saw a fjord full of Icebergs. He called it Iceland, and the name stuck. Another story: the settlers in Iceland didn’t want to encourage people to come, so they called it Iceland.

I don’t remember how we met Sammy and Darryl, but they became our closest friends and pinochle-playing buddies. We must have played more than a hundred thousand hands in the two years we were there. They were also our travel buddies with a van and a CJ-5 style jeep.

High Falls

On many weekends, we made day trips traveling the island with visiting Gullfoss Falls, one of our favorite trips. On other days we drove the Southside of the island. The road took us away from Reykavik into a barren but beautiful countryside. A site I clearly remember was a high waterfall we found one trip. We had to climb over a fence and hiked a quarter-mile to the pool at the bottom.

We would go as far as we could while allowing us to return before nightfall. (Remember, the days were very long in the summer, so we could get back very late and beat nightfall!)

Camping Trip

But I digress. The adventure I alluded to earlier occurred over the July 4^th weekend of 1976. We set out on a weekend camping trip on the morning of 4 July. Darryl drove the van, and I drove the Jeep. We would camp somewhere below Mt. Hekla’s peak. (Mt Hekla is an active volcano and had erupted in 1970—six years before.)

We found a place that seemed appropriate and set up camp far below a hydroelectric plant and the rim of Hekla. Darryl did the driving while we spent the rest of the day sightseeing using the Jeep.

We returned to the camp and settled for the night. Lori and I set up the tent we rented from Navy Special Services between the Jeep and van. We found a problem when the volcanic rock wouldn’t let us set the stakes. We solved it by tieing tent lanyards to the truck and Jeep.

We had eaten, and it was time to settle. Darryl and Sammy settled in their van and Lori and me in the tent. We zipped up in the rented sleeping bags and started to drift off in slumber. I admit to falling asleep only to be awakened by my wife. She tried to tell me the tent was moving but I ignored her until the tent’s floor began to vibrate and lifted around us.

Tent off the ground

We tried to stick it out but called ‘uncle’ when we were lifted off the ground by the tent bottom. The location we selected channeled the wind, and it was strong enough to lift us. We left the tent and asked to share the van. Lori and I spent the rest of the night in the truck.

We returned home the next day in good spirits after our adventure. It was the first and last camping trip while stationed in Iceland.

Your turn. Tell me about one of your adventures! Form provided for your convenience.

Happy 4th of July 2019. It is my seventy-first, and I am thankful to be free to enjoy it. Hale and hearty, though less so than on one while stationed in Iceland.

4th of July in Iceland

It was spring 1974, and I was a newlywed waiting for my next assignment. It came to Naval Security Group Activity, Keflavik.

There was a “critical” need I would meet. My sponsor welcomed me with open arms. He was the only one of our specialty and had been spending onerous hours on equipment failures. Now, he could get some relief. And I would not get a holiday off for some time.

One day I may speak to the work situation, but this remembers one 4th of July spent there. My wife and I joined another couple on a camping trip to the base of Mount Hekla. They drove their van, and we a Jeep Wrangler.

We settled on a location near the base of the mountain. The day passed as we toured the area around the campsite (where we left the van.) After dinner with our friends, my wife and I began to erect the tent. Our friends would sleep in their customized van.

Tent goes up, literally

The tent went up with a hitch. The lava did not accept tent stakes. We moved the Jeep, so there was a space between it and the van. We placed the tent in this area and tied the tent lanyards to the vehicles.

It became time to rest. We settled in our tent and them in the van. My wife was in her sleeping bag and me in mine.

Hours passed, and everything was fine. Until that is, a wind started. It started above us and blew toward the ocean. Our camp was in a slight depression that channeled the wind.

The tent began to shake, waking us. We laid for some time listening to the wind as it grew in strength. When the floor of the tent rose off the ground, bouncing us around, we vacated the tent. We saw the tent flapping, kept from flying away by the ties to the vehicles. We spent the rest of the night in the van at our friend’s invitation.

The tent was there the next morning and showed no signs of damage from the wind.

This experience causes us to laugh each time we relate it. It concerned to feel the tent floor rise with us on it, but looking back it is funny.

This fourth will see nothing exciting beyond dinner out.

Do you have a 4th of July experience or remembrance? Share it using the comment form. I will enjoy hearing it.

Snow arrived at my house tonight. The forecasted one inch turned out to be a dusting.  This is not snow I thought as I let my dogs out to run this morning. I could only shake my head as visions of what the wife and I saw in Iceland and other days in Maryland.

We spent the winter of 1974 living in a Quonset hut just off the Keflavik custom’s gate. Every time we went on the NATO base, we had to clear customs to get home.  I had introduced her to snow when I took her to meet my parents the winter before. This winter was my wife’s first winter with inches of snow. The amount of snow we had in Iceland was an eye opener and left us some fun memories.

Snow in Iceland

We bought an old VW Beetle to get us around until our car arrived on island. Once we had our car, the old Bug was parked in the driveway. One storm dropped a large amount of snow and the wind caused drifting. The snow literally buried this Beetle, leaving just the smallest portion of the top visible. We did not dig it out, we waited for spring when we sold it.

Our car was a newer model Beetle, a compact car with issues getting through the snow. One day we needed to go to the store. The road had been plowed but the wind had back-filled it with snow. We could see the road because it had less snow. We were doing well until we encountered an SUV. It being the bigger vehicle, I pulled over. Bad move. The car bottomed out and we could go nowhere. Fortunately, the SUV stopped. Several Icelanders walked over and pushed us back on the road. With just a wave, they left.

Snow in Maryland

There have been fun memories here also. One year my wife’s niece, about 9 at the time, told us she wanted to see snow. She lived in Texas and had not seen any yet. We invited her to stay for a few days. A few days turned in a few weeks when, after she arrived, we had a record snowfall. We were snowbound for a week. This gave her and my daughter ample opportunities to make snow forts, tunnels (it was that deep), and have snowball fights. I would have been upset with all the snow except I had paid days off!

Do you have any fond or not so fond memories of snow filled days? Share them with a comment. I look forward to hearing them.

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Traditions — Christmas Day is upon us. Are you ready? For once we, my wife and I, are ready! We have the presents purchased and wrapped. They sit under the tree waiting for the package distributor to pick one and call out a name. If tradition holds, whoever the present is for will be offered help in opening it. Then comes the cries of “Show us what it is. Hold it up.” Cameras will flash and it will be time for the next one.

Our Christmases around the world

I was sitting here thinking how Christmas Day events have changed for my family over the years. My wife and I spent our first Christmas (1974) as a married couple in Keflavik, Iceland. The second was in Iceland also. Our third was in San Vito, Italy in an apartment above our Italian landlords. We were two and a half. My wife was pregnant.

My son joined us for the fourth and fifth (1977-1978) in San Vito. The sixth and seventh were in Pensacola, Florida. The Eighth (1981) was my daughter’s first as she grew us to a family of four.  The next two were in Coco Solo, Panama. We have been in Maryland for all of them since 1984.

Christmas traditions at our house

My wife and I bought a big artificial tree in Iceland and used it for forty years. It was always a challenge to find room in the government housing we lived in for the tree.  Some piece of furniture would hide in the bedroom or utility room while the tree decorated the space vacated.  Over several days before each Christmas, wrapped presents found their way under the tree. It was magic to the kids. It was late night wrapping that made the magic.

It became traditional for the kids to open one present on Christmas Eve. The rest waited for Christmas morning. Santa had to make a stop after all. Santa’s presents were the big items that required assembly. Santa’s helper had to pull tools and stay up late doing Santa’s work.  Christmas morning was hectic as the mounds of wrapping paper grew. The kids enjoyed their presents while we made dinner.

Today, the children are grown and have children of their own. They are creating their family traditions regarding Christmas *and other holidays*. Our traditions have changed to permit them to have theirs. We remember, in moments of nostalgia, past Christmases.

One of our traditions remains. Our smaller tree requires relegating a piece of furniture to another room. The tradition most missed is not being present when the sun comes up and watching the grandchildren discover what lies under their tree. We do get to watch them with the presents we bring with our visit.

Empty nesters, we accept the role of supporting cast ready for whatever role Santa needs filled. Has Christmas traditions changed for you? Use the comment to share your traditions.

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