The White Falcon - 12.05.1967, Blaðsíða 1

U. S. NAVAL STATION, KEFLAVIK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, ICELAND
Volume VIII, Number 19 Friday, May 12, 1967
White Falcon Photo by George Cates
AIRPORT ARRIVAL—United States Ambassador to Iceland, Karl F.
Rolvaag was met by Embassy staff members and Icelandic govern-
ment officials during his arrival Thursday, May 4 at Keflavik Inter-
national Airport.
Ground Control-53 Sets Record
138 Safe Approaches Last Month
by Paul Jespersen
Ambassador Karl Rolvaag
Assumes Roll In Iceland
Ground Control Approach Team
53 of Naval Station Keflavik
this past month set a new record
with 138 foul weather landings
under ground control approach
guidance. These 138 GCA landings
broke the previous high of 121,
which was set last July and is the
highest since the Navy took over
Ground Control Approach here in
1960.
All U. S. military pilots at the
NATO base are required to make
a certain number of GCA landings
to maintain their level of profi-
ciency in case a GCA approach by
them becomes necessary. Last
month 444 GCA landings were
made and of this total, 138 were
necessary due to bad weather,
rather than for practice purposes.
This is well above the monthly
average of 38 such requests for
GCA due to poor weather.
The air controllers of GCA-53
are also required to maintain their
proficiency as they must handle
20 approaches each month.
The job of the men of GCA-53
is epitomized perhaps best by
their slogan, “Hours of boredom
punctuated by moments of sheer
terror.” The GCA team is a 24-
hour operation and long hours
can stretch into days without any
significant occurance. But as is
the case with the fireman when
called out to perform his skill,
after perhaps days of inactivity,
he arrives at the scene to find
all the buildings on fire. This is a
close parallel of the way things
happen with the men at GCA-53.
GCA has been operated by the
Navy since 1960 and consists of
approximately 16 air control ope-
rators and maintenance men. This
rather small group of men are in
pay grade E-5 or above and are
dedicated career men. Because of
the smallness of the group and
the required precision of their
job these men have developed a
degree of teamwork that is ra-
rely attained. Officer in Charge
of this important division of the
“YOU ARE ON THE GLIDE
PATH”—Petty Officer Second
Class Joseph E. Deam of GCA-53
talks to the pilot of an aircraft
and watches his landing approach
on the surveillance scope and pre-
cision radar scope. Due to inclement
weather last month a new record
of 138 ground control approaches
were made.
Air Operations Department is
Lieutenant Commander P. J.
Demster.
GCA is the primary system used
by the military to provide guid-
ance and directions to aircraft
which must land at an airport
during adverse weather Here at
(Continued on Page U-)
United States Ambassador to
Iceland, Karl F. Rolvaag arrived
at Keflavik International Air-
port Thursday, May 4. Accompany-
ing him was his wife Florence and
they were greeted by David H.
Henry, acting chief of the mis-
sion and Iceland’s Chief of Proto-
col, Pall Asgeir Tryggvason.
Ambassador Rolvaag, 54, pre-
sented his credentials to the Pre-
sident of Iceland this past Tues-
day in a ceremony held at Bessa-
stadir, residence of the President.
Numerous press conferences
followed his arrival and the Am-
bassador went on his first fishing
trip in the country over the week-
end.
Former Governor of Minne-
sota and defeated for re-election
last November, Rolvaag was ap-
pointed to his new post by Presi-
dent Johnson, replacing James K.
Penfield, a career diplomat who
was assigned new duties in Was-
hington.
One political asset in his being
elected Governor of Minnesota,
which has many inhabitants of
Scandinavian origin, was his Nor-
wegian background. Another ad-
vantage he enjoyed was his
practical experience in politics
and governmental affairs of that
state’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor
party (1950—54). He is one of
four children born to Professor
Ole Edvart and Jennie Rolvaag
on July 18, 1913 in Northfield,
Minn.
His father headed the depart-
ment of Norwegian literature at
the Lutheran-sponsored St. Olaf
College in Northfield and was the
author of the American novel
“Giants in the Earth”; “A Saga
of the Praire” (translated from
the Norwegian; Harper 1927).
Ambassador Rolvaag, who was
called Fritz in school, grew up
speaking both Norwegian and
English.
Graduating from high school in
Northfield in 1931, Rolvaag en-
tered St. Olaf College, but upon
the death of his father during
that year, he left college and
worked through much of the De-
pression in logging camps, mines,
and ranches in Idaho and the
state of Washington. His ambi-
tion, however, was to follow his
father in becoming a teacher, and
in 1937 he returned to St. Olaf.
There, by a write-in vote, he won
his first election—as president of
USO Show Sunday
The USO Jazzoramma Show
that was scheduled to appear May
12 at Andrews Theater has been
rescheduled for May 14 beginning
at 7 p.m.
The show features Herbie Co-
wens, jazz drummer extraordi-
naire, and his band of the swing-
ingest musicians of the jazz
world.
the senior class. He obtained his
B. A. degree in 1941 with honors
in American history.
After graduating, Rolvaag en-
listed into the U.S. Army, in which
duringWorld War II he rose to the
rank of captain. He fought in
Europe as commander of a tank
platoon with the 4th Armored
Division of General George S.
Patton’s Third Army. His cou-
rage and leadership in helping to
capture a French town and some
1,200 German prisoners during
the Allied breakthrough in Nor-
mandy earned him the Silver
Star. Later in 1944 he was severe-
ly wounded in the face and shoul-
der by shell fragments and be-
cause of his injuries he was in-
termittently hospitalized for more
than two years before his dis-
charge from the Army in 1947.
Prior to his discharge from the
Army, Rolvaag took graduate
courses in political science at the
University of Minnesota, and in
1947—48, having been awarded
an American Scandinavian Foun-
dation Scholarship, he studied
Scandinavian political parties at
the University of Oslo.
After a period of unsuccessful
campaigns in Minnesota politics
(1948—50), Rolvaag took a job
as a Department of Commerce
Nursery School
Pre-Registration
Set For May 15
May is the day for pre-regi-
stration for the Summer session
of Nursery School. The class will
begin on June 19 and end on July
28. Tuition for the six-weeks prog-
ram is $15.00. Ruth Cole will be
teaching the class which will meet
on Mondays, AVednesdays and
Fridays from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Children are eligible if they are
four or five years old.
Any one wishing to fill out an
application for the Fall session of
Nursery School which begins in
September, can do so at any time.
There will be another pre-regis-
tration day in August for the
1967-—68 school year and more
details will be given then re-
garding age requirements, cost
of tuition, days and time of the
class, etc.
The Army is conducting a test
program in line with DOD’s di-
rective that everyone entering
service after June 30 be identi-
fied by a Social Security Account
Number. Test program is being
conducted at the Armed Forces
Examining and Entrance Stations
in Chicago, Philadelphia, Rich-
mond and St. Louis.
district field supervisor for the
census in that state, which he
held from 1948—50, and then went
into business as a general insu-
rance agent. Despite his failure
as a candidate for the House of
Representatives, he prospered in
the Democratic-Farmer-Labor
party, which elected him state
chairman in 1950 and unanimous-
(Continued on Page 2.)
Electronics
Technician
Re-Ups Again
A reenlistment took place this
past Monday at Fleet Weather
Facility Keflavik that was some-
what unusual. That is, a first
class petty officer (electronics
technician) signed up for six
more years of Navy service. Tak-
ing the enlistment oath again for
his third time was Joseph L. Nor-
ris, 26, a native of Burnet, Tex.
What’s so unusual on Norris
reenlisting? Not many ETs after
reaching E-5
stay in the ser-
vice. They usu-
ally leave the
service and ac-
cept a position
with an electro-
nics firm. Not
.. . so with Norris,
Norns djd gend a
few feelers and even went so
far as to go to the states and
talk with a couple companies.
None had to offer what the Navy
does in retirement benefits, so I
decided on remaining with the
Navy,” he said, “Too, I’ll still be
a young man when I retire and
those same jobs will still be
there,” he added.
The maintenance and training
petty officer for Fleet Weather
Facility, first entered the Navy
during January 1960 and received
his recruit training at San Diego.
Upon graduation, Norris went to
ET “A” School at U. S. Naval
Station, Treasure Island, Calif.
From there, he was ordered to
Naval Air Station, Corpus
Christi, Tex., where 37-months
were spent prior to returning to
Treasure Island and Class “B”
school. Orders to Iceland were re-
ceived prior to graduation and
Norris arrived here during April
1965. Orders are expected any
day now with Norris commenting,
“I only hope they’re Texas again.”
Norris and his wife Carole, for-
merly of Grand Rapids, Minn.,
are parents of two children, both
girls and presently are residing
on the NATO base.