The White Falcon - 25.01.1964, Qupperneq 4

4
WHITE FALCON
Saturday, January 25, 1964
Correct Navigation Aid Big Job
Of Small Loran Monitoring Sta
Proficiency and congeniality are the dual standards of the U.S. Coast Guard Loran
Monitoring Station, the newest and smallest command at Keflavik Airport. Operating
with a six-man complement, the monitoring facility accomplishes the task of maintaining
the accuracy of navigation aids in its portion of the North Atlantic Loran-C complex.
CHIEF JOHNSON locks a Loran receiver on the impulses from
transmitters at Faeroes Islands and Sandur, while the Station Com-
mander, Mr. Loher, looks on.
The station was commissioned
November 1, 1963. Its establish-
ment brought the number of ser-
vice branches represented at
Keflavik to five. With the excep-
tion of a transmitter station at
Sylt, Germany, it became the first
Coast Guard facility in this area.
Five enlisted men and one of-
ficer man the small station. Com-
manding Officer is CWO Victor
Loher, a graduate of Advanced
Electronics Technology School,
RCA Institute, New York. En-
listeds in the command are Ben-
ton H. Johnson, ETCP; Edward
H. McLees, ET1; Peter S. Hughes,
ET3; James F. Doster, EM3;and
James A. Jenkins, SA.
The Keflavik Loran Monitor
Station is part of the North
Atlantic Loran-C network, which
is composed of transmitting sta-
tions located at Sylt; Bo, Nor-
way; Jan Mayen Island; Faeroe
Islands; and Sandur, Iceland. At
present the monitor station is
tied in with the Faeroes-Sandur
portion of the Loran chain. How-
ever, it could also be used in
conjunction with some of the
other stations mentioned.
A brief description of the opera-
tion performed by the monitor
A FIFTEEN MINUTE AVERAGE
of signal differences is taken by
Chief Johnson. The recorder
charts delay between signals from
the Faeroes and Sandur trans-
mitters.
station can be explained by first
pointing out that Loran is a
coined word derived from LOng
RAnge Navigation.
LORAN-C navigation is utilized
by ships and aircraft and provides
an extremely accurate means of
determining their position. Posi-
tions are determined by the mea-
surement of accurately timed radio
signals picked up by a Loran
receiver located on the ship or
aircraft.
These radio signals are originat-
ed at the transmitting stations.
Technical factors involved require
that timing be controlled at a
remote station, rather than by
the transmitting stations them-
selves.
The Keflavik monitor station
serves as the control station for
the transmitting facilities in the
Faeroe Islands, and at Sandur.
Holding the time difference read-
ings between these stations con-
stant to within a few hundredths
of a millionth of a second insures
a near perfect accuracy over a
large service area.
Slight variations in the observed
timing by the monitoring station
are radioed to the Sandur station
where the necessary timing ad-
justments are made to correct the
error, thereby insuring that the
signals received by a navigator
are precisely timed.
Equipment needs for this sort
of operation are relatively few.
Three Loran receivers are used
for monitoring purposes. Single
sideband voice radio gear is used
for communications with the
transmitter stations.
The commissioning date of the
Loran facility posed a problem
to the Naval Station. A suitable
building to house the monitoring
equipment had to be found, and
on short notice. Through the
negotiations of the Resident Of-
ficer in Charge of Construction,
Lt. Cdr. Robert A. Litke, with
the Icelandic Prime Contractor,
a ready-made building in the
Seaweed area was purchased and
relocated. Laboring acceloratedly,
a crew of Icelandic workers
readied the building for equip-
ment installation in the short
time of approximately seven
weeks.
Mr. Loher, station CO, has been
associated with the Coast Guard
since March 1945. Prior to his
two years at the RCA Institute
he was Officer-in-Charge of the
Electrical Repairs Shop at the
Coast Guard Supply Center
Brooklyn, N.Y. He is a native of
St. Petersburg, Florida, and is
married to the former Miss Doris
Rogers.
Chief Johnson, who hails from
Kansas City, Missouri, has been
a Coast Guardsman since July
1957. He graduated from Ad-
vanced Electronics School, Groton,
Connecticut before coming to
Keflavik.
Independence, Missouri is home
for McLees. The first class Elec-
tronics Technician has spent the
past eleven years in the Coast
Guard. He also graduated from
Advanced Electronics School be-
fore taking up local residence.
Hughes, from Ithaca, N. Y.,
joined the service in October 1961.
He was stationed aboard the cut-
ter Mendota before coming here.
Doster served on the Port Se-
curity Force at New Orleans,
Louisiana as initial duty. The
Moultrie, Georgian entered the
Coast Guard in July of 1961.
Jenkins, a relative newcomer to
the Coast Guard, joined January
1963 from Atlanta, Georgia. His
first assignment was aboard the
Miami Beach based cutter Holly-
hock.
Monitoring is a tedious, un-
changing job, however, mainten-
ance of equipment often offers
welcome diversions.
Are the men of the station
bored with their duties? Not at
all. They are all very happy with
their work and their surroundings.
It is a big task they handle,
one for which the small crew at
the Coast Guard Monitoring Sta-
tion may rightfully be proud.
Navy Commissions
16th Polaris Sub
The Navy has commissioned the
nuclear powered fleet ballistic mis-
sile submarine USS Woodrow
Wilson at the Mare Island Naval
Shipyard.
A Lafayette-class submarine,
the Woodrow Wilson is 425 feet
long, has a beam of 27 feet, nine
inches, and displaces 7,000 tons.
There are a total of 41 fleet
ballistic missile submarines pro-
grammed. Sixteen are commis-
sioned (including the Woodrow
Wilson), 10 of which are deployed,
10 launched but not commissioned
and 15 are building or authorized.
Insight And Imagination
Service Chief Role Of
Kennedy Reviewed
“To him, the Commander in Chief role was as important
as any of the many roles a Chief Executive plays,” asserts
Maj. Gen. C. V. Clifton in an intimate portrait of John
Fitzgerald Kennedy appearing in the January issue of
Army. Of the many tributes paid the martyred Chief Exec-
utive, it remained for his Military Aide to give an in-
sight into the imaginative and understanding leadership
he gave our Armed Forces.
Most cherished memory of the^
man he closely served two years,
ten months and two days, writes
Gen. Clifton, is “his deep apprecia-
tion for the part each man and
woman in uniform, and their
families, were playing in pre-
serving and maintaining freedom
around the world.” His concern
for the dignity and rights of the
individual were best illustrated
when an 82nd Airborne soldier
wrote the President he was going
to be “fooled” on a visit to Fort
Bragg, that the division was bor-
rowing men and equipment from
other sources. The President only
said, “This man must not be em-
barrassed, nor revealed, but the
commander down there should ex-
plain to all of the men why we
are doing this.”
Gen. Clifton cites numerous ex-
amples of President Kennedy’s
unceasing search for knowledge
of the Army including a request
to see the reaction of the “ready
company” on a visit to an Air-
borne Division. No detail, like the
establishment of the green beret
as a special mark of distinction
for Special Forces, was beneath
his attention.
The President’s selection of
senior military officers, sometimes
referred to as the “youth move-
ment”, was often misunderstood,
notes Clifton. Actually, President
Kennedy reasoned, explains the
writer, “men between the ages of
52 and 56 should be in three-star
ranks if the nation was to get
maximum experience in the top
assignments, without stalemating
the promotion lists by keeping of-
ficers in senior positions beyond
age 60.”
What was the Commander in
Chief’s relationship with his Joint
Chiefs on questions of policy and
strategy? To set the record
straight, Gen. Clifton recalls,
“President Kennedy regularly
turned to his senior military ad-
visors for information and in-
struction on the impact of our
military posture on world affairs.”
In speaking of the interrelation-
ship between senior officers and
the Presidency, and his need for
their advice, Mr. Kennedy once
told Pentagon leaders, “You would
not be in the military if you did
not have desire, or a willingness,
to assume responsibilities.”
In writing of the man as he
saw him, Gen. Clifton concludes,
“his martyrdom has changed all
our lives, soldiers and civilians
alike, in ways we cannot now see
or will never know.”
Teen
TOPICS
by Diane Fitch
Friday, January 17, the Sopho-
more Class sponsored an all school
party. Their theme “Anything
Goes” was verified by several
incidents. Who props windows
open with chairs? What Junior
was found diligently studying her
English? (L.W.) Who walked two
girls home and came back with
a new one? (B.C.) What teacher
could give Arthur Murray a run
for his Money? (D.P.) Considering
everything, it was a very eventful
evening and was more than worth
while. Thanks to the Sophomores
for a very enjoyable and interest-
ing evening!
If you are yearning for a home-
made cake or possibly cookies,
it would be worth your while to
meander on down to the Navy
Exchange because the Junior
Class is having a bake sale. They
will start at 10:00 a.m. today,
until everything is sold. The pro-
fit will be used for the Junior-
Senior Prom.
If you see anyone who has bit-
ten his nails off, torn his hair
out, has huge circles beneath his
eyes and is walking around in
a daze, don’t be alarmed. It’s only
a student, who’s just finished his
mid-term exams.
MAHAN STUDENTS twist it up at the “Anything Goes” dance,
January 17, at the Youth Center.