The White Falcon - 20.08.1965, Side 1

Eighth Ranked Sea Service Newspaper - 1964
THE white:
U.S. NAVAL STATION, KEFLAVIK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, ICELAND
Volume IV, Number 30 Friday, August 20, 1965
New Additional Duty Order
To Take Effect Immediately
For Many Sailors, Marines
The Navy’s new order extending the duty of regular
Navy and Marine personnel for a period of four months
will immediately affect about 25 thousand sailors and 12
thousand Marines.
Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze sent the orders to
all commands Aug. 13, and it was confirmed publicly the
next day.
The order applies to Navy men whose active service had
been scheduled for completion'^
Sept. 15 or later and to Marines
whose duty would have ended
Aug. 20 or later.
Regular Navy or Marine offi-
cers who request retirement, may
find approval held up for one
year, according to the newly is-
sued order. The order also states
requests by officers to resign
may be deferred but not longer
than one year.
Personnel Shortages
Although no reason was given
for the order, it is a known fact
that the Navy has been experi-
encing shortages in personnel,
especially in the skilled rates.
This fact was made clear when
the Navy was obligated to dip
into the draft after calls went
out for voluntary extensions of
duty.
Presently the Navy is planning
its entire force structure where
there are shortages in personnel
and where there is need for man-
power in manning of additional
ships, aviation squadrons, medical
and Seabee units, etc.
The Navy is the only service
that can extend a man involun-
tarily for a period of six months,
if he is regular and if an emer-
gency is declared by the Presi-
dent. Secretary Nitze has had this
power to extend Navy personnel
since the emergency that was pro-
claimed in Korea, the secretary
said before a Senate Armed Ser-
vices Committee which met to
discuss the military bill pay.
No Such ‘Bird’ On
White Falcon Staff
Contrary to some thinking,
there is NO White Falcon
photographer! Through pro-
per channels, however, photo-
graphic coverage of events may
be arranged by contacting the
White Falcon office at Ext.
4156—at least 24 hours in ad-
vance !
‘Bang Beat, Bell - Ringin, Big Haul’
SHOWTIME—Winthrop (Tom J. Rea) anticipates the wonders of the
kids’ band with his friend Amaryllis (Laurraine Crew) in Meredith
Willson’s “THE MUSIC MAN.” For further details on the USO group
currently touring IDF facilities, turn to page seven.
Rockets To Re Fired In Iceland;
French Investigate Ionosphere
by Michael Greenman, J03
On a large expanse of black volcanic sand, near the village of Skogar, in Southern
Iceland, things are happening. A large corrugated metal shack springs up almost over-
night, and strange antennae and mobile control trucks appear all around. Every couple
of days a larg;e balloon is released, rising to an altitude of 115,000 feet. A team of
French technicians is continuously at work, preparing for the big day, Aug. 23. At
midnight a “Dragon” (pronounced: Dragon), a 20 ft., two-staged, solid-fueled rocket,
will soar 280 miles into the ionos-'^
phere.
For the second year in a row,
the CNES, or National Center
for Space Study, a French agency
under the control of the Secretary
of State, has come to Iceland to
study radiation in the Van Allen
Belt. A total of 7 or 8 balloons
will precede the rockets launch.
Their purpose is to receive pre-
liminary data which will provide
a basis for analyzing the informa-
tion gathered by the rocket.
Release Balloon
On the 23rd, the day of the
launch, they will release a balloon
sometime between zero minus 5
House Sends
Pay Package
To President
Congress completed action Aug.
12 on a $1 billion military pay
oill and sent it to President John-
son for signing.
The House of Representatives
completed action by voice vote,
accepting Senate changes in the
bill the House originally passed
July 20. That eliminated any need
for Senate-House conferences to
work out differences.
The Senate passed its bill Aug.
11 by a unanimous vote. The bill
provides an 11 per cent across-the-
board increase for enlisted per-
sonnel with more than two years
of service and six per cent for
officers. Increases averaging 17.3
per cent are provided for enlisted
personnel with less than two years
of service. Officers in the same
category would get an average
increase of 22 per cent.
The bill also adds $10 to the
present $55 monthly combat pay
and provides for free postage
privileges to personnel serving in
the Republic of Viet Nam.
Reenlistment bonuses will also
be increased to give personnel
more incentive to make the mili-
tary a career.
The bill will become effective
the first day of the month after
it becomes law. (AFPS)
In This Issue
Arbaer Museum ........ pg. 2
Commissary ........... pg. 3
H-2 Feature ........ pgs. 4-5
Coast Guard .......... pg. 6
Movie Schedule.........pg. 7
Sports................ pg. 8
minutes, and zero minus 2% mi-
nutes. This will be the final cri-
teria on which they will base
their decision to launch or not to
launch. Information on the condi-
tion of the earth’s magnetic field
(also criteria for the launch) will
be received from professor Thor-
bjorn Sigurgeirsson, in Reykjavik.
A second rocket, to collect data
for comparison, will be launched
two days later.
One of the interesting features
of the launch itself is the final
determination of the firing posi-
tion. A small balloon, equipped
with a radar reflector, is released
minutes before the launch. It is
tracked visually, and by radar, to
Active Forces
To Increase
By 340,000
Addition of 340,000 personnel
to the active forces will be com-
pleted in about a year, officials
have revealed.
Some 300,000 will be added by
July 1966 and 40,000 by October
1966. This does not mean all these
will be required in the Republic
of Viet Nam, it was pointed out.
Current plans call for a 125,00-
man force in Viet Nam, repres-
enting a “hole” that must be filled
elsewhere. The increased strength
allows for personnel in transit be-
tween assignments, training, and
maintaining strengths for world-
wide commitments.
Secretary of Defense Robert S.
McNamara recently said the per-
sonnel ratio over the Viet Cong
is three-to-one. He believes, as
other U.S. officials do, this ratio
is inadequate.
A specific ratio has not been
given, but estimates run as high
as 10-1, which officials think ex-
cessive, considering greater mo-
bility and better equipment of
U.S.-RVN forces.
Increasing U.S. forces in RVN
from 75,000 to 125,000 will create
a more favorable ratio balance,
officials believe, saying the Joint
Chiefs of Staff agreed against
calling up reserve during the re-
cent build-up.
Spokesmen point to re-
serves as a “perishable commod-
ity,” meaning they are called up
for a year, and if not needed for
several months, their full poten-
tial is not used.
The objective in RVN, as previ-
ously stated, is to convince the
Viet Cong and the North Viet-
Nam government they cannot
achieve domination over the RVN.
(AFPS)
determine its speed of horizontal
travel, and rate of vertical rise.
Correct Trajectory
The information received in
this manner is fed into a com-
puter, called: “Cotir” (correction
de tir), or “correction of launch,”
which determines the correct
launch attitude automatically, to
assure that the rocket will follow
the correct trajectory. All this is
necessary because, as a rocket,
such as the American “Aerobee,”
the “Dragon” has no flight con-
trols. It is launched, and its
stages fire when required, but it
follows a path, like an artillery
shell, based on its original firing
position. A small stabilizing jet
keeps the rocket in spin to main-
tain an even flight.
On the 23rd, the Icelandic
Coast Guard will keep ships out
of a designated area, and Ice-
landic Air Control will warn air-
planes to keep out of the sky. A
mobile radar installation at Sko-
gar will follow the rocket through
its flight.
DRAGON ON THE PAD — A
French Rocket, the “Dragon,” pre-
pares to blast off to conduct ex-
periments in the upper atmos-
phere over Iceland. The scientific
installation, near Skogar, is ready
for the second year in a row, to
delve into the mysteries of the
Van Allen Belt, a ring of radiation
that surrounds the globe.