The White Falcon - 05.04.1958, Blaðsíða 2

Page 2
THE WHITE FALCON
Saturday, April 5, 1958
THE WHITE FALCON
Volume 8 Number 7
HEADQUARTERS, ICELAND DEFENSE FORCE
Brig Gen H. G. Thorne, Jr. USAF
Island Commander Iceland (ISCOMICE)
The WHITE FALCON is an official Armed Forces news-paper published bi-weekly at
Keflavik Airport, Iceland, by and for the Army, Namj and Air Force personnel of the Iceland
Defense Force. The WHITE FALCON receives AFPS material. Views and opinions expressed
herein are not necessarily those of the Department of Defense.
Deadline for copy: 9 a.m. Monday. Telephone number: 4156, 4194.
Staff
Supervising Officer ............. Major John H. Corcoran, USAF.
Editor ................................ A/1C Larry Callen, USAF.
Associate Editor ............................ Pfc Ron Bayes, USA.
Staff Photographer ........................ Pfc George Nites, USA.
Isafoldarprentsmlfija h.f.
Chaplains Column
By Chaplain (1/Lt) John A. Heffernan
A Sane Mind In A Sound Body
Today the mind of man is assailed as never before, and never
before has it been so dangerously undefended. During our tenure in
the Armed Forces, we have learned much about the defenses of the
body; how to give first aid, how to crawl through clouds of smoke,
how to climb ropes, to jump out windows and sniff poison gas. I’ve
even read of a zealous orchestra rehearsing a number in gas masks,
the snorting making a new instrument, possibly apt to the age in
which we live! But how about our minds?
One lesson we have learned from the defense of the body is that
we have to be always on the lookout, our weapons always have to
change because we are always up against something new. The as-
sailants of the mind change too. The circumstances of the world must
change the attackers of the mind. One day it may be complacency,
another day discouragement, and, more fatal still, it may be indif-
ference. Perhaps the greatest danger of all is not realizing that we
must defend out minds if we are to keep our integrity as human
beings, that freedom we so often speak of and so seldom defined.
Although the enemies of the mind vary and we must always be
on the alert to detect them, the weapons, unlike those of the body,
are always the same. All through the ages, the men and women who
kept their splendor of their human nature used the same weapons,
the same armor; prayer, thought, humility and love. Without them
we shall perish today. With them we shall preserve our integrity as
human beings and shall not be overcome by such things as hate and
fear and bitterness. We shall not be swept up into a life-long
regimentation, but we shall be able to keep and give others, our
children and their posterity, the peace which has already been so
costly.
Jewish Cantor
is PFC Lokman
Private First Class David Lokman, a rifleman in Alpha
Company of the 2d BCT, is doing his part on base—and a
good bit more. In the absence of any permanent Jewish
clergymen at Keflavik Airport, he’s conducting the weekly
(Friday night) services in the Base Chapel Annex.
During the celebration of the
Passover, PFC Lokman is serving
as Cantor for Jewish worship
services.
Lokman’s father is Rabbi Moses
Lokman, a member of the Rab-
binical Office at the Synagogue
Burkir Cholim, Seattle, Washing-
ton.
POLAND WAS HOME
Rabbi Lokman is already an
American citizen—and his PFC—
son will complete necessary action
to gain citizenship soon after he
leaves the Army. A sister, Terry,
is a student in New York City.
Previously, the Lokman home
was at Krystynpol, Poland. The
family withstood the occupation
of the Nazi German forces—then
the Russian occupation—during
World War II.
IMPRISONMENT SUFFERED
The whole Lokman family unit
was deported to Siberia by the
Russians when they refused to
forsake their Polish citizenship
and assume loyalty to the Russian
Government, instead. They were
held in a Siberian concentration
camp for two years.
Managing an escape from the
political prison in the North,
where they were held, the Lok-
mans made their way to the Cen-
tral Asian part of the USSR (the
Tashkent region). From there
they managed to return to their
homeland, Poland. Then they con-
tinued their flight from Com-
munist domination, finally arriv-
ing in the Western Zone of Ger-
many.
In 1950 the Polish family finally
obtained passage to the land of
their dreams of freedom—the Un-
ited States. As Dave recalls, “We
made it on May 26, 1950. And I’ll
never forggt that date as long
as I live.”
PFC Lokman, who used to work
with Harry Cole Originals (“Cole
of California,” clothing designers
and manufacturers), hopes to re-
turn to the West Coast and the
business world when he has ful-
filled his two-year Army hitch.
New Tank CO
l/Lt Emmett K. Taylor has
been named commander of the
95th Tank Platoon of the 2d BCT.
He replaces 1/Lt Candelario Rol-
dan as 95th’s CO.
Falcon Staffer
Publishes Poem
”Jet,” a poem by Ronald H.
Bayes, information specialist for
the 2nd Battalion Combat Team,
will be published in the current
issue of Dawn, a magazine of
creative writing, according to an
announcement by Editor Helen
Harrington.
Bayes is a part-time instructor
in American literature for the
North Atlantic Division of the
University of Maryland, and as-
sociate editor of the White Falcon.
Hofn Airmen
Get Stripes
Seven airmen stationed with the
933rd Aircraft Control and Warn-
in Squadron, Hofn, Iceland,
were recently awarded additional
stripes.
Promoted to Airman First Class
was Jimmie D. Eoff.
Promoted to Airman Second
Class were: Larry E. Baker,
Leroy J. Carver, Wallace E. Gile,
Charles E. Goldstrom, Arlo A.
Heine, and James McCue.
The squadron, under the com-
mand of Maj. George R. Rausch,
is located near Hofn, Iceland, and
serves as an early warning site
for IDF. All of those promoted
have served with the 933rd for
seven months or more.
Engineers To Hear
Capt. A, B. Babbitt
“Air Traffic Control” will be
the subject of a talk by Capt.
Ambrose B. Babbitt at the Thurs-
day, April 10 meeting of the Ice-
land Post of the Society of Amer-
ican Military Engineers.
The meeting, for members only,
will start at KCOM at 6 :'30, fol-
lowed by dinner at 7:30.
Capt. Babbitt, flight facilities
officer of the 1971st AACS Squa-
dron, is a former commander of
the 1292nd AACS Detachment,
Dow AFB, Maine. His experience
also includes work for the CAA
at La Guardia, N. Y.
NATO 1949-1958
Yesterday, April 4, 1958, marked the ninth anniversary
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
It was on April 4, 1949, that the United States, Iceland,
and ten other nations allied themselves politically, militarily
and economically by signing the NATO agreement.
The original signers were Belgium, Canada, Frai^A^
Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway,
tugal. the United Kingdom and the United States. Greei^p
and Turkey joined in February, Moslem and an Orthodox member.
1952, and the Federal Republic
of Germany in May, 1955.
The North Atlantic Treaty is
one of the shortest and clearest
of international documents. It pro-
claims as its first objective the
determination of member govern-
ments to “safeguard the freedom,
common heritage and civilization
of their peoples, founded on the
principles of democracy, indivi-
dual liberty and the rule of law.”
This agreement is far more
than a defensive military alliance
under which the allies agree to
come to each other’s assistance in
the event of an armed attack
against one or more of them. The
members are seeking to eliminate
conflict in their international
economic policies and to encourage
economic and cultural cooperation
between any or all of them.
NATO has no authority over
its member governments. It is a
team of 15 fully sovereign states,
whether large like the United
States with 165. million people, or
small like Iceland with 154,000.
It includes eight constitutional
monarchies, seven republics, eight
predominantly Protestant coun-
tries and five in which Catholicism
is the leading faith, as well as a
ign-
w
And yet it is a strong team. Each
respects the independence and
characteristics of his fellow mem-
bers, and together they drew up
the rules.
Brussels, Ottawa, Copenhagen,
Paris, Bonn, Athens, Reykjavik,
Rome, Luxembourg, the Hague,
Oslo, Lisbon, Ankara, London, and
Washington are the capitals of
the Atlantic Community; an in-
ternational team which is over-
coming the barriers of suspicion,
prejudice and language.
The United States and Iceland
were among the original 12 sign-
ers of the North Atlantic Tre;
but the two nations had joi:
forces as early as July 1, IS
At that time a defense agreemei?
was signed providing for Ameri-
can troops to take over the de-
fense of Iceland from the British,
who had undertaken the protection
of the country after the Nazi in-
vasion of Norway.
With the easing of tensions in
the post war world, a new agree-
ment was reached by the two coun-
tries on October 7, 1946, calling
for the departure of American
forces. Keflavik Airport, constru-
cted by the U.S., was turned over
to the Icelandic government, al-
though the U.S. retained the right
to operate the airport through
civilian contract for use in con-
nection with the support and con-
trol of its' forces in Germany.
The NATO agreement, plus the
outbreak of hostilities in Korea
eventually resulted in a new de-
fense agreement between the U.S.
and Iceland on May 5, 1951. The
agreement was signed on that
date in Reykjavik by the Foreign
Minister of Iceland and the U.S.
Minister to Iceland. Forty-eight
hours later the first group of
Army, Navy and Air Force per-
sonnel arrived by transport plane.
IDF was born within two weeks,
on May 18, 1951; and IADF be-
Chopper To The Rescue
Part of the many-pronged rescue effort was the cooperative action
between IDF’s 2nd BCT and the captain and crew of the British Frigate
HMS Russell. Above, 2/Lt. Donald Dupies, CO, 525th Engineer Platoon;
1/Lt. J. S. Gilbert, BCT communications officer; Lt. Cmdr. J. S. Pallot,
Captain of the Russell; Capt. James Chesnut, Asst. S4; and Capt. Carl
Pigeon, pilot of the H-13, smile over the successful landing of the
“whirleybird” on the 14’x20’ platform constructed by men of the 525th
on the Russell’s deck. It may have been a record landing by an aircraft
on such a small shipboard area. The Russell was unable to approach
closer than 70 miles of the ice-locked sealer Drott, too far for the
short-range helicopter.
came the senior Air Force or-
ganization on November 1, 1952,
growing out of the 1400th Air
Base Group, the logistical force
assigned to IDF.
Nine years of NATO yester-
day—not just one more set of
initials, but the strength of one
sixth of the world—not just a nr
other costly venture in inter^
tions, but the vital concern of
million people—not just a military
pact, but the determination of 15
sovereign nations to build a system
of collective security to safeguard
personal freedom and to keep t]^^
peace.

All Army Talent
To Vie In Va.
The grand finals in the All-
Army entertainment contest will
be held at Fort Belvoir, Va., on
June 18-19 this year. This is the
first time the grand finals have
ever been held in the Washington
area. Approximately 200 contest-
ants coming from every major
command are expected to parti^^
pate.
Officer, Call a Cop!
New York (AFPS)—Police here
are investigating the disappea^w
ance of eight patrolmen’s ps^H|
checks from a precinct statio^^
house.