The White Falcon - 08.01.1971, Page 1

THE WHITE FALCON
Vol. XIV, No. 1 U.S. Naval Station, Keflavik, Iceland Jan. 8, 1971

What light through
n window breaks
\x times a minute?
The riddle is — what rotates
six revolutions per minute, is
green and white and sits atop a
500,000 gallon drum overlooking
the ReykJanes Peninsula?
If you were here in 1954-55
you automatically know the answer
to the above question, and the
answer is of course, the beacon
which is perched on the checkered
red and white water tower which
passes 1,300,000 gallons (approx-
imately) of water a day through
its body to the personnel of the
base.
mo'
The light, which flashes al-
ternately green and double white
is a guide for all planes landing
at the station airport — the
double flash of white light indi-
cates that this is a military
airport vise a civilian airport
in which case only a single flash
of white light would be seen.
The beacon rotates 135 feet
above the lava base below and is
switched on and controlled re-
motely by the control tower for
fie night hours or during the day
there is a heavy fog, etc. If
iu've noticed, it can be seen
ust outside of Hafnarfjordur
at almost every high point in the
road between there and Keflavik.
Damn of New Year
Reykjavik pageantry 1971
The Reykjavik scene New Year's Eve was one of bonfires, happy Ice-
landers, Christmas decorations, tourists, sky rockets and active
camera bugs snapping up the evening on time exposures...
Bonfires began to light the night about 8 p.m.; the piles of fuel
---------—------------------------ that had been stacked in the weeks
before burned out the old year in
Icelandic tradition.
The main section of the city
was almost deserted exceptfor the
Christmas tree lights and decora-
tions which swung over the empty
streets. The people? Many of
them were in their homes awaiting
that midnight moment when the
calendar switched to 1971, and
many more were out around the
bonfires.
Then, as the night neared that
hour for which the fires were
lit, the bonfires wained, and the
crowds began to gather on hill-
tops overlooking Reykjavik. The
city lay in a panorama of colored
lights with a spattering of sky
rockets fighting a mild wind to
add their short-lived color to
the night. Ten minutes before
12 a.m. more and store rockets
burst against the black sky, and
by midnight everyone got into the
act including the person standing
next to you — between dodging
rockets and watching the lit up
sky it was hardly noticed that
(See NEW Year, Page 9)