The White Falcon - 23.07.1971, Blaðsíða 5

Two pilots die
in air crash
of station T-34
Two Icelandic members of the
naval station Flying Club, Karl
Gudraundsson and Johannes Sviensson,
died in the wreckage of the club's
T-34 plane atop the north peak of
Akrafjail. Both pilots were in-
structors with the club.
€
A search for the two men was
begun early Sunday morning when
they failed to return from a lo-
cal training flight in the Reyk-
javik area shortly after midnight
Saturday.
The search was launched when
Reykjavik Air Rescue notified De-
tachment 14 of the 40th Aerospace
Rescue and Recovery Squadron and
the Navy Rescue Squadron. Both
its responded with aircraft at
0 Sunday morning.
Broadcasts from Icelandic
ate Broadcasting System of the
missing aircraft brought a report
from a fanner at Osbir, a farm
north of Akranes. The farmer re-
ported hearing an aircraft over-
head and an explosion shortly be-
fore 1 Sunday morning.
An HC-130 from Det. 14 was di-
verted to "Akraf jail, northeast of
Akranes, early Sunday afternoon.
The aircraft, commanded by Maj.
David Gay of Det. 14, was prepar-
ing to return to the base for
fuel shortly before 2 when SSgt.
Michael Gallagher—a pararescue
specialist—spotted the wreckage.
The sighting was passed to an
Icelandic Cessna 170 which orbited
the site and guided a Navy H-34
helicopter to the wreckage.
The helicopter, commanded by
Lt. James Dunn—and with an Ice-
landic rescue specialist aboard—
landed a short distance from the
wrecked plane. Both pilots were
found dead in the wreckage.
After guiding Icelandic ground
teams to the site, the helicopter
ferried the bodies of the two pi-
lots to Reykjavik.
Cdr. Don M. Farris reads his orders at last week's Fleet Weather
Facility change of command, where he relieved Cdr. David J. Spowart
(standing right). Also attending were: Father Leo Joyce (seated
left), Capt. Paul Roman, ComFAirKef chief of staff, and Chaplain
Alfred Saeger.
NEW COMMANDING OFFICER, from Page 3
duty in that theater.
From 1951 to 1953, he attended
the Monterey, Calif., Naval Post-
graduate School where he earned a
second engineering degree, this
time in Meteorology.
Then the captain was stationed
in Guam with VW-3, which flew the
PB4Ys and P2Vs primarily on ty-
phoon reconnaissance missions.
His interest in athletics was
highlighted when he coached the
All-Guam basketball team while he
was stationed there.
Then from 1954 to 1957, Capt-
ain McDonald was the assistant
operations and aerology officer
at the Monterey Naval Air Facil-
ity, where he flew the AD and R4D
aircraft.
Following that tour of duty,
he returned to the Far East as
the personnel officerof the naval
air stations at Iwakuni and Atsu-
gi. While stationed in Japan, he
coached the All-Japan basketball
champions during the 1958-59 sea-
son.
He returned to the states in
1959 where he was the maintenance
officer for VP—19 at the Alameda,
Calif., Naval Air Station.
Wire’s class set for August
leai
Navy wives who would like to
learn "what's going on" can reg-
ter for the Navy Wives Service
ormation Program classes. The
t session is August 2-4. For
urther information, call the
naval station career counselor,
BMC George Franklin, at Ext. 6289
(N-A-V-Y). Chief Franklin is the
director of the school. This is
the third session of the classes
which began in June.
From there he went to the Na-
val War College at Newport, R. I.,
where he was a student from Aug-
ust 1961 to July 1962.
He then became training officer
in the Aerology Schools at the
Naval Air Technical Training Unit
at Lakehurst, N.J., until 1963
when he was ordered to VF-44 as
the executive officer. Between
his duty at Lakehurst and report-
ing to VP-44, Captain McDonald
attended the Fleet Airborne Elec-
tronics Training Unit in Norfolk,
and the Replacement Air Group,
VP-30 Det. "A" at Patuxent River.
During his tour of duty with
VP-44, he became the squadron
commanding officer. He left that
post in July 1966 and was assigned
as the navigator of the antisub-
marine warfare carrier USS Lex-
ington. In December 1967, he was
transferred to Washington, D.C.,
where he served in the J3 direc-
torate of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
During his tour of duty in
Washington, Captain McDonald was
promoted to his present rank, ef-
fective January 1, 1969.
The captain was transferred to
the Naval War College in August
1970, and following graduation
from the Naval Warfare Course in
June of this year, reported to
the Naval Station Keflavik as its
new commanding officer.
Captain McDonald is married to
the former Edwina Martin of Al-
bany, N. Y.
WHITE FALCON
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