The White Falcon - 20.06.1986, Blaðsíða 1

NAS Keflavik to appoint new fire chief
Haraldur Stefansson will be appointed NAS
Keflavik Fire Chief July 18. Stefansson is replacing
Sveinn Eirlksson who died June Z, following heart
surgery.
Stefansson joined the Defense Force on May 23,
1955 as an ambulance driver. On April 15, 1956 he
went to work for the fire department and worked his
way to Deputy Fire Chief in 1967.
Residing in Gardabaer, Stefansson and his wife,
Erla Ingimarsdottir, have five children (2 boys and
3 girls).
By YN1 W. Scanlon
On July 1 the U.S. Naval Communication Station,
Iceland (NCS) will observe it's 25th anniversary.
Coincidentally, on that date Mr. Thorgrimur Julius
Halldorsson, or "Thor“ will celebrate 25 years of
service with NCS and, his birthday.
Thor began his association with the Defense Force
in March 1952 as supervisor of store and warehouse
Personnel and head of customer liasion for the
Iceland Central Exchange (USAF). In 1953 he
studied Electronic, Electrical and Microwave
Engineering in Oklahoma. He returned to
employment with the 1971st Communication
Squadron (USAF) on May 25, 1955 and became a
true NCS “Plankowner" on July 1, 1961, when the
Air Force transferred communication duties to the
Navy.
Shortly after its beginnings in Hangar 831, NCS
acquired the Grindavik Transmitter Facility and
began operating its microwave transmitter in
December 1961. The addition, in April 1962, of the
Tropospheric System at the H-2 transceiver site in
artic notheast Langanes, and the merging in
January 1963 of the COMNAVICE/NAVCOMMSTAICE
Message Centers in Bldg. 831 showed that the net of
allied communications was spreading across the
North Atlantic and Thor Halldorsson was involved in
the weaving of each strand.
In January 1965, operation and maintenance of
the H-1 site at Gurraty (near the new airline
terminal) was transferred from the Air Force to
NAVCOMMSTA and in July, Thor's blueprints detailed
the construction of the Rockville Receiver and
Special Communications building. He remembers in
August, the Armed Forces Radio Service was wired
through H-1 to personnel at the H-2 and H-3 (Hofn)
sites, but, he says, "In those early days, the
Haraldur Stefansson
signals were so bad that the programs had to be
taped and played at the site's broadcasting
stations.'
The expertise of this unique and dedicated man
was challenged in 1969 when major reconstruction
plans he developed were simultaneously set in
motion to relocate NAVCOMMSTA'S Message Center
from Bldg. 831 to its present location in Bldg. 839,
relocate the Special Communication Division from
the remote H-2 site to Rockville and consolidate the
remote transceivers of DYE-5, H-1, and H-2 with
Rockville and Grindavik.
His close affiliation with the Defense Force
prompted Thor to become a member of the Board of
Directors of the Pension Fund in 1970, where he has
earned the trust and admiration of his fellow
Icelandic Workers. Thortur Einarsson, of NAS
Keflavik's Civilian Personnel Office, remarked that
Thor “...is a good and conscientious fellow. He
takes good care of our pension fund.” Thor
broadened his social and professional fellowship
with American colleagues as a founding member,
past president and active board member of the
NATO Base Kiwanis Club. Notwithstanding his
Please see NCS on pg. 1 1