The White Falcon - 08.01.1993, Blaðsíða 1

HITE
FALCON
Icelandic words of the week:
One - Elnn (Ayt n) Six - Sex (Sex)
Two - Tvelr (Twayr) Seven -SJo (S yer)
Three - Prlr (Threerr) Eight - Atta (Owl Ufa)
Four - Fjdrir (Fyo rir)Niae - Niu (Nee yew)
Five - Fimm (Fun) Ten * Ttu (Tee oo)
VoL 52 No. 01
Serving the Iceland Defense Force Community
January 8,1993
Rocky Road Four-Wheelers ride to the rescue
Story and photo by
J02 Carlos Bongioanni
It was the very last day of 1992. While
Mother Nature made a last ditch effort to
increase her yearly snowfall average, many
motorists at Naval Air Sution (NAS),
Keflavik found themselves either in ditches,
trapped in parking lots or stranded along
roads. It looked like a job for the “Rocky
Roaders!”
The Rocky Road Four-Wheel Drive Club
is primarily anoutdoorexcursion group which
specialize in conquering terrain that’s not
accessible to most motor vehicles. However,
an offshoot of the organization is the Emer-
gency Rescue Service. Volunteer “Rocky
Roaders” use their own four-wheel drive ve-
hicles to assist NAS Security in assisting
stranded motorists.

Security can’t tie up their military vehicles
[ping stranded motorists because they have
duties to perform.^ So, when they drive
around the base cm their security checks, and
if they notice that someone is stuck, they’ll
dispatch the “Rocky Roaders” to that loca-
tion.
Last Thursday, after the base went into
Travel Condition II-A, security requested the
assistance of six “Rocky Roader” vehicles -
the maximum that can be activated.
“We pulled out approximately 40 vehicles
and assisted about 40 others who needed a
little push,” said PHI (AC) Marie Ketten-
hofen, Chairman for the “Rocky Roader’s”
Emergency Rescue Service. “We got the call
at about 7 a.m and didn’t finish until about
2:30 p.m.,” he said.
MA2 Richard Bailey of Navy Security
explained, “People get a misconception of
the snow and think,‘Oh, that doesn’t look too
deep,’ until they get in it, and then it’s too late.
When you get up in the morning and it's
snowing, tune into ‘The Roller’ or the radio
for a weather report, because if you don't
know that the base is in a travel condition,
you'll probably get stuck.”
That’s what happened to Sgt. Darrin Dunn,
je tried to make it out of a parking lot onto
road but didn’t realize how deep the
!C*' drifts were. “It’s kind of hard to dig
your car out of three feet of snow,” said Sgt
Dunn. “I felt stranded... kind of aggravated.
It’s very important in Iceland that these guys
Rocky Roaders help pull Sgt. Darrin Dunn’s vehicle out of a snow drift.
(Rocky Roaders) are around. They’re fantas-
tic... a great group.”
AT2 Charles Grey, a volunteer “Rocky
Roader”, had only three days left in Iceland
before transferring, but he jumped at the
opportunity to lend a hand again. “This is my
second year doing this,” he said. I'm just out
having fun, it gets me off from work, plus, I
like to see how deep a drift people will try to
go through with just six inches of clearance,
I get a good laugh out of it”
Stranded motorists were full of thanks,
and “Rocky Roaders” got to romp around in
their four-wheel drives. "Today we pulled
out an 18-wheeler,” said AME2 Richard
Barnard, another volunteer “Rocky Roader.”
“We pulled out a bus last year, but the
18-wheeler was tops so far - the biggest
thing we’ve pulled out around here.”
As the volunteers headed back to their ve-
hicles, somebody shouted out, “Hey, let’s go
hook up with a couple of airplanes.” After a
moment of laughter, they were off again, bar-
reling through the snow drift from which they
just pulled out a stranded car.
Holiday chat
LCpl. Anthony J. Klemm (left),
Marine Corps Security Force
Company, and IS 1 Liz Pereira,
Iceland Defense Force, were
connected to family members
by a long distance telephone
call. The call took place dur-
ing the Christmas holiday and
was sponsored by WCBS Ra-
dio in New York. Pereira
stated, "It was great talking to
my mother, because I have not
seen her in a few years." (Photo
by J02 Colleen C. Casper)