The White Falcon - 17.09.1993, Blaðsíða 1

Vol. 52
White Falcon
No. 36 September 17,1993 Serving the Iceland Defense Force Community
Icelandic Comer
Sheep, come here!
Kindur koma hlrna!
(Kin-dur co-ma
he-air-na)
Round up
This is the month Ice-
landic farmers gather
their sheep, see pages
6-7.
torces review
The Bottom Up Review
will change military
| Picture, see pgs. 4-5.
Renovations at the Navy
truction projects give
the base a new appear-
ance, see pg. 8.
Inside
Editorials....
Lyte Bytes....
Armed forces
news,
Features
Awards.,
.'lassifieds.
Woodpeckers migrate south
By J02 Carlos Bongloanni
It is said that time flies quickly
for those who keep busy. If that is
the case, the past six months have
flown by like a whirlwind for the
“World Famous Woodpeckers”
of Patrol Squadron FORTY-
NINE (VP-49).
The “Woodpeckers,” stationed
out of Jacksonville, Fla., deployed
to Naval Air Station, Keflavik, in
March and are now heading back
to Florida. Although their time
here has gone by quickly, they
have left a lasting impression
upon the base.
“VP-49 has done a fantastic
job,” commented RADM Mi-
chael D. Haskins, Commander,
Iceland Defense Force. “When
they leave us, we’ll lose a vital
part of our community.”
The sentiments expressed by
RADM Haskins stem from an
appreciation of how VP-49 con-
ducts itself when deployed.
“Squadrons come and go all
the time,” remarked CDR Mark
Anthony, Commanding Officer
of VP-49. “We realize we’re here
just temporarily, but we desire to
be pleasing guests. Whether
we’re helping with the school
reading program, getting in-
volved with base cleanup proj-
ects or participating in the Arbor
Day celebration, we always try to
give more than we receive... to
contribute something back to the
community that is hosting us. Our
goal is to do more than what’s
expected and to do it with a
smile.”
Besides taking part in numer-
ous community projects, VP-49
played an important role in ful-
filling its part in the base’s mis-
sion. This past quarter, they flew
nearly 700 flight hours more than
what is normally flown in a quar-
A VP-49 lineman guides a P-3 Orion to its parking position. (Photo
by PH2 David Difuntorum, VP-49)
ter. In fact, the 2,600 flight hours
recorded since July were the most
flown for one quarter in the past
five years.
YN2 Phillis Noiseaux, Ops
Yeoman for the squadron noted
that their workload in Keflavik
doubled compared to the work-
load in Jacksonville. “It seemed
like we were here for a reason,
not just deployed some place for
six months. We were tasked with
a lot because of our ‘can-do’ atti-
tude. We never had a dull mo-
ment.”
The squadron’s operational
commitments included round-
the-clock anti submarine/surface
surveillance operations, partici-
pation in NATO/U.S. exercises,
coordinated maneuvers with sev-
eral battle group operations, in-
volvement with Navy SEALS
training in Macrihanish, Scot-
land, and to top it all off, the first-
ever good-will flights (known as
BALTOPS ‘93) to the Baltic
states in the former Soviet Un-
ion.
In addition, the “Woodpeck-
ers” had 10 coordinated flights
with the 57th Fighter Squadron,
which resulted in the publication
of the first Standardized Opera-
tional Procedures (SOP) manual
between P-3s and F-15s. “The
See WOODPECKERS on pg. 9