From: Eydal Fridthor

Hello H4 Vets

We surely have come along way in communications technology since 1960 when the US was occupying H4.

Remember the site of the base camp, the old farming/fishing village called Latrar and H4 was on top of Mt. Straumnes (this should clarify the different names used) as you read further. I'll speak of some people you might remember too.

Elias (Elli) Jonsson lives in the town of Hafnarfjordur that is just ajacent to the capital, Reykjavik. He belonged to the Keflavik base Police Force and after serving at H-4 he went to H-3 and lived in the nearby town of Hofn for many years. His last years on the force were spent at the Keflavik base where he started out in the early 50's like my father. He retired several years ago.

The brothers, Skipper (Kristjan Magnusson) and Willie (Vilhjalmur Magnusson) have long since passed on. They were true characters like they don't make any more. So is Benny (Benedikt Benediktsson) who used to tell the American kids that worked with him and my father in his language (he never spoke any English) that they were soft from eating nothing but white bread. The two Cat drivers, Jon Vagnsson and Einar Jonsson (High-Pocket) and the mechanic Kristjan Lyngmo are still going strong.

The airstrip at Latrar was never extended as planned since the station was closed so soon. There were plans to triple its length for C-47's. The strip has not been maintained since 1960 but it can still be used during the summer by light planes although it has become a little rough in places. An airstrip was built in Isafjordur in 1960 and the place has been served by 50 pax F-27's and smaller aircraft since then. There are daily flights from Reykjavik.

The old ship wreck on the beach by the light house. That ship in fact ran aground there during a snow storm in 1916 while trying to round the Straumnes Point as the place is called. (Straum meaning current and nes means point. Hence, Straumnesfjall which is the name of the whole mountain is Mt. Current Point in English). There were no ships sunk by submarines there during the war. However, on 5 July 1942 a convoy of ships coming from Northern Russia went too far west before rounding the point on the way to Reykjavik and ran into the British minefield that was placed from 5 miles from the point and toward Greenland to guard against German ships. 5 ships were lost to the moored magnetic mines and several hundred people were lost. The minefield is believed to have claimed one German submarine that was lost in this area.

I don't know whether you remember when my father and Benny climbed down the icy slope to the lighthouse to help two Page Employees (of the Tropostation?) who had hiked down in daylight and didn't dare go back up when it got dark on 9 February 1960. The Commanding General of Iceland Defense Force sent them a letter of commendation via the Icelandic foreign minister who handles all official issues regarding the U.S. forces in Iceland and NATO. For some reason, this letter was never delivered until I found it in the Ministry's archives while doing research a few years ago. So you see it is not only in your country that the mail can be slow.

Now to a story about Adalvik Bay and the residents of the area. For centuries Iceland was more or less a self sustaining farming community capable of supporting a population of only about 50,000. The farmers did some fishing on the side, supplementing the diet and selling their catch to Danish merchants, who for a long time had a monopoly on trade in Iceland, in return for imported goods. The most prosperous areas were of course the richer farmlands in Northern and Southern Iceland. With the advent of technology in fishing, i.e. larger boats, new processing techniques and later the mechanization of the fishing industry, which started in the last part of the nineteenth century, you might say that the industrial revolution first came to this extremely isolated country. The people in the Westfjords (the Claw or Five Fingers) and many other out-of-the way places who did not enjoy any rich farmlands must rely almost entirely on the ocean, the bird cliffs and only to a small degree on livestock for their livelihood. In the early part of the 20th century, many of these remote hard-to-access sites had to be abandoned in favor of others where harbor facilities for the fishing boats, that grew in size far beyond what could be manhandled on the shore, could be built economically.

Such was the fate of the people in Adalvik Bay and the rest of the Hornstrandir as the area in the northern part of the Westfjords is named. Adalvik Bay was divided geographically into three centers of population. On the north shore was Latrar, Saebol in the south and Midvik in the middle. All were separated by rivers and mountains which had to be forded or passed. There was no road connection either internally or externally and no vehicles. The arable land was divided into small parcels of hayfields, enough to raise a few sheep and in some cases a cow or two and sometimes a horse for transporting hay from wild fields on the mountain sides. Most of the activity centered around the few fishing boats in each place which were either privately or communally owned. The boats were originally rowboats with sails which could be pulled ashore away from the relentless wave action which often took a great toll. In the 1920's and the 30's many of these old boats had small engines installed and motor boats became the common way of life and transportation. These were not ordinary villages with stores, a church, etc. The only church in the bay was at Saebol and it served a community which extended over several other bays and inlets in the vicinity. Many of the younger generation would go away for work during the winter, such as to the nearby towns on the south side of the large Isafjardardjup bay where there were much larger boats or further away where trawlers were operated. The next town, Isafjordur, was about 25 miles away, a 4-5 hour trip by a small boat, the only means of communication. There, the people of Adalvik had to go with their products and seek their necessities. The next doctor was at Hesteyri which although not far away to the east of Saebol, was still a mountain pass away which could mean the difference between life and death especially in the extremely long and harsh winter, even by Icelandic standards. There was a schoolhouse in both Saebol and at Latrar and the largest population of Saebol before the war was about 80 people and Latrar just over 100.

The Second World War and the subsequent economic boom resulting from the opening of British fish markets to Icelandic fishermen without much competition during the war after the British occupation of Iceland was to change the life of the Icelanders completely from a backwards, rural community into a modern urban one, principally based on the fishing economy with four times the population of only a hundred years ago. The People at Adalvik Bay were already starting to feel the change before the arrival of the Royal Navy to this remote location. In 1942 the Royal Navy established a shore radar station on top of the mountain range on the south of the Adalvik Bay with base camp at Saebol. The station was placed there to watch for German surface raiders and merchant blockade runners that made their way in to the Atlantic from German occupied ports in Norway, such as the famous Bismarck. The station supplemented the naval cruisers that guarded the Denmark Strait and was operated by a crew of about 50 people. Radar Bearings provided by sailors of this station helped contribute to the sinking of a German blockade runner in 1943. The British operation supplemented the livelihood of the local people of Saebol by providing seasonal work for some of them for a while. But the operation ended in 1945 and the station was abandoned. The remaining structures on the mountain across the bay from Latrar can easily be seen from H-4.

Before the war, funds were not available to construct harbor facilities in this remote and difficult area so larger and more capable fishing boats could not be introduced. The war brought plenty of work elsewhere and the younger generation started to go away for work for extended periods not finding any opportunities at home. One of the final blows came when manning the isolated doctor's position became impossible and after the war people started moving away in growing numbers finding life much easier where there was plenty of work all year round. Many moved to Isafjordur and other nearby towns, but most went to Reykjavik and vicinity where there were much better opportunities with advanced education for the children, etc. With others gone, life became even more difficult for those who stayed behind and soon they decided to move as well.

Such was the case with my father's family. Many moved to Keflavik including my father in 1943 where there was plenty of work to be had in the fishing industry and later on the base. By 1952 the whole area including Adalvik Bay had been abandoned. The Air Force operation at Latrar started in 1953 with contractor personnel moving in to build the base camp at Latrar and the road up to the site on top of Mt. Straumnes where one of the three outlying radar stations of the newly established Iceland Defense Force was to be built and later operated by the component command, the Iceland Air Defense Force. The road was completed the following summer and the foundations built for the structures on the site. Such was the situation when my father and a few other former residents arrived as employees of the contractor company in the spring of 1955. That summer the buildings were erected and indoor work was continued during the winter. My father brought my mother and us the two boys to live with him at Latrar that summer. In the fall of 1956 the site development had advanced enough for occupation and the squadron personnel started coming in. At the same time my father Chris and Benny were hired by the Air Force to handle the boats and barges and odd jobs together with Cat drivers Jon Vagnsson and Einar Jonsson (High-Pocket). My father and Benny stayed on until 1960 when the station was closed and Jon, Einar and Kristjan Lyngmo who came in later continued to work for the squadron in the winter and sometimes for the contractors in the summer since there continued to be plenty of work and improvement projects to be completed during the short construction season. Elli (Elias Jonsson) who also came in later also stayed on until after the station was closed. They all went back in 1961 to work on the dismantling and shipping of equipment and material that was disposed of as government surplus, a job that was supervised by Elli as a government of Iceland representative.

The radar equipment was installed in 1957 and the station was operational in January 1958. In 1959-1960 the Air Force had to meet considerable budget cuts and diverted great funds to the strategic missile program and the threat of Russian bomber attacks on North America became a second concern. Hence, plans were laid to withdraw most of the Air Force from Iceland including the fighter interceptor squadron at Keflavik. This plan was not carried out, however, and only the closure of H-3 in SE Iceland and H-4 became effective. The AN/FPS 3 radars at H-1 near Keflavik and the H-2 in the NE were upgraded to AN/FPS 20 (Dual Channel) in 1960. In January 1961, a big storm hit Iceland and ripped the inflated radome off the search radar at H-2 and damaged the antenna. The Air Force then decided to abandon radar operations at that remote location and moved the 776th ACWRON to H-3. That station had been kept in a caretaker status during the winter and the squadron simply switched on the old AN/FPS 3 and operated it until the end of the year when the new system at H-2 had been moved there and installed.

All the concrete structures were left in place since there was no equipment or barges left to dismantle and ship it out in a cost effective way.

My family moved to Isafjordur where my second brother was born in 1962. My father bought a cargo truck that he operated until around 1970 when he became a boat skipper on fishing boats similar to the Gyllir. My mother taught home economics at the local high school for twenty years. My parents moved to the capital, Reykjavik, in 1982 together with the youngest son where my brother Gummy an I had made our homes after leaving home for college years before.

Ever since my living at Latrar the history of the military in Iceland has intrigued me. This led to a private study and research which eventually led to my taking the job of Deputy Public Affairs Officer for the Iceland Defense Force at Keflavik where I have been for the last 18 years. I live in Reykjavik with my wife and my 23 year old son and two daughters going on 18 and 13. At the time when I joined the HQ Staff here in the early 1980's there were plans to rebuild the two northern radar sites and upgrade the existing two in the south. The engineers looked toward going back to the old sites where there were still some structures that might be used. This concerned me greatly when I found myself to be the only member of the staff who had any knowledge of the difficult operation in the past. With the help of my collection of many photographs from the site that I had collected with the help of my father and Elli Jonsson, I like to think that I contributed to diverting the attention to a more suitable site that was chosen since none of the difficult elements such as lack of harbor facilities and the forces of nature had been over come. The new site, still designated H-4, is on the south side of the big bay that we passed on the Gyllir to reach Latrar. It is located, in fact, relatively close to Isafjordur. For new stations were built in the 1980's and they are all operated by Icelandic civilian technical personnel who live in nearby towns. Modern technology does not require the scope dopes to be stationed at the sites themselves and all four radars are connected via fiber optic cable to a radar command center (CRC) at the main base here at Keflavik manned by the 932nd Air Defense Squadron as it is now called and that used to be at H-1, Rockville.

The entire area around Mt. Straumnes and Adalvik Bay north of Isafjordur is now a nature preserve but the families of the people who lived there have rebuilt many of the old farmhouses or erected summer cabins on the small parcels of land that still belongs to the family and come to visit their roots and enjoy the total isolation where one is still completely dependent on good weather for transportation. The area is popular for hiking and camping as well since although very harsh in the winter, the summer months can be absolutely beautiful with perpetual daylight in the midnight sun. My fathers greater family built a large cabin at Latrar in 1972 that we visit occasionally. We celebrated my father's 70th birthday there in the summer of 1999.

As you can imagine it was thrilling for me to return to the site once more in 1991 with a unit of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopters to help the local volunteer rescue teams lift tractors, trailers, fuel, etc to the old site where they had been hired by the Icelandic government to clear the grounds of the site. The helicopters were deployed to Iceland for a military exercise and this was a very well received gesture in order to clear the site, now frequented by hikers, of the horrendous debris left there after numerous salvage operations in the 1960's. All the loose stuff was collected and buried like had been done down at Latrar in the early 1970's, but most of the structures are still left in place.

Finally I have some photographs including a couple showing site personnel probably in the summer of 1960 that I would like you to look at and try to identify some of the people in. Also a couple of photos from the site and Latrar that I took in the late 1970's including one showing the old sheep pen that you used as the NCO Club annex (it is now collapsed) together with a recent aerial photo of the site.

I will send the photos separately.

Best regards,

Fridthor