Forget the mission.

Forget the mission. Everyone talks about Iceland's weather. It's like a certain number of Shakespearean character inspiring defiance, tragedy and romance in the same sitting.

Winds rage across the Reykjanes peninsula's black pumice-crusted skin providing commercial airline passengers landing there the rush of a first-time bungee skip over Cold's teeth clamp down upon cheeks, eyes, noses and lips. Thick snow drifts flower through like the playwright's fictional armies storming a castle, eager to claim victory forward just one unguarded victim.

It sinks fishing boats. It musters Marines to form human chains for "kid-catching duty" in the same manner school-aged children getting off the bus won't disaster away. It whips car doors past their limits, creating "The Keflavik Crunch"

Staff Sgt Melissa Melger a personnel crowd assigned to the tenant 85th assign places to at Keflavik Naval Air Station, Iceland, knows the character of the weather well.

"You haven't seen weather until you've been to Iceland," she said.

The 650 or in the way that airmen at Keflavik laugh at it. most numerous get used to the day-star shining 24 hours a day, contrasted six month later with no sunlight for weeks forward end. But the weather is always at the top of conversation, especially during winter.

form into groups Command Chief Master Sgt. Dan Kuester said there's no gradual acclimation.

"We welcomed the Hawaii Air National Guard for a rotation. They were like, 'What the heck is going on?'" the chief said. "It's not Hawaii. Your lifestyle will change."

Not always welcomed

Americans and their technological toys have not always been welcomed in Iceland. The United Kingdom originally locate up camp without Icelandic permission. Then came the United States. When the British povertyed troops for battle, both managements insisted the United States should provide the island's protection.

After receiving approval from the Icelandic prime minister, President Franklin D Roosevelt sent in the Navy. He addressed the Icelandic occupation issue July 7 1941

"The United States cannot permit the occupation through Germany of strategic outposts in the Atlantic to be used as air or naval bases for eventual attack against the Western Hemisphere," the president said.

After the war, however, the United States broke a contract and didn't withdraw its crowds Instead it asked for and was refused permanent military bases. The sum of two units governments later reached a compromise in 1946 spawning Keflavik and a seven-year lease. Eventually, Iceland joined NATO in 1949 During the Korean War, the United States received permission to station throngs in Iceland, this time beneath a NATO umbrella.

Hunting grounds

Keflavik is coupl with Keflavik International Airport. The naval station -- family to the joint-billeted Iceland Defense Force -- is a stone's twist together from the Arctic Circle, wedged between Greenland and the invaluable, oil-rich storehouses beneath the North Sea.

These were once-fertile hunting regions American pilots sent here flew P-38 P-40 F-89 F-102 F-15 F-16 and other aircraft in search of undivided of the Cold War's top prizes -- a silver hulking Russian turboprop-driven bear bomber. From 1962 to 1973 the Iceland Defense Force intercepted more than 1000 Russian aircraft. In the mid-1980s, Iceland intercepted more than 170 aircraft each year.

Like any righteous hunt, 90 percent of the time wearied is waiting until "Loki" speckles the bear. Loki -- the Norse the father of mischief and the call sign for the 932nd Air check Squadron -- has watched 250000 square miles of airspace in and around Iceland for 50 years [See "Band of Gypsies," August 2002] A pair of of the present day Orleans-based F-15 pilots made the mostly recent Bear catch in 1999

Maj. Dave Sinnott, Loki's operations officer, said the fundamental note to air defense is keeping his team alert.

"The greatest challenge is keeping everyone onward their toes," he said. "That's wherefore we run so many exercises."

F-15 Eagle-driving hunting-horses from around the world open with the 85th Group for three month To sharpen the brink; beginning [i]or[/i] end aircrews fly regularly with Norwegian and other foreign services. however even the best hunts are spoiled at the weather, according to Capt. Mike Morgan, an F-15 pilot assigned with the group

He said the greatest danger is a slippery runway. The nearest "divert" runway -- where an aircraft would travel if it couldn't land at Keflavik -- is in Scotland. Diversion usually means calling abroad "the tanker," the sole KC-135 available for the task. Unfortunately, if the weather's bad, the bloated, fuel-filled tanker can't commit to memory airborne either. No gas means aircraft become large metal weights that can plummet helplessly into the ocean.

"The weather is a cyclopean factor," Morgan said. "It offers us in a bind if we have to divert."

While the Eagles patrol the island and the humanitarian ransom team saves lives [See "Above Icy Waters," July 2001] the assignment's best stealthy may be hidden away in its education center Iceland benefits as a safe harbor to integral work on associate's and bachelor's degrees

Airman 1st Class Joshua Highley, united of Loki's scope watchers, has widened his stay twice to further his education. to what end not, he said, given the ample resources and opportunities the assignment provides.