Word: keflavik
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...granite skies, softening the roar of the large, dark cargo jets descending over the treeless, volcanic landscape. Some, decorated with the silver stars and blue insignia of the U.S. Air Force, taxied past the familiar F-15s and AWACS surveillance planes stationed on the vast NATO base at Keflavik. Others, boasting the red star of the Soviet Union, looked jarringly out of place. Red and blue alike, the cargo planes thudded down on the asphalt and roared to a halt on Keflavik's 10,000-ft. runway, disgorging advance teams, communications specialists, security agents, photocopiers, computers, television cameras and cables...
Although its people think of themselves as neutral, Iceland has been a NATO member since 1949. The country has neither an army nor a navy, but the Keflavik base, which monitors Soviet ship traffic in the crucial North Atlantic sea-lanes, is staffed by some 3,000 U.S. military personnel. When Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze was discussing the summit, he told reporters that his delegation knew they would be safe in Reykjavik. Why? "You (Americans) have a very big base there," he said, smiling...
...raises indexed to soaring inflation rates, sought 30% increases, while the government offered only 6%. So complete was the ensuing shut down that government officials had to pitch in to help keep life running. In addition to his higher duties, Chief of Police Sigurjon Sigurdsson stamped passports at Keflavik Airport...
...that is frequently played over the North Atlantic, a giant Soviet TU-95 Bear reconnaissance plane last September zoomed across the invisible line that marks the U.S. defense zone off Iceland. In five minutes, two American F-4 Phantom II interceptors zoomed up from Iceland's Keflavik Airport to draw alongside and escort the trespasser out of the forbidden Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Last week the U.S. Air Force released a remarkable set of pictures of the interception, photographs so sharp that the faces and gestures of the Soviet crewmen were visible as the American Phantoms hung close...