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NSGA Keflavik, Iceland 1968
Images and narrative from Tom Shirley

Please scroll down for 2 photos and the narrative.
Click-on photos to enlarge.


I can contribute a couple of "official U.S. Navy photos" to the Keflavik collection.

These shots are of the GRD-6 DF facility, which we called "Ops-1" and were taken, I believe, around
January or February 1968. Near as I can recall how I came into possession of the pictures, they actually
were 'official' and I believe Homer Lohr had several extra copies and he gave me these. I was stationed
at Kef from Sep. 66 - Oct 68. I remember Fangue. Peter P. Kennedy was OIC when I first arrived, he
was relieved by John B. Stockton. Mr. Stockton was one of the rare OICs who did just a one-year tour,
and while he was there the designation OIC was changed to Commanding Officer. One benefit of that,
which I can remember, was that we got a staff car. When Mr. Stockton left, J.M. Barr became CO
(he signed my 'Bless' certificate, same as the one on your Kef web page, and I still have it). I met Ace
Crawford there, and Warrant Officer Ron Vertrees. My pal Larry Dameron from a previous duty station,
Edzell, was at Kef while I was there. Also I remember a guy named Buck Tohill but don't know whatever
became of him. Chiefs were Homer Lohr, Fred Timmerman, Bill Allman (who was my Big Room instructor
at P'cola). We had a 1st Class A-Brancher named Lasher (can't recall his first name). Frank Holyfield was
there, too, and I learned a lot from him, about copying TTY off the air and whatnot. An especially good
friend in my watch section was a guy named Bill Cox; Bill was from Idaho and really loved his home state,
he was able to relate lots of trivia and significa (is that a word?) about Idaho, to the point I was homesick
for the place and I'd never even been there. I recall we had an officer there name Huey (sp?) but I left
shortly after he arrived.

Tom Shirley



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