Here is a great website of military birds in Iceland...

Iceland Aviation.

Here's 57th FIS birds...

Black Knights of Keflavik

I was assigned to the 57th FIS for my first base out of tech school back in 92.

The 6th photo from the bottom, with a/c "Balls 46" (major hanger queen) is of a sortie that I actually worked. I was the only "Line D" (line delivery, dropping the chaff, flare and UALS off for the sorties) troop in the bomb dump, hence, I worked EVERY sortie for my last 3 months there.

Not a lot of people realize that most of the Bear interception photos that you see were actually taken by the 57th FIS, though the Air Force credits many of them to intercepts in Alaska. In the pics, if you can see any white/black checkerboard decoration on anything, or IS tail codes, it's a Black Knight. Kef was pretty hush hush until the early 90s, and the Air Force didn't talk too much about it. (When Tom Clancy wrote "Red Storm Rising", Kef was low-key, but he described it PERFECTLY.)

Kef, along with Kunsan and maybe Osan in Korea, had the last Alert Shacks still open after the end of the cold war, until 9/11.

Not a lot of people realize the value of Iceland in the American strategic plan during the cold war. Similar to Midway in the South Pacific, it was a good mid-point betweeen the opposing forces. The Air Force and Navy shared a bomb dump full of WRM (War Reserve Materiel) munitions and hardened aircraft shelters. The Navy ran P-3s out of there for anti-submarine warfare missions. My brother-in-law was a P-3 TACCO and flew some missions from Iceland before I was there. Iceland was also the last base in the line of those big listening posts that we spied on Russia from. The antenna was still erected and manned as of 93, it was right behind the bomb dump, and I was able to walk right up to it and touch the thing. (Larry J, didn't you work on one in Shemya?)

Sadly, the 57th was disbanded in 94, and the 35th Wing was closed in 95. The last permantly assigned F-15 left in 95 or so, and birds are now sent there on a 3 month rotation. If it seems like I'm lamenting, I am. Anyone who has spent a year in shit weather, gone through numerous TAC or ACC exercises sucking rubber for hours, and bitched endlessly about how crappy "this base is" and how great things were "at my last base", knows how much you actually miss the stuff when it's all said and done. These pics just got me thinking...

MrPex