Texas Poetry

From June of 1962 to June of 1963, I was a young sergeant in the U.S. Air Force stationed in Iceland, a NATO nation at the time.  My job responsibility was to be in charge and control of, with an associate who was a petty officer in the Navy, of all NATO Cosmic Top Secret material that came thru Iceland for various war plans.  It was a huge responsibility for a young man of twenty, who already served at that point three years of active duty service in the Air Force as an Administrative Specialist.

During the time I was stationed in Iceland for a year, the U.S. was in the mist of a cold war with Russia.  The Republic of Iceland did not have a defense force of their own.  They were an important part of NATO (North Alliance Treaty Organization).  The United States presence in Iceland consisted of U.S. forces of the Air Force, Army, Navy, Coast Guard  and Marines, which changed the host command of the base every three years.  Even the Iceland Police did not carry guns.  It was told at the time that a dozen soldiers with machine guns could take over the whole island in a day, if it were not for the U.S. military presence on the island.

The importance of Iceland to the defense of the United States was very important at that time for many reasons, beside its membership in NATO.  First, Iceland represented the first line of radar of the drew line in protecting the United States from the direct bombing routes of Russian Bear bombers that carried nuclear weapons.  Second, it was a base that housed KC-97’s, Air Force refueling aircraft that services the B-52’s of SAC that flew daily missions of “possible no-return bombing missions” in flights toward Russia in its planned bombing routes. Thirdly, F-102 fighter jets were stationed there in order to intercept possible Russian bombers on their flies over the island toward the United States in the event of an attack on the United States. 

 It was during this period that the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred, the closest we ever came to date, to World War III, especially with my insight while being in command headquarters for NATO in Iceland.  During this time, NATO was truly a powerful force against any nation in the world that attacked or indicated attacks against any member of the NATO alliance. Today Iceland is still part of NATO even though by their own countries request in 2006 for the United States to remove its military base from their country.  Except for occasional training exercises by the various nations of NATO over Iceland, there is no military presence on the part of Iceland or other Defense forces in the world on the island. 

With NATO’s recent refusal to join the United States against its war on ISIS, it is my personal belief that now the NATO treaty is not worth the very paper that the NATO nations signed off on.  It is also my belief, because of this, the United States needs to withdrawn from NATO.  Additionally, this withdrawal from being part of worthless treaties should apply to the United Nations, which has become equally of no value in protecting the United States and maintaining world peace.