Author chronicles life and smuggling around Keflavík airport

A new book by writer and former member of Iceland’s parliament Ásmundur Friðriksson chronicles life around Keflavík airport during the era of the foreign defence force, including the smuggling that became part of the culture there, mbl.is reports.

In an interview with Morgunblaðið, Friðriksson said the stories had circulated privately but had never previously been widely published. His book, Sögur af Vellinum, or Stories from the Airport, is a community chronicle of life under the defence force at Miðnesheiði from 1952 to 2006.

The book focuses on Icelanders’ dealings with foreign military personnel, their work in the defence area and the smuggling that accompanied the presence of the force. Its stories include an account of Gísli Garðarsson driving a Bronco loaded with liquor through a fence.

Friðriksson said his earlier books had largely focused on Vestmannaeyjar, where he grew up. He told people in Keflavík that if the airport had been located in Vestmannaeyjar, 20 books would already have been written about it.

He said the heritage created around the airport was remarkable and had seemed unfamiliar at the time. Poverty was widespread on the Reykjanes peninsula when Icelandic authorities made their defence agreement with the United States.

People came to the area from across Iceland, including the family of Magnús Kjartansson, whom Friðriksson interviews in the book. Two or three thousand people lived there when construction began, while 5,000 worked on building the airport.

“The only thing that mattered was pushing the work forward,” Friðriksson said. “The Americans did not ask what people wanted to be paid, but when they would finish the work.”

Several locations in the area were named after prominent figures. Patterson and Meeks airports, as well as the Nickel area, took their names from servicemen who were wounded or died while serving in Iceland.

The Nickel area, which was used for oil storage, is now surrounded by housing but is still known by the same name, Friðriksson said.

He began writing the book primarily to preserve the memory and history of Icelandic employees at the airport, including those who worked for the defence force and contractors brought to Iceland by the military, such as the large US company Metcalf Hamilton.

Workers received wages they had never seen before, Friðriksson said, and this contributed to the area’s low level of education. One interviewee told him that people travelling by bus from the area to upper secondary school or university would pull their coat hoods over their faces so they would not be recognised.