| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
F
or those of us who served in the Norwegian armed forces, especially in
northern Norway, the 1980s were exciting times. Norway seemed to be the
focus of American and NATO attention. There was a continuous flow of
high-ranking visitors to Defence Command North Norway (DEFCOMNON),
from the staffs of Allied Command Europe (ACE) and Atlantic (ACLANT).
1
Every year thousands of allied soldiers, hundreds of aircraft, and dozens of ships
arrived in the area to conduct advanced training and complex exercises. High
points were the deployments of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, elements of Supreme
Allied Commander, Atlantic's (SACLANT's) Striking Fleet Atlantic, into northern Norwegian coastal waters in Vestfjorden, outside Bodø: in 1985, USS America (CV 66) and, in 1987, USS Forrestal (CV 59) in Exercise OCEAN SAFARI; in
1988, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) and Forrestal in TEAMWORK; and in
1989, America in NORTH STAR.
2
We were witnessing, and took part in, what later
turned out to be the culmination of the Cold War-the period of tension that
eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Norway, neighbor to the Soviet Union and a coastal state on the North Atlantic and the Barents Sea, found
itself at the geographical center of this final effort.
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