Iceland’s bars ran out of beer trying to serve thirsty US sailors and Marines
Title pretty much sums it up. A large number of US Sailors and Marines went on liberty in Reykjavík, Iceland while taking part in NATO’s Trident Juncture exercise. Been there on P-3 Dets at Naval Air Station Keflavik, and found nearby Reykjavik to be quaint, but stupid expensive.
Again I digress. Without further ado, the story.
The city of Reykjavík, seen here from Hallgrímskirkja, was invaded by thirsty American sailors and Marines who nearly caused the city to run out of beer. (J.D. Simkins/Staff)
Founding Father and principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, once quipped, “Beer, if drunk in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit and promotes health.”
The military never got that memo.
A national crisis hit Iceland this week when a force of 7,000 American sailors and Marines who know nothing about the third president’s propensity for alcoholic self-restraint invaded the country’s capital city of Reykjavík, flexed an unquenchable thirst for frosty suds and swiftly drained much of the city’s beer supply.
Upon arrival, sailors and Marines taking part in NATO’s Trident Juncture exercise wasted no time getting wasted, Iceland Magazine reported, with most making a beeline straight from the ship to the closest bar to locate, close with and destroy beers.
Bar owners tried to accommodate the onslaught of American patrons, but “they were fighting an overwhelming force,” said local blogger, Eiríkur Jónsson.
Give me your tired, your thirsty, your huddled masses yearning to drink beer.
Wave after wave of dehydrated sailors and Marines strolled into town, filling local establishments for four days straight in search of that old, familiar embrace of sweet inebriation.
One restaurant, Sæta Svínið — good luck pronouncing that — was one of the first to run out of beer. Bar owners tried borrowing from other businesses that were better stocked, but the Americans were too many.
As other bars quickly began drying up, owners who said they had never experienced such an alcoholic assault put out a beer distress signal.
One of Iceland’s local breweries, Ölgerð Egils Skallagrímssonar, answered the call and immediately began working overtime to distribute emergency beer shipments that could furnish the parched Americans with sustenance.
Ölgerð Egils Skallagrímssonar — the king in the North.
When the ships finally departed Reykjavík, the city with a population of about 120,000 in a country with just under 340,000 was finally able to breathe.
Iceland had survived the assault, the Americans had drank their fill and there have yet to be any reports of overindulgent debauchery — a true success story.
Not too shabby- the Brits from HMS Queen Elizabeth showed their collective ass on liberty in Jacksonville a while ago, and didn’t come near to drinking the place dry.
Not sure that’s a good thing…
Anyway, the entire article may be viewed here at The Navy Times
BZ, Brothers!
Just this once, this Army guy has to say..”Go Navy”.
Only because we Army guys would never, ever drink beer to excess….as I open another Sam Adams Octoberfest (ok, ok I had a few, but my “Iceland” (fridge) never runs out of liquid gold!!)
Ölgerð Egils Skallagrímssonar. The man who prevented war. His name will be in the thankful prayers of many, just as soon as they can learn to pronounce it.
and just like that, Iceland’s GDP doubled.
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands
To drink their beers, singing and crying:
Valhalla, I am coming!
Keep calm and drink like a Viking.
I see what you did there, CCR.
Wah, they drank all our booze, used up our ammo and wore all our pookie da fukk out!
Pronunciation guide:
Sæta Svínið = Sehta Sfinnier
Ölgerð Egils Skallagrímssonar – erlgehrer ehgilss sskahlagrimssohnar
Odin owns you all!!!!
We always keep some of this on hand just in case:
“Takes a real sailor man to know how to get plastered” O’Malley Naval Aviator Chopper driver Red Storm Rising…Will join my Army Brother Dustoff this once…Go Navy…Out drink Marines!
Re-reading that right now. “Hammer” O’Malley, one of my favorite Clancy characters.
RSR, wore out two copies and the 3rd is ragged. The book that Ronnie sent to Mikail, possibly causing Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”. Tie that into the open mike where Ronnie purported to quip, “we start bombing in 5 minutes.” “The Hammer”, probably one of AW1Ed’s heroes too. Always thought that book would make a killer Hollywood mini series. Too long, too many characters to be a decent movie. When the book first came out and I was reading it, there were flash backs to ops orders and war plans that we had gamed out and discussed. 5/77 (Sergeant) and later 1/333 (Lance) missions were to close the Fulda Gap to prevent the breakthru/out of the 60 Soviet Divisions we were facing Higher had estimated a 7 minute warning/life expectancy for us if the surprise balloon went up. Some of the missle men and firing Battery Commanders wondered privately if we would (a) have time to fire, or (b) be allowed to get our licks in before they took us out. We all had been ordered to never discuss the system, mission, capabilities or anything else, especially about the Lance, while there or upon DEROS/ETS. Imagine my surprise when visiting Ft Sill for a nephew’s AIT graduation just prior to Desert Shield, to see both systems on static display with all the pertinent data in public view. Now it’s all over the innerwebz; well some of it anyways.
‘”The Hammer”, probably one of AW1Ed’s heroes too.’
Heh. As a matter of fact, yes, but my fav by far of course is Jonesy of HFRO fame.
Hell, and here I thought you were who TC modeled Jonesy after, or maybe Ensign Ralston. (grin)
Of “The Bedford Incident” fame? Not hardly, but nice try.
Great movie, though. One of the best ASW flicks out there.
Poor Icelanders. They heard the navy was coming and probably expected what they had seen before: a handful of cold war era P3 crews, a few groups of 10 or 12 aviation and maintenance guys out in town during their downtime.
What they got instead was a good taste of the fleet: a ravenous swarm of locusts thirsting for anything that can make them forget the past three months. Good on that brewery for stepping up. They probably kept the joint from burning down.
I’m just surprised they’ve reported that there were no “incidents”.
My understanding is that the Icelanders are very hospitable and the food is great. Most of them speak good English as well as Viking. Glad to know the brewery did its best to keep up with the demand.
Did anyone try any of the thermal pools they have everywhere?
Every Icelander I have met, speaks better English than many born-speakers. ( Yup, I’m looking due south 😉
Even IF the women sound like Bjork
Well the Iceland Gin Mills will just have to Grin and BEER it after running out of suds.
Good thing Iceland has NATO to defend them if a shore leave causes a national emergency.
Though I think it more likely that the writer at Navy Times over dramatizes it quite a bit.
Some of the loveliest maidens I ever saw, were in Iceland.
“SKOLL”!
Atleast they didn’t get into the Berserker mushrooms!
Tom T. Hall unavailable for comment.
Um, fellas I don’t know how much of an accomplishment this is. It seems like Navy/USMC propaganda to me. The whole population of Iceland is less then half a million. The capital has barely 100,000 right? My hometown in N. Jersey has 50,000. They spent four days there as well. I bet if it were one of the Dakotas or Alaska with the capital of Anchorage, you would likely get something similar.
Nice story but the Devil is in the details.-Cedo
Soy author confirmed.
Icelanders do some drinking. For a few marines and sailors to wipe out the beer stocks, this say a lot about the quantities that were downed. Nice work men.
Icelanders are interesting in their habits. I was there in 1985 at Keflavik NAS, on the dark side of the year. Can get depressing. Lots of sunlamp “beach parties” in housing area. USAF P-3 pilots had bad hemorrhoid issues from all those hours flying around looking for USSR subs leaving Murmansk. Icelandic women beautiful. Shake hands with one and her hand and knuckles are larger than yours. The night clubs are all they really have. The usual night is the guy shows up at 8PM. starts drinking hard liquor (beer didn’t seem to be that available or popular with them)..he drinks vodka/whiskey etc. and dances until he is near pre lethal alcohol toxicity level..then he is hauled to the door where one of 50 taxis take him home. As I recall Rekjavik (spp) seemed to be on the side of a mountain so the fellow could likely roll home. They had propensity for getting totally blitzed on the hard stuff real quick. The people there are nice but seem to look alike. Apparently “extended pollination” within the same genomic lines is culturally common.
One TAD tour was enough. CAPT Bones USN (ret)
Minor critique, Doc. It’s US Navy P-3’s, and the NFO’s and Aircrew flew with those pilots, too. That time frame was about the height of the Cold War, and the crews were flying cyclic ops- fly, 12 hours crew rest- fly, 12 hours crew rest, wash, rinse, repeat. Fly days put us right on the 18 hour max day, and the flights were no shit for real, ’cause the subs we were chasing could take out pretty much the entire East Coast in a single launch. Intense isn’t a close description, and I loved every minute of it, especially when I had Ivan by the tail- in somewhat muted Navyspeak as we had “…attained attack criteria.”
Other than that your comment is spot on, and a testimony as to why I avoided Reykjavík. Those Iceheads were pretty big, and I saw a couple of shit-faced ones lose control- not pretty and nothing I wanted to deal with.