Iceland Crisis Respond Unit

I'm posting this in the Norway section, even though the insignia are non Norwegian, but the pieces of uniform they are on are Norwegian desert uniforms. A friend of mine got these from another soldier returning from Afghanistan, they are from the Iceland Crisis Response Unit (ICRU) serving with the Norwegians in the ISAF mission. Because of the US airborne and rigger wing these soldiers have clearly been trained in the US as well, does anybody know more about this?

NorBn wrote:

Sad to see such cool uniforms cut into pieces.

Well at least you got them and if you get a jacket can assemble them into a very NICE piece !!

Great Score !!

Of course it's a shame to see the uniforms ripped to pieces like this, but I guess it's better than nothing. They belong to a friend of mine and the only insignia I have from Iceland is a national flag from the Iceland Medical Detachment serving under British command in Bosnia. Kind of nice to have army insignia from a country with no army.

Having that is like having the key to Heaven....I would sell my house to get stuff from Iceland...well not exactly...LOL

Steven

PS...If you ever come across any more..you know who will be happy to pay you for some...

Nice pictures, even if I did have to fight back some tears at the thought of all those cut up Norwegian uniforms!!

I don't know anything specific about the ICRU. However, because Iceland has no military it is obvious that military training must be done in another country. The US Army has a massive and long established program to train foreign nationals from all over the world, therefore it makes sense to me that they trained in the US. Although I am a bit surprised since they have so few people in need of training I would have guessed they were trained by Norway. Especially since the uniforms they wear are Norwegian.

I do think it isn't likely that they would receive non-US Army training and then wear US Army qualification badges. I'm sure that's not acceptable under NATO rules. Plus, it's in bad taste

Steve

Hmmmm.... another thought. Those two para qualification badges are very senior. Not the sort of thing I would expect someone receiving basic military training from Iceland to even attempt. Iit's unnecessary to have Riggers when your nation doesn't have a paratroop force. So here are some other possibilities I just thought of:

1. The soldier wearing those badges was in the US Army for quite a long time, then joined the ICRU at the request of the Iceland government OR through "dumb luck". A fairly large number of US military personnel are non-citizens, so this is plausible.

2. The soldier wearing those badges had some civilian equivalent training, or perhaps foreign military training, and was allowed to apply that experience to US Army qualifications. I mean, if the guy was a civilian jump master for 15 years, they may have given him the tests without requiring the training. I'm not sure if it works that way or not, but I do know of other US government requirements which can be waived if the applicant shows he already knows as much, if not more, than what the qualifications call for.

I'd be very interested to know what the story really is!

Steve

There is some good information on Wikipedia about the Icelandic Armed Forces, the Icelandic Defence Agency and the ICRU:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Iceland
It was there I learned that Icelandic citizens could apply for military education in Norway. Didn’t find any information that can solve the mystery with the US jump wing and rigger wing on the uniform, but there has been a US base at Keflavik until 2006. Maybe the connection is there? I guess if the Icelandic soldiers did parachute training in Norway they would use the Norwegian wing. There are not many soldiers in ICRU and maybe the two pieces of uniform belonged to the same person, sometime trained in the US? The rigger wing still puzzles me, though, a very strange combination on a uniform like this.

Steven, I got three of the ranks, a flag and one of the pieces with the wings on. If I add the Iceland national insignia I already have, can I have half your house?

OK, then I am going to guess that this is a uniform from a former US Army soldier who served with the ICRU. As I suspected, the soldier would have gone through training with the Norwegian Army. I doubt the Norwegians would then send that soldier off to the US for such specialized, and largely useless, long term training.

Heh... well, if we could figure out something to trade for a flag, name tag, rank, and a Norwegian desert uniform then I'd be happy to try and find something worthy for you. But no, not half of my house. Not even the half that doesn't have uniforms in it (though my wife says no such half exists )

The one picture I have of a ICRU soldier (very small!) it looks like he's wearing one on his desert shirt front. Not surprising they do not have a special desert version for their field uniforms.

Steve

With two wings like this the only answer to the question must be that this soldier must have been in the US Army for some time. The two pieces of uniform are probably from the same soldier as I doubt there are two or more soldiers in the ICRU unit with this education. I'll check and see if there are any pictures on the Norwegian Armed Forces pages. The joke about the house was for “bond007a1” as he stated “I would sell my house to get stuff from Iceland...well not exactly”, but with your collection I'm probably interested in yours as well.

Hehe... there are too many Steves and Stevens around here

Steve

Hehe great to see the Icelandic insignia again. It is my collection shown here. As stated here i was also sad to see the uniform cut to pieces. Atleast he managed to save what you see here and the extra insignia which i gave to NORBN. As for the Jumpwing and Rigger combination I have no information.

Hi all
I stumbled on this site when looking for insignia pictures.
I am Icelandic and i know few persons that have been working in and are ICRU members.
As far as i know then the winged parashute, the one with a star abowe is for one combat jump. I have never heard of Icelandic person earning that insignia, maybe that person have been a part of para rescue team from Reykjavik but they dont do combat. That is a rescue team and working only in Iceland. The only times rescuers go abroad for missions is as part of ICRU, but they dont jump into combat areas. The RIGGER insignia i am not so sure about.
One other thing, i never knew about the sergeant insignia with the two stripes abowe the COA (Coat of Arms). It is my first time to look that.
Other insignia you might find at my site kaldi.is
That page has the ICRU insignia what i know how look.
Missing from that page is the sergeant insignia seen in the first post abowe. Then there are two top ranking officer insignia missing aswell. Major General (two stars?), and Lieutenant General (three stars?). I dont know how they look but i know the person that used to be Major General.
If interested you can take a look at my collection at my site kaldi.is
Greetings from Iceland
Kaldi

Welcome! It would be great for you to repost your introduction in the INTRODUCTIONS section of the Forum. That way we can make fun of you for being interested in militaria, but coming from pretty much the only nation on Earth without a military

Steve

I can do that if you want, but you have to bear in mind that i am a graduate of a military history and most probably you will not have so much fun about that. We here might not have a standing army but we do have many respected officers in some armyes like, US Army, Norwegian Army, French Foreign Legion, etc. etc...
Most of them after finishing theyr dutyes take pencion, not work as civillians at Kabul International Airport holding ranks like Major, colonel or something else.
And thanks for the nice words...
Kaldi

Hello Ólafur Ólafsson. You have nothing to apologize for in terms of your nation's military history. For 300 years, your people roamed all of the western discovered world and conquered most nations in their paths. It will also make a change to have an academic view as opposed to the subjective views which most of us are used to seeing here.

Yeah, I was only having a bit of fun Cool about the military history degree. I have a general degree in history, but I stacked it heavily with an eye towards warfare (economic, political, and of course military).

Steve

Degrees are sometimes of use...

Hi kaldi,

Just to be clear about the jump wing; the star above indicates that this is a Master Parachutist Badge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachutist_Badge_(United_States)#Master_Parachutist_Badge
Stars for combat jumps are worn on the parachute/ wings of the badge as pictured on 2/ 506th PIR badge on the same page.

NorBn wrote:Hi kaldi,

Just to be clear about the jump wing; the star above indicates that this is a Master Parachutist Badge:
wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachutist_Badge_(United_States)#Master_Parachutist_Badge
Stars for combat jumps are worn on the parachute/ wings of the badge as pictured on 2/ 506th PIR badge on the same page.

Thanks for the info.
I also gathered some info from here and it seems to me that some people from Icelandic voluntary rescue teams are using the US parachutist insignia for them after few jumps. The instructors and those that have served the longest time as para-rescuers use this.
I think they look at them selfes as permitted to use those on "combat" uniforms from the ICRU...
This info i got from my fellow friends in Reykjavik Air Ground rescue, they have wings and parachute as theyr insignia.

greetings
Kaldi