End of an Incident

"In response to a request by the Icelandic government," the Defense Department last week removed Air Force Brigadier General Gilbert Pritchard from his job as boss of the U.S. forces in Iceland. Pritchard was relieved from duty after Thor Thors, Iceland's Ambassador to the U.S., called on the State Department to talk over the latest "incident" to rag sensitive Icelandic tempers. Ambassador Thors put it plainly: Icelanders were hopping mad because a U.S. sentry forced two of their people to lie on wet ground at the NATO Airbase in Keflavik while he called a sergeant to check their credentials (TIME, Sept. 21); Pritchard's departure would help smooth things over.

Pritchard, 44, a World War II fighter pilot and commander of the 49th Bomber Wing in Korea (Silver Star, D.F.C., Air Medal with twelve oakleaf clusters), was assigned to Iceland only two months ago, and was actually out of the country when the latest blowup happened. Both State and Defense Departments agreed that he had done a good job on his short tour, that his personal competence was not in question, but that the overriding consideration was a happy Iceland, where U.S. troops and the somewhat diffident Icelanders could get along together. Moreover, with the Communists offering a challenge in next October's Icelandic elections, State decided that General Pritchard was expendable. In turn, the Air Force handed him a juicy new assignment: commander of the New York Air Defense Sector.

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