A few kilometres from the town of Njarðvík, in the southwestern corner of Iceland, the site called Patterson Field holds a brief but notable place in twentieth-century history. Once an active military airstrip, its presence speaks to the intense strategic activity that swept over the island during World War II.
Wartime projects and geographic challenges
In the early 1940s, the United States military arrived in Iceland to build up the country’s defensive capacity in the Atlantic. At Reykjanes, engineers set to work south of an existing British airstrip at Garður. Their efforts led to the construction of not just one, but two distinct airfields within the same stretch of coastline. One of these, Patterson Field, lay southeast of its companion. The two fields, just 4 km apart, were testament to the urgency and complexity of military logistics at the time.
Patterson Field began operations in 1942, even though its facilities had not yet been fully completed. The field was named for a young pilot whose life was lost in Iceland, a reminder of the costs of the new wartime routines. Its purpose was primarily defensive: intended to host fighter aircraft tasked with protecting the region from airborne attack.
From strategic hub to quiet ground
Not long after Patterson Field opened, attention shifted to the northwest, where Meeks Field (now Keflavík International Airport) came into service in 1943. Meeks Field’s mission was to handle longer-range military transport. Named after George Meeks, a pilot who died in an accident on the Reykjavík airfield, it would become the more significant of the two, shaping the future of aviation in the area.
With the end of World War II in 1945, Patterson Field was decommissioned and eventually faded from everyday use. By contrast, Meeks Field was handed over to Icelandic control, later evolving into the Naval Air Station Keflavík after the nations signed a defence agreement in 1951. The United States base formally closed much later, in 2006, leaving the area as an international gateway for civilian flights.
Although no longer active, Patterson Field contributed to the transformation of Reykjanes from a remote fishing region to a crucial node in North Atlantic defence and eventually, international air travel.
