Over a 37 year period, the writer made 20 trips to Norway to provide training and operational support. On two of those occasions, the training involved groups who had had no previous exposure to acoustics.

Many in those groups showed exceptional aptitudes but none matched Kurt Wirkola who may not have stayed with the “program” more than 8-10 years.

When “on-site” in Norway, I lived in the TE building, in one instance only 40-feet from the display room. My normal routine was to sleep 2-3 hours and then review what had “occurred” before the data went “over the hill.”

On one occasion, Wirkola had the one-man mid-watch at a time when he had only 1-2 years of experience.

Wirkola would walk the beams slowly every 10-15 minutes. On that mid-watch, I saw him pass a 01-99 (KS) event without pausing. He again passed the contact some minutes later without any apparent interest.

Finally, I decided to ask him about it. His response: “Oh, that's the 'steady guest.'” I admit to having been dumbfounded. For obvious reasons, neither he nor anyone else there had been trained to recognize “steady guests.” He had figure it out by himself.

There were other instances in which Wirkola demonstrated exceptional accumen but none as impressive as that event. He was the best I ever saw, now sadly gone these six years but worthy of being recognized and remembered, however late.