Kwajalein Control Facility - Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands

KWAJALEIN ATOLL
REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS

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H I S T O R Y

BEFORE
WWII DURING
WWII 1944
BILL ILES 1944
CURTIS PARTCH 1947
ED SPILMAN 1950 - 1951
GENE WOOLIEVER 1951 -
1969 1970 -
1989 1990 -
1994 HISTORY
COMES ALIVE

FPQ-19 radar on Mount Olympus.
Gulf War to 1994

1990 - 1994

In the summer of 1990 , Col. Harris completed his tour and Col. John J. MacNeill took over. Changes on the international and national levels from 1990 to the present created the impetus for continuing changes at USAKA. As world attention moved away from Desert Storm's success and focused on the civil wars in Bosnia, Somalia, and, Rwanda, military defense systems changed their focus from global space defense to theater defense. Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, the first baby boomer without military service, and Congress continued to cut military spending.

The Range Command, which conducted Rident tests in 1990, changed its name to Kwajalein missile Range (KMR) in 1991. KMR also logged two more "firsts." The Range was an integral part of the first successful test of a ground-based interceptor with on-board discrimination and handled the first flight test of the ERIS program at Meck, which involved the destruction of a target high over the Pacific by an experimental, non-nuclear Ballistic Missile Interceptor on Jan. 28. The long-term project of range integration was started in 1991, expanding the role of M.I.T. Lincoln Labs to include all range assets. M.I.T./LL is the scientific advisor for Kiernan Reentry Measurement Site. The project is due to be complete by the end of 1994.

For Kwaj residents, Thanksgiving 1991 will be remembered as the day Typhoon Zelda paid a visit. For many, Thanksgiving dinner took place at the PDR while turkeys languished in ovens of numerous quarters which had lost electricity. With winds of 70 to 85 knots, the storm caused considerable damage on Kwajalein as well as to the whole atoll, which was declared a disaster area.

The new power plant, 1A, came on line in April 1991, but most construction took place later in the year. MASH 96555, a deployable medical unit, was set up in December while the hospital was being renovated. Surfway and the Pacific Dining Room renovations were started and the Evey Gym, formerly the Evey Theatre, opened its doors as a complete fitness center at the end of the year. A new recreation center was also opened for Kwaj bachelors in Spetember.

In 1992, KMR handled 27 missions including the ERIS flight test in March, which provided valuable information on interceptor performance against a target complex. Facility modification and launch pad refurbishment were begun for the Brilliant Pebbles and Lightweight Exoatmospheric Projectile (LEAP) programs which started operation on Meck in the summer. During the same time, the U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command (USASDC) was renamed U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command (USASSDC). Col. Crosby E. Hazel reported for duty in August 1992 replacing Col. MacNeill.

For the 3,002 people living on Kwaj in '92, transport around the island took a "cool" turn as seven new airport shuttle buses with air conditioning replaced step vans. Each bus was christened with a Marshallese name chosen by the driver. Bus riders could watch progress of the repairs to the storm damaged elementary school and construction of the school administration building, the Facility Engineering Services and LEC Administration/Human Resources buildings.

In 1993, KMR handled 23 funded missions including the beginning of the Tactical Measurements Program. It was responsible also for 43,000 space tracks and 250 other space operations. While range integration plans continued, KMR signed a contract with Range Systems Engineering, a Raytheon Subsidiary, making RSE a single range technical contractor. RSE assumed responsibility from Martin Marietta and GTE on Oct. 1, Also on Oct.1 KMR assumed responsiblities for technical facilities at Wake Island and the technical and base support facilities at Meck Island from the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command Targets, Test and Ealuation Directorate. Range Operations Control Center (ROCC), located in building 1009, closed March 1993 after mroe than 30 years, and mission control moved to Kwajalein Mission Control Center Adjunct.

A dramatic event of '93 for Kwajalein residents was the unexpected arrival of Chinese nationals who were rescued from the Panamanian ship, East Wood, which had sailed from China the previous Novermber. The Coast Guard, which had answered a distress call, reported severe conditions on the ship and estimated that passengers would die if not given refuge. RMI granted the refugees permission to land on Kwaj, where USAKA and Johnson Controls provided temporaty shelter, food, and medical assistance within the fence of the magazine compound. Other residents also provided aid before the Chinese nationals were flwon back to China after 20 days on Kwaj.

For the last year-and-a-half, Kwajalein has undergone numerous facelifts and much reconstruction. Most old housing has been scraped and repainted and the roofs repaired. In 400-series quarters on Pine Street and Lagoon Road, window air conditioners are being replaced with central air conditioning units.

The Community Center was completed in early '93, followed later by teh new mini-mall, which houses the Tape Escape, Surfside Beauty and Barber Shop, and the Continental Travel office. Construction of elementary school classrooms to replace those destroyed by Zelda was also completed at the end of '93. Still to be finished are the 402 and 404 housing replacements on Ocean Road, the post office, the building for religious education, the indoor racquet ball corts next to the CAC., and the new Macy's West.

Not only have the residents of Kwaj -- 2,881 as of March '94 -- seen the surface of Kwaj changed, they have also witnessed an overhaul of the water pipe system. Salt water pipes into commodes and outdoor faucets were replaced with reclaimed "blue water," making the task of watering plants easier and the chore of filling fish tanks more difficult. White wash loads, however, have never been so rust-free as they are since pipes were relined.

On Feb. 7, 1994, the USAKA community gathered to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the battles of Kwajalein and Roi-Namur and to pay tribute those who took part in the battles. Preparing for the event was a massive island effort, with school children pitching in to clean up the entire island while members of clubs and organizations put together floats for a parade and booths for food and memorablilia.

Most poignant and long-lasting, however, is the stained glass window in the Island Memorial Chapel, which was dedicated during the 50th Anniversary. Funded by donations from residents, the window was unveiled and dedicated to the soldiers who fought here.

"When the street lights went off, it was mission time." By Eugene C. Sims Kwajalein Historian

In my travels around the countryside gathering and verifying material for the book, Kwajalein Remembered, I talked to a lot of people about living on Kwajalein -- what they like, what they didn't like at all, and so on. I received a variety of comments but several people expressed their thoughts about the Kwajalein mission.

On Kwajalein, "mission" refers to the technical part of work before, during, and after a missile launch sequence (theirs or ours) or something that might be related thereto! The mission can be on Kwajalein, Roi-Namur, Meck, or just about any place in between.

Back in the days when we had no television, our entertainment sometimes included sitting out on the north sand spit about where the high school is now. This area was the best place to watch the incoming ICBM missile payload section from Vandenberg Air Force Base as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere. The payload was referred to as the "bird."

In pre-1996 days, the Army Zeus interceptor rocket would take off from Launch Hill down at the south end of Kwajalein. We always knew the approximate time of the Zeus firing becuase all the street lights on Kwaj went off. The display was a brilliant cataclysmic array of light unlike any Fourth of July celebration I have ever seen. Sometimes the display was bright enough to photograph and even get a colored film time exposure. We were not supposed to be outside our concrete houses, just in case something might fall out of the sky. The rule was never enfored, and you could always count on around 500 people out on the sand spit whenever a Vandenberg Special came down the pike.

We usually were not the only observers during a mission. We could generally count on at least one Russian spy ship, appropriately nicknamed Brand-X, cruising just off ocean side. It was always a source of interest to me how that ship would appear off-shore only during a mission. It was even more of a mystery how the people on that ship always knew long before we did that a mission had been scrubbed (cancelled) and would turn away and head for open sea.

I remember interviewing a lady in Los Angeles a couple of years ago who said how hard it was for her kids to understand about the mission after they moved to Kwajalein. Her grammer-school-age children, educated in California, were convinced the Franciscan friars had built another California-type mission someplace on island. Upon hearing about the mission from their school chums, the kids thought they were going to see another Spanish mission. As the kids grew up it was almost like the trauma of learning about the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. The mission eventually became a sort of family joke.

In the old days, all life on Kwaj revolved around the mission. The husband's, and sometimes the wife's work schedules were predicated in the time and place of the mission. Dad normally went to work in the morning, but sometimes he would go to the terminal to catch an airplane or helicopter at the oddest hours. When the kids would ask, "Where's Dad?" she would reply, "Oh, he is on the mission." One teacher at the George Seitz school told me she had her class of second graders draw pictures of what they like to do most on Kwajalein. One little girl drew a picture of a great big ship coming into Echo Pier. In the picture was her family waiting on the dock. You guessed it -- she had named the ship Mission.

In our house, the word mission got to be a big excuse for any kind of an out-of-the-way event. My son tried to use the term at school as an excuse for not turning in his homework -- the delay, you see, was due to the mission. I got a note from the teacher on that one.

Then there was the time we received a rash of early morning call-ins from employees who said they overslept because of the mission. Some of these absences were excusable, but when the cooks and bakers at the PDR and the buildings and grounds crews started to use this story, we knew things had gone too far!

Over the years, the mission on Kwajalein has continued to be the reason whey we were all on Kwaj in the first place. Missions have come and gone, some good and some not so good. We have missed our old friend Brand-X in recent years. While the political and military situations have changed considerably in the last couple of years, the mission still goes on at Kwajalein.

H I S T O R Y

BEFORE
WWII DURING
WWII 1944
BILL ILES 1944
CURTIS PARTCH 1947
ED SPILMAN 1950 - 1951
GENE WOOLIEVER 1951 -
1969 1970 -
1989 1990 -
1994 HISTORY
COMES ALIVE

H I S T O R Y
BEFORE WWII	DURING WWII	1944 BILL ILES	1944 CURTIS PARTCH	1947 ED SPILMAN	1950 - 1951 GENE WOOLIEVER	1951 - 1969	1970 - 1989	1990 - 1994	HISTORY COMES ALIVE