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Published: November 26th 2017
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Marshall Islands - Nov. 2017
Overnight stop over in Hawaii. Early morning flight to Marshall Islands. Sunrise over Diamond Head. My two years working at the American Consulate in Guangzhou, China is complete. I am off to new adventures at a new location. I am now working at the US Army Missile Test Range on the island of Kwajalein in The Republic of the Marshall Islands. My living arrangements on Kwajalein compared to Guangzhou has been greatly reduced. I have a small kitchenette, living room, bedroom and bath. The total square footage I now have is about the size of the living room that I had. But all is good! Contact me at k1frei@yahoo.com Fantastic meals are provided at the cafeteria, and there is a Subway and Burger King available for those times one wishes to have an alternate meal.
My new job title is Custodial Lead. It keeps me very busy 5+ days a week. Inspecting cleaning done by the local Marshall Island work force, training and supervising. My biggest challenge at this time is to remember all the employee names I have the honor of working with. The names are slowly starting to sink in! My present responsibility is insuring 106 hotel rooms in two buildings are ready for occupancy on a daily basics.
There are certain
Marshall Islands - Nov. 2017
We had a 45min. stop over at the Marshall Islands capital of Majuro on the way to Kwajalein. areas and facilities on the island that we are requested not to take photos of and post on line. However, I will get what photos i can to show what the island is like in all its best forms.
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Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, commonly referred to as the
Reagan Test Site (formerly
Kwajalein Missile Range), is a
missile test range in
Marshall Islands (
Pacific Ocean). It covers about 750,000 square miles (1,900,000 km2) and includes rocket launch sites at the
Kwajalein Atoll (on multiple islands),
Wake Island, and
Aur Atoll. It primarily functions as a test facility for
U.S. missile defense and space research programs. The Reagan Test Site is under the command of the US Army Kwajalein Atoll, or USAKA
The facility is part of the Defense Major Range and Test Facility Base. They provide range instrumentation, missile launch facilities, mission control center, range safety, meteorological support, and support space operations. The site hosts a suite of unique instrumentation, located on eight islands throughout the Kwajalein Atoll. This instrumentation includes a comprehensive suite of precision metric and signature radars, optical sensors, telemetry receiving stations, and impact scoring assets. RTS provides both mobile and fixed
ground and flight safety instrumentation. The Pentagon lease for the islands of the Kwajalein Atoll extends through 2066.
Equipment installed at the test site includes various tracking
radars, stationary and mobile
telemetry, optical recording equipment and a secure
fiberoptic data network via the
HANTRU-1 undersea cable. The Reagan Test Site also serves as a tracking station for
manned space flight and
NASA research projects.
Launch activities at the test site include
ballistic missile tests,
ABM interception tests,
meteorological sounding rockets, and a commercial
spaceport for
SpaceX at
Omelek Island.
After working on Kwajalein for two years and eight months, my time here is done. I started working as a Custodial Lead in Nov. 2017 for Chugach. In Feb. 2018 the contract changed with IAP taking over. Although my title stayed the same as Custodial Lead, my pay went up a bit and I was the acting Custodial Supervisor. In Sept. 2018 the contract changed again to DynCorp taking over. No pay raise for me with the new company, however my official title changed to Maintenance Control Specialist and I still worked as the acting Custodial Supervisor. My hours also increased as more projects were assigned for custodial to take care of. In March
Marshall Islands - Kwajalein - Nov. 2017
Looking toward the ocean at sun rise from the front door of my apartment. 2019 a Custodial Supervisor was hired. I had to instruct her in all the in's and out's of supervising on Kwaj! My titles stayed the same and my hours increased to the point that I was working between 80 to 90 + hours per week. In July 2020 my job on Kwajalein came to an end. In the two years and eight months working on Kwaj, I actual worked about four years worth of hours if counted on a 40 hour work week.
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Mat
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Great blog Karl. I can see you put quite a bit of effort into these. I hope you have a great time!