Almost Paradise

Almost Paradise

© 2011 Ray Kania, All Rights Reserved

ISBN # 978-1-4659-4459-7

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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More ebooks by Ray Kania:

Edgar's Studebaker -- And Other Memorable Stories

GERONIMO LIVE! And Other Florida Stories

Kampuchea, Year Zero

Seniors' Corner: For a Better Life

* * * *

On February 13, 1987, I stood in the warm sun on a tiny, nearly deserted island, some 2,000 miles southwest of Honolulu. Next to the bed in my trailer were the remains of two damaged Peacekeeper MX (unarmed) nuclear warheads. And just hours later, two reinforcements arrived by chopper with the news that a Russian recon security team (Spetsnaz) was coming ashore that night.

This journal was kept from 1986-88 when the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse but their presence at Kwajalein was intense, requiring critical decisions at the highest level of our government.

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Index

Select any title in the list below and go directly to the story. Select the Index link at the end of any story to return to this list.

New Beginning

Kwajalein Island

Omelek

Brief History

Jobtak

Atolls

Gagan

Marie

Status Briefing

Patrol

Notes From Omelek

Gagan Again

Wooten's Wonder

Sharing

Down at the Pier

Bep Bep

Drug Bust?

Target Island

Stone Age Hunting

Gellinam

Island Lust

Battling Anthems

Mission Gone Awry

Carlos

Air Mike

Open House

Eniwetak, Ant Island

Legan

New Year

Legan Again

Soviets on the Move

Changing Times

Islanders and Money

Island Check

Armageddon-A Rehearsal

More Incoming

Deadly Force Authorized

Odds and Ends

Picking up Bodies

Giant Coconut Crabs

The Kili Bag

The Mayor of Ebeye

Corinth

July 4th

Junk Food Specialists

Physical Training

Port of Call

Tropical Storm Roy

Dock Security Checkpoint

Manhunt

Radioactive

The way Things are

Roi Namur

Attack of the Coconut Crab

Relics

Groans from the jungle

War Stories

Crab Nightlife

Updates

Ennubirr

Lagoon Beat

Last Mission

End of Paradise

About Ray Kania

* * * *

New Beginning

15 August 86: I became a little more apprehensive as the USAF C-141 Starlifter descended toward sea level somewhere in the Central Pacific. I managed to get a view out of one porthole on the aging aircraft.

Below us, the only objects that broke up the vast expanse of deep blue were tiny coral reefs dotted with lush green islands, like the jewels on a necklace. We would be landing on one of those islands within minutes.

Kwajalein Atoll, in the the Marshall Islands, was not my first choice for employment but jobs of any kind were scarce in Florida. I found this job by accident while reading a small filler in the Tampa Tribune reporting that the Republic of the Marshall Islands was looking for police officers. The pay was tax-free. I called the newspaper and found out the phone number of the company. That was in June. I sent in a resume but despite my lack of experience, less than two months later I was about to start work.

The previous three years I had a series of challenging, temporary but far from boring jobs. I have a P.I. license and once worked with three other investigators for a billionaire who also had the local sheriff working on the same project. It involved a lot of surveillance, photo work and a drug deal that caused a dust-up. The client pretty much made his own rules in this county.

Then I spent six months working for NASA at Kennedy Space Center with the security force, whose job was to protect the astronauts and the shuttle. On one early morning launch I cleared the pad from the top down, checking inside the shuttle, the transporter beneath it and offices below, just hours before the astronauts arrived for the launch.

In June of 1984, I answered an ad in a Central Florida newspaper for a bodyguard for two weeks in another country. I was chosen and received instructions by phone to meet the client at the east end of a mall at a certain time. He would pick me out.

We drove around in his car while he explained the job. He was a NASA engineer and mentioned something about a connection to an embassy in the target country.

My job would be to fly down to that country, go to a certain hotel outside the city and wait. He said that someone would contact me. He had people watching the farm. I won’t go into details but the job had nothing to do with body guarding. So I told him, No thanks.

Driving home from my interview, I heard on the radio that the CBS mini series SPACE would be filmed in Central Florida and a talent agency was looking for extras to provide atmosphere. I called the agency and dropped off my resume. Two days later I signed my S.A.G. agreement and appeared in scenes as an army colonel, an engineer and a flight surgeon. Food was catered by a firm from Las Vegas. One day I sat in the viewing section of the old launch control center on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, waiting to be called. All of the stars and extras were there. So we arranged our chairs in a circle and had an all day bull session.

A few months later I got a part in the movie D.A.R.Y.L., playing a parent in the stands at a baseball game. I also did precision driving for chase scenes. For that they closed down the Orlando EAST-WEST Expressway all night. Precision drivers keep a constant speed and distance between other vehicles so the stunt drivers can do their thing. At four in the morning, the caterers served breakfast, laying the food out on tables across two lanes of the expressway on a bridge overlooking the Orange Blossom Trail.

Somewhere in there I worked at a privatized youth prison (15 to 21 years) in South Florida for two months. I was the point guard for an undefeated staff basketball team and the only white in the league.

Some of the inmates were there for crimes such as assault, robbery and murder. In that period there were also around two dozen fights, five escapes, one attempted murder of an instructor, and two riots, needing assistance from the sheriff’s department.

I did some undercover work for a DOD contractor that also did business with NASA. I was hired by the board of directors for a large cooperation up north but I had to get the job myself using a pretext. I worked through an investigation agency and received a paycheck from both companies plus the DOD contractor gave me medical benefits. I never made contact with the agency but I used a key to drop off reports at a mailbox. I was continually on edge for three months, trying to keep from blowing my cover. During that time, I received a call to work in another movie, which I had to turn down.

That’s why I decided to try my luck outside the U.S. I needed some stability and I had that with a contract.

The plane touched down gently and seconds later the reverse thrusters kicked in, slowing us to a leisurely pace.

Thirty minutes later bright sunshine, swaying coconut palms and a clean ocean breeze greeted me when I stepped onto the tarmac. I could see the pounding surf a hundred yards away. The narcotic effect this had on me was immediate and most welcome. This might not be bad at all.

Return to Index

* * * *

Kwajalein Island

(22 August 86) We finished a week of training for police officers, received a tour of Kwajalein Island and a classified briefing. I’ll be on a chopper to an outer island in a couple of days for my first assignment. Since this is an international force, I was sworn in by our American chief of police and a judge from the Republic of the Marshall Islands. I’m now a Marshall Islands police officer.

The EC Corporation currently holds the police/security contract for the Kwajalein Missile Range (KMR) at Kwajalein Atoll. It just replaced Washington Patrol. Hiring and keeping good people is difficult, which makes for a high turnover rate for companies as well as personnel.

The force consists of 100 Americans and 24 Marshallese constables from Micronesia, which is made up of a number of island nations spread across the Central Pacific, administered by the United States as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

Kwajalein Island is the southernmost and largest island in a chain of 93 islands and islets that comprise Kwajalein Atoll, a coral reef enclosing the largest lagoon in the world, around 1,000 square miles. Shaped roughly like Florida, these islands do look like jewels just above the surface of the ocean. This is the harbor at Kwajalein Island on the lagoon side. Sailboats from the yacht club are to the right.

The United States Army at Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) is responsible for operations at the atoll. The army recently recruited a larger police force because the Marshallese, owners of this atoll, had a dispute about rent payments and civil rights issues with the U.S. Government and decided to occupy the ten islands involved in military testing.

This larger force utilized army landing craft (LCM) to remove the islanders, putting an end to the occupation just before I arrived. Our other jobs are to protect the ten active islands 24 hours a day against Russian (Soviet) infiltration for spying operations and to operate as police officers on the main island of Kwajalein.

USAKA, under the U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command, is responsible for the testing of offensive and defensive weapons systems. Under this command, Kwajalein will have a role in the testing of four strategic defense initiative Star Wars projects beginning in 1989.

Contract workers for companies such as RCA, GTE and Pan Am receive wages comparable to those on the mainland. But they pay no U.S. income tax, only Social Security and a small Marshallese tax. A month’s paid vacation and free transportation to the states are standard benefits, along with free medical care, housing and food. And plenty of recreation. The reason residents call this atoll Almost Paradise is because you do have to work. But no one seems to be complaining.

Kwajalein workers’ duties involve collecting data on the behavior of warheads, called RVs, that land on targets in the lagoon or on Illeginni Island, midway up the west reef. RVs stands for re-entry vehicles, not a Winnebago.

Cameras and other tracking equipment on Kwajalein, eight outer islands and the advanced radar complex on Roi Namur record this data. The primary missions during the past few years have involved reliability tests for intercontinental ballistic missiles that are already in service (Minuteman) and development tests for the MX Peacekeeper ICBM. Whenever a missile test is held, one or more intelligence gathering ships, including submarines, from the Soviet navy can be found off Kwajalein, trying to find an ideal spot from which to observe and listen. Any Soviet surface vessel in the vicinity is known as Brand X. Brand X is so well-known in the Marshall Islands that several sports teams in the capital of Majuro use the name. The ship is believed to carry the best in monitoring equipment, including a new sensitive ear that can pick up conversations on shore as it passes by several miles away.

They also have a satellite with a powerful camera in orbit over the atoll with the ability to capture objects as small as a car.

Roi Namur, which is about 60 miles north of Kwajalein Island, is the most important tracking site for missiles, satellites, and the upcoming SDI tests. This top secret installation has a permanent population of about 200. But early every morning, except Sunday, military planes carry scientists, technicians, and support people up from Kwajalein. And every afternoon the workers are flown back to Kwajalein.

On one side of the island there is an array of powerful tracking radar, including ALTAIR, known locally as America’s Radar. ALTAIR can track objects over 24,000 miles in space. This radar has a 150 foot dish that weighs more than 800,000 pounds and rotates on a circular rail that allows it to move to any tracking position in a matter of seconds. Everything orbiting earth, including a glove that was lost by an astronaut, is identified and recorded by ALTAIR personnel. Since Kwajalein Atoll lies in the most common launch corridor, the most ideal path for launching satellite payloads, ALTAIR has been charged with tracking Soviet and Chinese launches. This is the reason why Roi Namur will be one of the first targets to be hit if the Soviets decide to launch a nuclear strike against the United States. It could come from Brand X, which carries a contingent of Russian spetsnaz troops. They are the equivalent to our navy seals. And of course, the Marshall Islands police force is the front line of defense for the atoll as one supervisor informed me. I could be wrong but I don’t think the bookies in Vegas would even take that bet. It’s something I will keep in mind.

ALTAIR has been used for more than just military research, though. A number of other scientific projects have been carried out here, including measurements to determine the dimensions of the endangered ozone level. For these reasons the U.S. has no plans to leave Roi Namur, even though we promised to give