"If you don't bring it with you, you won't find it here", should be the motto of every little Marshall Islands atoll, low-lying Micronesian coral reefs spread like sea shells in a galaxy of South Pacific. Well, not actually "south" South Pacific, the Marshall Islands are more near-equator, half-way between Hawaii and Borneo, both in their geographic location, and in their geo-political mindset.
Immediately after WWII, the USArmy began establishing bases in the Marshall Islands, known more famously perhaps for the nuclear testing program at Bikini Atoll. Kwajalein Atoll became the eyes and ears of the military in the Australian hemisphere, currently the most highly developed installation of it's kind in the world. The two huge antennaes nick - named "Altair" and "Tradex" , rotate and gimbel on circular rails, tracking near - earth orbit objects with millimeter precision.
As a result, Kwajalein has become the splash-down and intercept launch site for the THAAD missile program, a current spin-off of Reagan-era Star Wars "Bright Pebbles" strategic planning. Every so often, the TV crawler announces a launch from Vandenberg AFB in CA, and the civilian employees walk from their homes for the free light-show, standing in the dark at North Point, looking out over the native worker bedroom community of Ebeye, a few miles to the north, until the incoming ICBM warheads streak across the sky to thump into the waters of the lagoon.
Kwajalein currently houses about 1,500 civilian employees, under USAKA domain, working in two separate entities, KLS and IRE, KLS being the logistic support group, and IRE being the missile group. Raytheon and Boeing are the two main contractors, with Boeing likely to win the next five year base support contract as the THAAD program ramps up. Other contractors come and go. The Army presence is very subdued, entirely administrative, but there is a "bit" of beaurocracy.
Expatriate tax-status, the jobs are low - paying by Stateside, but the percs many people consider more than make up for it. There are, for example, no expenses of eny kind, all housing, utilities and transportation are included. (For single-status, even the food is free!)
There is no commute, in fact, there are no cars, everyone uses bicycles to get around. And for recreation, there's an endless bonanza, swimming pools, reef snorkeling, low - cost boat and dive rental, golf, bowling, large playing fields, tennis, handball courts, a complete wood and ceramic shop, and library.
Every weekend, free first-run movie play at the Richardson outdoor theatre, it's quite a sight all the bicycles with their flash lights like fireflies between the lanes of palm trees in the moonlight.
Kwajalein is located in the Central Pacific Ocean, about 2,500 miles west of Hawaii and 1,500 miles east of Guam - See Map - The island is home to USAKA (United States Army Kwajalein Atoll), Kwajale in Missile Range, and over 2,500 military and civilian support personnel. The author Robert Marmaduke works with agencies nationwide to provide professional services through technical contract-employee leasing. He is continually involved in short- and long-term projects in professional engineering, computer programming & multimedia design. He has a profile resume website -
Most people who arrive in Kwajalein either get right back on the plane, or end up staying for two or three years, some people have worked here for forty years, if you can imagine! The family housing is better than the married trailers which are better than the single barracks, and for kids it's "da kin", Kwajalein is a return to the 50's, to Tom Sawyer days, no crime, no hectic pace, pure play.
So how do you get here? Well, people being the way people are, sooner or later they decide that civilization has more benefits overall than near-paradise, and PCS. So jobs constantly become available, and once on Kwajalein, spouses can find good paying "on-island" support jobs also. Submit a resume tailored for independent initiative, team-playing and technical problem-solving to HR at Raytheon Range Systems Group, MA, or Boeing Theatre Missile Defense Program, WA.
