(12 March 88) I finally decided to spend some time at Roi Namur before returning home to the sunshine state. The word is that you got sent to Roi if you did something wrong but I volunteered.
The small, twin-engined Army transport descended toward the reef as it lined up with the runway on Roi. We came in along the east-west reef, the northern most point of the atoll. I could see the deep blue of the ocean about five hundred yards north of the island. The drop from the edge of the coral reef is dramatic here, nearly three and a half miles down to the ocean floor. Click images to enlarge.
Some of the officers mentioned that the weather’s cooler on Roi. There’s much more vegetation here and fewer buildings so that may be the reason. It’s also quiet. Stepping off the plane I felt as if I were visiting some quaint resort in the Caribbean. This is, if my first impression is correct, the kind of place where I can relax for the last six months of my contract.
Roi Namur Island is slightly smaller than Kwajalein Island and has a more rounded shape. Originally three islands on the northeast corner of the atoll, Roi is the result of a fill project started by the Japanese and later completed by the Americans.The United States decided to utilize Roi as a missile tracking site and in 1960 the Marshallese inhabitants were removed to Ennubirr Island and to Ebeye Island. Ennubirr is called Third Island by the Americans since it’s the third island south of Roi-Namur.
Dyess Airfield is on the Roi side of the merged island. Housing for workers, the dining hall and support services, including recreation, are here. The nine-hole golf course, I’m told, is often backed up with players waiting their turn. Namur has all of the tracking radars and some dense jungle areas. On the lagoon side of Namur is Yokahama Pier, used as a submarine port in the 1940s by the Japanese. There is also the Roi Yacht Club, with a small storage shed as the clubhouse. You can find it by the painting of someone’s girlfriend? on the door.
There was another island, or islet, in between Roi and Namur, according to one source, but I could not find a name for it.
After a light meal at the dining hall, I took a brief walk around Roi. The paved road that circles the island is lined with coconut palms. A large part of Roi consists of the golf course which, like the one at Kwaj, is next to the runway on one side and ordnance bunkers on the other. Huge oak? trees dot the course and the island’s fringes while brilliant-colored flowers blossoming from bushes appear like large bouquets adorning a green carpet.
On the Pacific side, less than a half mile west of the dining hall, are the island’s rocket launch facilities. The rockets are approximately twenty-five feet long and are used in testing various defense programs. Each rocket has a sensor which contains ” millions of tiny detector cells.” The sensor is part of Designating Optical Tracker (DOT) experiments at the atoll, which the Army began testing in 1978.
Launched into the outer edge of the endoatmosphere, this sensor tracks missiles and warheads launched from Vandenberg and other locations. This high tech sensor is being developed to track, identify and relay information on enemy warheads instantly to a ground station (Meck) which would then launch missiles on an intercept course. I was told that 28,000,000 lines of programming are used to track and intercept one warhead.
HAV-JEEP, which the Army briefer declined to elaborate on during my first week at Kwaj, is no doubt a continuation of this program – a preliminary to the SDI testing slated to begin as soon as funds are allocated.
At this time all launches from Roi have been canceled due to an accident that occurred a few weeks ago. Prior to a launch all workers on Roi are instructed to enter a concrete shelter next to the housing area. The shelter is open on both ends and does not provide adequate protection in case of a direct hit.
Down the street, only a quarter mile from the launch pad, is the launch control building, an ordinary concrete block structure. According to my source, a second after the rocket lifted off, it began to loop around like a balloon losing air rapidly. At one point it took aim on the launch control center, creating a great deal of concern (panic) among the people inside.
The rocket finally crashed on the beach, nearly hitting three fishermen who weren’t supposed to be there in the first place.
2200 – The recreation center is midway between the dining hall and our quarters. This is a large wood frame building painted white with a high peaked galvanized roof , a building right out of a WWII John Wayne movie.
I watched a movie on the closed circuit television under the huge veranda out back. Sofas, chairs and dining tables fill the wooden floor. High overhead ceiling fans keep the air circulating. A snack bar insures that TV watchers are well-supplied. No trips to the refrigerator here. No commercials either. The Roi police department is in charge of programming with an ever changing stock of movies from the states.
Just inside the back door is the Outrigger, a cozy little bar where some of the two hundred permanent workers go to drink away their loneliness. There are no women here other than those who commute to work each day from Kwaj. And Roi Namur is a lonely place. Also one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.
Filed under: Almost Paradise Volume 3
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