Shift 4, F23, Colorado Springs, CO, Garden of the Gods, Shift 4 Shift 4 personnel, shown above, my shift, was the fasted production team ever recorded by Intel worldwide. Nightly production of more than 7.0 WIP turns is common for this team. There are approximately 5 personnel missing from the photo, including myself, Shermie Wiehe.  The photo was taken the last week of July 2007, during my vacation period. The Colorado Springs F23 plant stop production the spring of 2008 and closed.  Good luck to Shift-4 personnel in the future! Shermie, shermie88@yahoo.com  Shermie was not in this photo, was on vacation when this picture was taken

Shermie - You are one of the unsung heroes of Kwaj. My hat is off to you my good friend. You have a lot to be proud of. We both did I our duty and did it well. Chase Pollman YUP, you are indeed a Kwaj hero - mighty happy to know you and be your friend. Joseph Huard

Kwajalein Missile Range

KWAJALEIN MISSILE RANGE (KMR)  A little known island atoll 2500 miles SW of Hawaii in the Marshall Islands called Kwajalein, has probably been more responsible for our peace and survival than any other place in America or the world.  Here is where our enemies observed firsthand how accurate and potentially deadly our ballistic missiles and missile systems were, and are today or could be if we ever had to use them.  The Russians kept a spy ship we called, "Brand X," near Kwajalein monitoring our missile tests as we did and do to them with our own spy ships.  Ironically, I found myself five years later on a mission that I was a part of for a brief period serving aboard the Navy's brand new high tech spy ship on her maiden voyage in early 1982.  That ship has since been retired after millions of dollars of upgrade and many years of vital intelligence gathering service for our country.Today, in honor of President Reagan, KMR is called the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.From the Kwajalein Hourglass Newspaper dated November 21, 2020 U.S. successfully conducts SM-3 Block IIA Intercept Test against an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Target  FORT BELVOIR, Virginia The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy Sailors aboard the USS John Finn, an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System-equipped destroyer, intercepted and destroyed a threat-representative Intercontinental Ballistic Missile target with a Standard Missile-3 Block IIA missile during a flight test demonstration in the broad ocean area northeast of Hawaii, Nov. 16, 2020.At approximately 7:50 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time, (12:50 a.m., Nov. 17, Eastern Standard Time), the ICBM-representative target was launched from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, located on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, toward the broad ocean area northeast of Hawaii. In this developmental test, the destroyer used engage-on-remote capabilities through the Command and Control Battle Management Communications network as part of a defense of Hawaii scenario. After receiving tracking data from the C2BMC system, the destroyer launched a SM-3 Block IIA guided missile which destroyed the target. This was an incredible accomplishment and critical milestone for the Aegis BMD SM-3 Block IIA program, said MDA Director, Vice Adm. Jon Hill. A Tribute  Most of the people who were at the beginning of this extraordinary effort are dead and gone.  It should be for them that this incredible feat be commemorated including the great rocket man, Von Braun, and so many others who passed through the pages of Kwajalein Missile Range and Redstone Arsenal many of them spending a lifetime of work in achieving what was then considered the impossible a ballistic missile knocking out another ballistic missile.  They are the true unsung heroes of Kwajalein Missile Range and the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama where our missile systems were developed and tested.  I am proud to say that I was a small part of that effort for a brief period during my younger days in the beautiful South Pacific in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.  It has been said many times that there was more intelligence per square feet on Kwajalein than anywhere else in the world.  Thank God for that! Looking Back When I was on Kwajalein from 1975-1977, almost two years, everything was free game to pluck, to collect, buy, sell, and ship home at Uncle Sam's expense on US Air Force AIR MAC C-141 cargo planes via cheap SAM (Space Available Mail) flights almost halfway around the world.  I shipped many items home including Japanese glass balls and two gorgeous giant prized coconut crabs taxidermy by an expert Hawaiian specially boxed and crated for shipment.  I even shipped home a brass propeller I found buried in the sand in 25 feet of water that weighed over 250 pounds.  We dove for sharks jaws, all kinds of fish, coral, giant clams, coconut crabs, sea shells of all species, the coveted black coral in deep water and ship artifacts, anything you could take off many of the old sunken Japanese wrecks scattered around the harbor.  So much left that island and the surrounding atoll for so many years.  When I look back on those days, and what an awesome time I had, I realize how far we have come in 45 years that we do not even throw any kind of trash overboard anymore.  Now it is all off limits.  The good old days are truly gone forever and no doubt for the best. From the Kwajalein Hourglass Newspaper dated November 21, 2020  Protected species on Kwajalein Atoll include the following: All sharks, turtles and marine mammals - All corals and sponges - All giant clams - All coconut crabs - Finger Conchs - Scorpion Conchs - Black-lip pearl oysters - Trochus and Lambis Snails - Humphead Wrasse and Bumphead, Parrotfish, Giant Grouper and Coral Trout. Do not purchase, harvest, collect, or transport protected species. Contact the post office for direction before attempting to ship any biological specimen, including driftwood, crushed coral sand and shells.

Email Messages of Recognition to Shermie for the Kwajalein Community Website

Shermie at the Piano