After arriving at Kwajalein, I was in a helicopter where I was flown to a very remote island Carlo (Ennylabegan) and my telemetry work site (1/4 mile wide by 3/4 mile long) for 2 years repairing, maintaining and operating high-tech equipment.  I made frequent trips to another atoll island called Gagan telemetry work site (45 minute helicopter trip each way).  Flying and/or water transportation to work was a way of life for the most part of the 23 years worked at Kwajalein maintaining equipment at worksites on the atoll islands named Meck, Gagan, Legan, Omelek, Enewetok, Gellinam and Illeginni.  I provided maintenance, repair and operation support for the Range Instrumentation departments,  Optic Sensors, RADOT, Super RADOT, Mission Control, etc. throughout Kwajalein, each allowing me to learn more equipment and repairing it to component level. 

My technical expertise excelled along with receiving more than 40 technical training schools under my belt.  Among all that, I'm a licensed piano tuner/technician and was contracted to tune all the government pianos along with tuning about 80 privately owned pianos at Kwajalein.  I also rebuilt a few pianos that were completely out of commission.  I loved entertaining for dances and parties along with working my many bands I had over the years.  I have even sit for USO shows because the band members left the show.  I provided many years of service for the community fixing TVs, stereos, video cameras, VCRs, music equipment, the church organs, microwave ovens, projectors, walkmans, etc., including being a Sony Hawaii and Matsushita as a representative them for the Marshall Islands. I also repaired medical equipment and X-ray equipment that was used for treating the Marshallese people.  There was never a dull minute and it seems I'm just as busy in the states.

During one of my trips of entertainment, my band, Shermie & Friends, performed in Pohnpei, Eastern Caroline Islands, 1977.  There I met my island girl Matea, who I married a year later.  She had three children (Andreas, Catherine & Sontrigo) that I adopted and raised.  About a year after our marriage, I moved back to Kansas City in 1978 where the 4th child Raymond who was born at Bethany Hospital, where I was born.  I worked for Storage Technology as a Field Engineer servicing all their data equipment city wide.  I loved that job but after two years, a view moonlighting jobs with my old company taking to other locations in the US and then I decided to go back overseas.  There I stayed for the next time around, 12 years.  I gave piano lessons to my kids, was little league baseball coach for years, attended all my kids games and loved to dance.  I was a busy family man but seem to get a lot of work done through the years.  I also played on many softball teams through the years.  I return to Kansas City in 1992 with my family for 5 months and the company hired me back to take a position at the ALTAIR Radar site, Roi-Namur, Kwajalein, Marshall Islands, not even getting to unpack my shipment that returned from the islands, over 6 thousand miles away.  The 6,000 lbs of shipment was turned around and returned to Kwajalein without my household goods leaving the crates.  I worked at ALTAIR radar for 6 years performing maintenance and repair on the network servers, the system mainframes, workstations, PCs, and many interfaces at the Radar site (America's #1 and most powerful radar in the world).  In 1997, I left Kwajalein after divorce proceedings, I moved on working for Raytheon plants in the Boston, MA area.  There I work supporting IT tasks and training.  After 2 years working in IT, I moved to Technical Writing Department where I spent some times back with my Kwaj friends at MIT/Lincoln Labs at Kwajalein.  In year 2000, I left Raytheon and worked for 2nd Century Communications as a Sales Engineer with responsibilities of installing and maintaining networks, hubs, switches, etc.  Seven months later, the IT market plunged and the company shutdown not being able to keep up with market changes.  I then applied and was hired by Intel in Hudson, MA working at Fab 17 in the semi-conductor industry working in  metrology section as an engineer.  I worked 7 months at the D2 plant in Silicon Valley, Santa Clara, CA in year 2000 in preparation for working at the the Hudson Intel F17 facility from October 2000 to December 2005.  I was fortunate to make some really good friends while living in Clinton, MA. while living in Clinton, MA, about 13 mile commute to work.  In 2005 I had the opportunity to transfer to the Colorado Springs Intel Fab 23 and I took it working there until 2009 closing the facility.  The operation there was moved to China.

During my 7 years in MA, I enjoyed performing weekly at the Old Timer in Clinton, MA and living in my home there from 1997 to 2005.  I had a great band in MA called "End of the Line".  After 23 years of working overseas, I love and enjoy stateside living, music, making friends, relaxing, gardening, and cooking.  I also enjoy keeping spending my spare time learning music and updating my website, Shermie at the Piano.  I also provide website expertise for other friends and interest, such at the 1970 WHS class website link, Washington High School - Class 1970.
 

I worked for Intel at the Fab 23 plant in Colorado Springs, CO from December 2005 until April 2008 in the Robotics field (operations and maintenance).  I worked at the plant until it closed February 2008 and selected to work there to close the plant in April 2009 and I selected to stay in Colorado Springs while searching for another job.  I pasted all the tests to work with GE in the wheel powered systems but a week before I was to see my supervisor to do the climbing test, I was called by Union Pacific Railroad to interview that weekend on a Sunday in North Platte, NE.  They paid my way up and back to North Platte, interviewed on Sunday and was hired that evening.  I had 30 days to make the move.  I enjoyed playing piano and singing at weekly at the Golden Bee at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, but now it was time to make a move to a new location of work. I moved to North Platte, NE to work as an electrician for the Union Pacific Railroad starting December 2008, working for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), IBEW Local 120. I have special friends in my life that I would like to mention in closing: Jerry Brewer (deceased) and Red Wilson, both interviewers who worked at Kwajalein Missile Range for Kentron International, LTD. who hired me in August of 1972.  My best friend, Paul Ackerman, who worked for Kentron at Kwajalein who is now still my buddy & a successful business owner; William Patton (Kentron Hawaii/DynCorp supervisor/manager, retired); Tom White (Raytheon supervisor & manager); Glen Eicher (deceased - Storage Technology Manager); the Carlos Island gang; Ed Hamblin, best musician friend (Nashville Grammy Winner performing at the banjo); Elika Kaiwi, my Hawaiian buddy, friend and musician; my Marshallese and Hawaiian band members and friends from 1972-97; my MIT/LL friends and Kwaj associates from 23 Kwaj years of service and many others.

Intel Fab 23 Pikes Peak in the background

I attended the 10, 20, 30, 40 and the 51 year Washington High School Reunions.  I hope to acquire more contacts in the future with WHS class members,