MSR Supervisory Electrical Engineer
Guestbook Entry
From Joseph Hullender, 1 Nov 2006: I was the supervisory electrical engineer for the MSR at Nekoma and remember lots about it. There was a time I had total recall, but at age 76 I have lost some. The system was developed on Kwajalein in the Pacific. I also was there when the first DCCB was started, but it was canceled when the program was approved for 10 sites. The DCCB (Defense Center Control Bldg.) had 4 faces as the MSR did; we refered to this as Missile Site Radar. The site built on Meck Island is the same as PAR site--it did the intercept then passed this info on to DCCB. But as I said, it was never finished. I was back on Kwajalein in 73 and the building had been closed in and was in use as a warehouse. Your info about the water system is in error: there was a water system. I think the small towns and villages along its route are now using it. It is 60 miles long from the area near Fordville, has 10 wells and 3 relay reservoirs, and it also splits and feeds the PAR site. It is buried 8 ft deep due to frost and intrusion. The cathodic protection you list is in error. The covering bars on the power plant are 16 ft on center N-S and E-W, and the ground rods are 70 ft long; had to be to get the proper readings. Everything in the building was shock isolated to withstand a direct hit and still operate. There was a 7 million gallon heat sink near the power plant to cool the engines of the units. The power plant was 17 megawatts, with the heat sink underground also. There were various tunnels from key positions also connecting several of the parts. One other point: the grounding was for NEMP (Nuclear Electro Magnetic Pulse) as well as other things, and every pipe that came to the building was so protected. As far as I am concered, this was a great system and was proved a working system. Thank God we never had to use it, only for practice over Kwajalein, and the displays were superb. We always had a front row seat on the beach to watch the intecept. As for the personnel they were from everywhere, and I had the honor of working with them later on other projects around the world. Here are a few of the people at the MSR that I remember (of course a lot of them are now gone):
| John Lillibridge | Mil, COL | Area engineer | |
| John Blake | Civ | Area engineer | |
| Paul Donaldson | Civ | Chief of security | |
| H V Draa | Civ | Project engineer, MSR | |
| Louie Deal | Civ | Project engineer, water line and housing | |
| Andy Anderson | Civ | MSR | |
| George Selby | Civ | MSR | |
| Owen Selby | Civ | MSR, Housing | |
| John Campbell | Civ | MSR | |
| Dave Collins | Civ | Safeguard | |
| John Thompson | Civ | Safeguard | |
| Jack Ainsworth | Civ | Safeguard | |
| Vernon Davis | Mil, LTC | Safeguard | |
| Conrad Ballweg | Mil, LT | MSR | |
| Amos Norby | Civ | MSR | |
| Jim Sewell | Civ | MSR | |
| Vernon Baufman | Civ | MSR | |
| Terry Brown | Civ | MSR |