Miss juju The Naughty LuvBug is Owned By...'s blog: "My lil island, Kwajalein"

A resident demonstrating the "Kwaj" bars. Don't know how they got popular but they are comfortable to ride. Bikes are essentially it on the island. No car dealers ya know. The everpresent rust is a rampant epidemic on all bikes. Bikes go from new, to average, to old in about 14 minutes plus or minus. Epidemic! Nearly no bikes have multiple gears. No hills... no need.

In Memory of Father Leonard Hacker Father Hacker dedicated 50 years of his life as a Jesuit priest. Hacker 89, died May 31, 2003, while living at Jesuit nursing home at Fordham University, NY. He was a builder, an educator, a translator... and a musician," said Father William Sullivan, S.J. A memorial service is tentatively set at Ebeye's Queen of Peace church, June 30. In 1952 propeller planes brought Hacker to Majuro and cargo boats arriving no sooner than every six months was the rule. Hacker's connection with the Pacific started 11 years before he landed on Majuro when, as a young seminarian, he was assigned to the Philippines. Conditions in the Manila turned ugly when Hacker, along with other Americans, was imprisoned by the Japanese when the U.S. entered World War II. From 1952 to 1978 Father Hacker built schools, church, rectory and convent and the same institutions on Ebeye from 1978 to 1992. Father Hacker idea of keeping the kids off the street was to simply teach them a musical instrument and have them march in a band, which is no small thing, refer to Father Hacker's school band picture, taken at one of the Kwaj Carnivals in the late 70's. After the Ebeye memorial, Hacker's ashes will travel to Majuro for a July 3 memorial ceremony at the Assumption Cathedral which he built. The plan is to inter the ashes in the cathedral in some kind of protected view area. Your footprints will remain on the sands of time in the Marshall Islands for an eternity ......oooO............... .....(....)................ ......)../....Oooo..... .....(_/.....(...)........ ..............(_/......... ........................... ......oooO............... .....(....)................ ......)../....Oooo..... .....(_/.....(....)....... ...............)../........ ..............(_/......... ........................... ......oooO............... .....(....)................ ......)../....Oooo..... .....(_/.....(....)....... ...............)../........ ..............(_/......... ........................... ... I WAS ............. .......... HERE ...... ..Leaving my ....... Footprints in your ..............SAND'

Kwajalein schools are highly academic, with strong emphasis on basic skills at the secondary school. School is in session for 180 days a year from mid-August to early June. George Seitz Elementary School serves children from kindergarten through the sixth grade. Kwajalein Junior/Senior High School serves students from Grades 7 through 12. Both schools are fully accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Photo of ClassroomTextbooks and most instructional supplies are furnished by the schools. Foreign language instruction and algebra begin in the seventh grade. Counseling service is available at both schools. Students have the opportunity to become involved in a comprehensive community athletic program, as well as a school intramural program. A full program of music instruction, both choral and instrumental, is also offered. Students generally furnish their own musical instruments, although some are available through the schools. Private music lessons can be arranged. Kwajalein students consistently outperform the Department of Defense and stateside norms on the ITBS, SAT, CEEP, and other tests. Kwajalein high school has had many National Merit Scholarship finalists. Kwaj graduates have received National Merit Scholarships, and the school consistently produces Presidential Scholars. High school graduates between the ages of 18 and 21 may be authorized to reside on island upon approval of a written request from their parents to the commanding officer. Dependents in this category must find full-time employment to remain on island. They are not eligible to remain on dependent status beyond their 21st birthday. Home-Schooling Some Kwaj families choose to home-school their children. Once a notice of intent has been submitted by the parents and received by the school principal, the Kwajalein school district will provide parents with a copy of reporting progress requirements. With permission students may participate at the school in subjects such as music, band, art, physical education, and computers, and may use library resources. Educational materials for home-schooling can be found in catalogs. At stateside conventions, and on the Internet. Adult Education A limited selection of fully accredited extension courses for undergraduate programs is offered by the University of Maryland. A community/adult education program offers a variety of noncredit courses, distance learning programs, and Continuing Education Unit courses. A combination preschool and full day-care facility, Kwajalein Atoll Preschool (KAPS) operates for children 21/2 to 6 years of age who are toilet trained and emotionally, physically, and socially able to attend preschool. The program, which charges a fee based on income level, offers morning and afternoon classes. The School Age Services (SAS) program at the elementary school is available for parents who need before- and after-school care for children enrolled in kindergarten through sixth grade. A trained and experienced staff plans and implements developmentally appropriate activities and experiences for all programs. Certified family child-care (FCC) providers may be available to care for infants and toddlers in their homes full-time or part-time. All child-care services are monitored by the Child Development Services director and must be in compliance with Department of the Army child-care requirements.

"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.

Kwajalein Marshall Islands My lil Island and this is Meee! http://www.youtube.com/jujubeer