Keeping the ‘birds’ ready Working underground in a missile silo in Alaska that’s critical to U.S. defense As told to Ashley Johnson Tommy Walker Jr. is an on-site engineer in Fort Greely, Alaska, with Global Services & Support, part of Defense, Space & Security. In this Frontiers series that profiles employees and their jobs, Walker describes what it’s like to support the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, designed to detect, track, intercept and destroy long-range ballistic missile threats against the United States. Frontiers November 2014 11 WHAT WE DO My work environment isn’t like most at Boeing. Instead of being in an office or a factory, I’m usually working up to 80 feet (24 meters) underground in a missile silo or silo interface vault—the adjacent room. I’m part of a small team that performs corrective and preventive maintenance on the equipment that makes up the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system. I maintain the missile and controls (including missile testing), the racks that control the missile and its launch functions, and the environmental controls and their systems, such as heating, cooling and humidity. Our customer is the U.S. Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency, and we have been the system’s prime contractor since 2001. When I joined Boeing three years ago, my family and I moved from sunny Florida to Alaska. Imagine going from the beach to snow and winters that can reach 60 below zero (-51 Celsius). The cold wasn’t even the worst part of winter—it was the extended hours of darkness. You leave for work when the sun is down, eat lunch when the sun is down, and come home with the sun still down. But my team helped me get acclimated to the weather as well as the work. Not only was I new to Boeing, but I’d never performed this type of work. I knew I had to maintain intense focus and pay careful attention to the details fellow technicians and engineers were showing me. I really enjoyed being trained on the system and learning how it operates. Now I can troubleshoot and correct issues without direction from other engineers. The silos and silo interface vaults are underground, so I spend a good portion of my workday below the surface of the earth wearing a body harness for fall protection and any other personal protective equipment that the job requires. Being down there for five or six hours at a time took some getting used to; now it’s just a normal day for me climbing down the ladder and doing my job. One of my favorite parts is working in the silo using our elevated work cage system. Working in the silo requires a high degree of training and dedication to safety. You’re working right alongside an interceptor while standing in a cage suspended by a cable. It’s an eerie but exciting feeling. You can literally reach out and touch the “bird,” or missile, while you travel to the bottom or wherever your task is directed. With the excitement comes the understanding that you must focus on the task at hand because there isn’t any room for error. We’re maintaining mission-critical equipment, and that gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I may not be in the military, but I’m still helping defend freedom. n ashley.s.johnson@boeing.com PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Frontiers November 2014 Issue
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