I was going through some photographs of long ago on projects I had worked on as a young RF engineer at Airborne Instrument Laboratory (AIL). I purchased my first SLR camera (Minolta SR1) at ‘Macys’ on Kwajalein in the summer of 1961 and took many pictures, including this one.
There were two antennas associated with the Nike project a transmit antenna and a receiving antenna. The receiving antenna was a 80 diameter, half Luneburg Lens’ mounted on a ground plane. The transmit antenna was surrounded by a the tall fence visible behind the Luneburg Lens. There was also a small 8 foot diameter antenna on a Nike Hercules mount 
that I had to calibrate, use to monitor the output of a small antenna mounted on the wingtip of a DE Havilland Beaver. The wingtip antenna was built and tested by Walt Satre (sp) on the rooftop at AIL, 160 Old Country Road, Mineola, NY; cavity backed crossed di-poles, circularly polarized. The Beaver flew a spiral path 20 miles out spiraling up to 20K ft. This was to measure the gain and plot the antenna pattern of the receiving antenna.
that I had to calibrate, use to monitor the output of a small antenna mounted on the wingtip of a DE Havilland Beaver. The wingtip antenna was built and tested by Walt Satre (sp) on the rooftop at AIL, 160 Old Country Road, Mineola, NY; cavity backed crossed di-poles, circularly polarized. The Beaver flew a spiral path 20 miles out spiraling up to 20K ft. This was to measure the gain and plot the antenna pattern of the receiving antenna.The Luneburg Lens was built up using 3ft Styrofoam cubes impregnated with various amounts of aluminum shavings to affect the dielectric to conform with the Luneburg Lens specifications. Since there were no refrigerators in the BOQ rooms, rejected cubes were hollowed out as coolers. With ice from the O’Club the beer was kept quite cold during the weekend poker games. Work was 6 days a week 12 hrs a day. Transportation was by foot. T shirt, shorts and sneakers were the dress of the day, with a coat conveniently at hand if you had to go into the plenum area that housed the electronic equipment. The experience was memorable.
Getting to and from Kwaj was form Oakland airport on a Super Connie flown by World Airways. Overnight stopover in Honolulu then on Kwaj. Long flight with very long bridge games with the flight crew participating.
In Feb 1990, on the return from Okinawa because of the SR71 shutdown, I was able to revisit Kwaj accompanied by my wife. A friend, Al Anderson, previously on the SR71 project that worked for Control Data was living there with family on an extended assignment. I had my security clearance sent and he made the arrangements. Jan and I spent 5 days scuba diving with a PADI instructor friend of Al, and walking the island. We were able to watch an ICBM fired from Vandenberg reenter the atmosphere and plunge somewhere on the lagoon surrounded by Kwajalein Atoll.
Al arranged for a reporter for thr Kwaj news paper to interview me on the changes since 1961. The major change on Kwaj in 29 years was the presence of families living there. Children were everywhere. The receiving was still there, inoperable, with mostly boat storage and work shops underneath. Kwaj had very little tracking gear on it as it all has been moved to other islands in the Atoll. Brings back great memories!
Al arranged for a reporter for thr Kwaj news paper to interview me on the changes since 1961. The major change on Kwaj in 29 years was the presence of families living there. Children were everywhere. The receiving was still there, inoperable, with mostly boat storage and work shops underneath. Kwaj had very little tracking gear on it as it all has been moved to other islands in the Atoll. Brings back great memories!