Page 209 - MY STORY

At the same time, our aircraft brethren across the street

had their own compact RADAR range in a different
location which we could use, but their schedule at this
time was exceptionally busy, the hourly cost was high,

and we had trouble booking time that allowed us to meet
our own needs. Also, we had some serious concerns over
the data accuracy from that range for our “target” sizes

and measurement sensitivities. So, we dutifully prepared
a list of equipment and materials required to bring our
own range online.

This list of capital expenditure requirements was

submitted to our management for approval, which was
promptly rejected since the cost exceeded $1,500,000 and
their response was to use the range of our aircraft folk
unless we could not get our measurements made in a

timely manner. We tried several different arguments and
business rationale to convince management this was a

badly needed capability within the missile company
(which it really was) to no avail. This is where the shining
innovation of our crew came into play.

We knew we would never get approval to buy, with
capital funds, all the necessary equipment, and material to

construct an operational range for our targets that could