Typical Day on Roi
Day in the Life
If you’ve been checking out this web-site for a while or even a first time visitor you may be saying, “OK we’ve read all about your many exciting experiences in a highly entertaining format but tell me what day to day life is like on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific.” Well today I will walk you through what it is like to live on Roi-Namur. My first caveat is that Roi-Namur is not your typical south sea island that you may have fantasized about. It might look a little like that in places but the presense of several radar antennas, an airport, and various buildings does not solicit images of living on a beach and talking to a volleyball. But that aside I will walk you through what life is like on this island.
My day would start with my CD alarm going off around 5:30. I originally had a radio alarm but quickly replaced it because the only radio show on the Armed Forces Network at that time was some talk show host who sounded like he was drunk and retarded. I could not stand the sound of the man’s voice. After waking up more or less I’d ride my bike down to the chow hall for a quick breakfast. The chow hall served a variety of typical American breakfast food skillfully prepared by Marshallese, American, and Filipino workers. If you wanted to eat fruit at all that day you had to eat it for breakfast, the only time fresh fruit was served. So you usually could have any kind of eggs cooked to order, pancakes, waffles, cereal, bacon, sausage, and ham or perhaps yogurt.
Once breakfast was over (and I had to eat mine quickly as I had to be at the radar site at 6 to run calibrations daily), it was time for the morning commute. In my case, I commuted by bicycle though there was also an island bus if it was raining or if a person did not choose to ride a bike that day. Most of the year, I’d guess about 9 or 10 months, there is a prevailing wind and that coupled with the path of the road gave me the feeling I was tacking as in a sailboat. First there was a struggle going into the wind then I would round the end of the runway and I’d have the wind to my back and I’d scream down the road past the ruins of Japanese Army buildings left over from the war. About half way to the airport terminal there was a short cut I could take between buildings and down a path then back onto a road headed with the wind off my starboard bow about 45 degrees. Reaching the Tradex building I would put my bike into the wind to stop it (my breaks were rusted so that they no longer functioned) and my bike would come to a halt. I would drape my rusted lock around my bike making it look like it was locked so no one would steal it then I would walk inside to my office. My first task of the day was to head into the main control room and run calibrations on the radar. This would take maybe 15 minutes if I remember right (and I doubt that I do). For the non-engineers who are reading this I will keep my work day simple by saying I fooled around on the computer, surfed the net, and talked story with the nice cleaning ladies who would help me with my Marshallese language training by patiently attempting to teach me a new word and smiling broadly when I said it almost right or laughing when I failed to trill my Rs. There were some old circuits left over from the 60s (I’m not exagerating) that I replaced with modern electronics using COTS ladder logic. Most circuit replacement had to be done on the few times a year (maybe one month) where the sensor I was working on was down for maintenance. This made it so I had a pretty stress free work schedule unless something was broken in which case it needed to be immediately repaired on pain of death. Once and a while my work required me to climb to the electronics box mounted near the top of the antenna. The shortest of the 4 radar antennas on Roi was about 5 miles about the surface of the earth. On days when I needed to climb up there I would need to start right after the cals and might arrive at the top sometime after lunch. Actually, it might not have been 5 miles high, maybe only 20 or 30 feet but it took that long to climb because it would take several minutes to pry my white knuckles loose from each ladder rung in order to climb to the next one. Once at the top there was a metal bridge with a simple chain to keep me from plunging to a near certain death. Once at the top, and with the aid of an oxygen tank to help me breath in the thin atmosphere I would perform my maintenance or examine electronics to know what needed to be done with my design.
On days when I wasn’t risking my life and limb to climb up the sensor I would enjoy lunch in the chow hall. They tried to give us a varied assortment of skillfully prepared gourmet delights for lunch. For instance, one day we might have hamburgers, the next, hot dogs, and the third day grilled cheese. It wasn’t quite that bad, they would usually have a choice between a hot dish, or you could have a sandwich made up to order, and there was a salad bar as well(but no fruit after breakfast). I never figured out the prohibition on fruit after breakfast but I am assuming it is some sort of Army regulation because it made absolutely no sense. The best part of lunch was that it was a time to chat with your buddies and other folks who worked there as you sat around the tables. The tables were long and had maybe 12 chairs around each one in typical cafeteria fashion. They often had a special table set aside for dignataries. One handicap that cafeteria had was that all the food had to be flown in from the states. Although the waters around Roi abounded with fresh fish the fish served in the cafeteria was all flown in from the states. I could imagine a fish being caught off Majuro (capital of the Marshall Islands), being frozen and sent to California only to be re-packaged and sent back to Roi. One would hope the fish picked up some frequent flyer miles for it’s fry.
After lunch it would be time for another bike ride back to work. Somehow it always seemed like the wind was blowing against me no matter which direction I rode. My afternoon labors was more of the same, fooling around on the computer, surfing the net and talking story some more with the cleaning ladies. If the cleaning ladies were busy I could talk story with EriC, Geoff, or one of the other guys working with me. Around 4ish my labors were complete so I’d head home and change into my exercise apparel. Speaking of apparel work casual on Roi meant a T-shirt or Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and sandles (or shoes if you were doing any real work). The baggers would sometimes dress more formally such as wearing a polo shirt instead of a t-shirt. The only people who ever actually wore long pants were those people who were actually doing real work as opposed to fooling around on a computer. So once I had my exercise gear on I’d go to the gym and work out. The gym on Roi was pretty good all things considered. It had a variety of machines and also free weights. The one draw back was that the room temperture was sub-zero. When I exercise I like to work up a sweat but it is hard to do when brownian motion comes to a halt. Another exercise option that I sometimes indulged in was to swim laps in the salt water swimming pool. The water was warm and appeared clean. It made for a real pleasant swim.
After working up an appetite I could go to the chow hall again and enjoy another skillfully prepared meal. To maintain some variety if they served grilled cheese for breakfast, and hamburgers for lunch, then they would give your taste buds a cheerful change by serving hot dogs for supper. Once again, it wasn’t quite that bad but you may be getting the picture that life on Roi was pretty much an unchanging routine.
For my evening’s entertainment I would often ride down to my beach area. I had adopted a beach (see earlier blog) and would head down to it after supper with my ukelele and sit in my hammock and strum a few chords or maybe wade out to the water some. I would often stare across the water at 3rd island and wonder what was going on there. Other times I would think of my family so many thousands of miles away from me, those were the loneliest moments. It would often be dark by the time I was done there and sometimes navigated my way home by the feel of the road (I could feel it when I got off the asphalt) or else with the limited light from the runway lights. In my studio apartment I could watch TV or practice my guitar for an upcoming concert. Then I’d read my book, go to sleep and start my day again the next day.
Technorati Tags: radar, Marshall Islands, Kwajalein, Roi, Roi-Namur, Micronesia, travel
8 Responses to “Typical Day on Roi”
 Comment by Hung November 2nd, 2007 at 8:12 am |
Glenn: Thanks for another good reading! |
 Comment by Richard Jones November 6th, 2007 at 8:57 am |
Not so different from life here really, except there is more choice. However, I am guessing you till follow pretty much the same routine everyday… we are, afterall, creatures of habit. Good story!!! |
 Comment by Jim Blake February 9th, 2009 at 1:51 pm |
Sounds like the exercise gym is now air conditioned. I rather enjoyed it when it was just open, although all the equipment was rusty. I even closed off the A/C into my room in the barracks as it was always too cold. We wore cover-alls most of the time in the SPADATS control room to stay warm as the electronics needed the cooling. |
 Comment by Marvin Johnson June 16th, 2009 at 6:57 pm |
I ‘m an old Rio Rat that spent time there from late 1973 until mid 1975 working for GTE Sylvania when they were manning ALTAIR. From you desciption os a typical day, not much has really changed. Even the mess hall offering sounds the same except Wednesdays ere always T-bone steak steak dinner days. And I remmeber the loneliness quite well. It seem to the most isolated place in the world. The families on Kwaj would invite us there all the time and that help ease it up more than many of them ever knew. |
 Comment by David J. Schneider November 12th, 2009 at 10:41 pm |
One thing that I remember when we were riding to work and back we would have to watch out for the cocnuts falling from the trees. At times having to wait for the baggers fly in. Uggh. At that time it was later in the moring. |
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Comment by Hung March 15th, 2010 at 10:54 am |
Hello Glenn: |
 Comment by Kurt Kuechenberg April 25th, 2010 at 5:11 pm |
I remember wiht great fondness those days on Roi, I too climbed the mighty Altair antenna, Tradex and MMW as well. Good memories all. I have heard that it is now a coed island, when i was there there were no ladies present, just on Fridays when the bank of Hawaii would show up with their tellers. I actually worked at the radio station KVZI when i was there I did a show called The ROI RAT ROCK and ROLL Show. Always tried to speak some Russian for Brand X hanging off shore, hope the russkies appreciated it. Keep up the good work and aloha. |
 Comment by Glenn April 27th, 2010 at 1:28 pm |
Yes the SCUBA shack is still there or was when I left in 2004. There were some ladies on the island when I left but were greatly outnumbered by the guys, roughly 12 to 1 would be my guess. |
