Missile range's chief settles in on Kaua'i

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

MANA, Kaua'i — The new commander of the Pacific Missile Range Facility sees a brief tour in the position, but an active one.

Capt. Donald Wilson is slated for retirement in December.

He helped improve those ties Monday night when he announced that the 7 1/2 miles of beaches fronting the base will be reopened to the public shortly, for the first time since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Initially, the beaches will be open to people who have undergone police checks and acquired identification cards, and only from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends and federal holidays.

"I would expect that during my tenure, the weekend-federal holiday thing will expand to seven days a week. And we'll probably extend the hours," he said.

Wilson was raised in Honolulu in a military family and has spent most of his life living in the Islands.

He served as an enlisted submariner during his regular Navy service in the late 1960s, and then joined the Navy Reserve.

With degrees in political science and international relations from the University of Hawai'i, he worked in the Honolulu office of the U.S. Secret Service, and later on the staff of the Navy's commander in chief of the Pacific.

After last year's terrorism attacks, he was recalled to active duty, and on May 25 was ordered to report as commanding officer at the Pacific Missile Range Facility.

He replaces Capt. Brian Moss, who retired May 24.

Wilson said he will be neither a caretaker during his short term, nor will he make major changes — at least not without the concurrence of naval superiors in Honolulu.

"My vision is the Navy's vision and the nation's vision," he said.

The range conducts fleet training exercises, for which its vast system of undersea microphones is crucial.

"We can control up to a million square miles of ocean," he said. The biennial RIMPAC multination training exercises this month will include operations on the range.