Lockheed celebrates 1,000th PAC-3

 Published Camden News 9-15-2010 

By DONNA COLLINS Staff Writer    

   It took 10 years for Lockheed Martin to manufacture and deliver 1,000 PAC-3 missiles. It will take only four more years to make the next 1,000.
   Company officials, military representatives, workers and community members celebrated the milestone Tuesday at Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control Camden Operations in Highland Industrial Park. The crowd was greeted with a video history of U.S. military air defense artillery.
   Lockheed’s director of PAC-3 programs, Richard Daniel, summed up the historical span of the video images as "from bullets to self-guided missiles." Daniel praised "the tireless contributions" of Lockheed workers and said worker expertise and dedication to the product is proven in customer satisfaction.
   Glenn David Woods, site director of Camden Operations, also welcomed the crowd.
Members of the Camden Fairview Naval Reserve Training Corps’ Color Guard made the Presentation of Colors.  The National Anthem was sung by Shanna Dorey, wife of employee Derek Marlar.
   Dorey’s performance was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and then Woods asked for a moment of silence to honor active war fighters.  Michael Trotsky, vice president, air and missile defense systems, said the PAC-3 program faced skepticism before each step in its development and growth. Trotsky said production teams often heard "it can’t be done," as the program progressed. "This team has done everything they said couldn’t be done. Every time. That is an amazing feat," Trotsky said.
   He continued to praise workers saying "the world wants our product because of our reputation. And that reputation doesn’t come easy."
   Brig. Gen. Roger F. Mathews, commandant of the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School at Fort Sill, Okla., also addressed the crowd. Mathews told workers that the jobs they do every day contributes to "worldwide peace." He said the PAC-3 program’s proven success is valuable especially "to a war fighter commander."
   Before the conclusion of the event, the crowd was shown two minutes of video footage of a PAC-3 missile in action that was filmed in March 2003 in Iraq.