Naval Air Systems Command honored Kimberly Brown, public affairs officer at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, with the 2025 Supervisor of the Year Award for Point Mugu on Jan. 21.
Brown was selected from 206 nominations submitted across NAVAIR commands. She represents Point Mugu as one of 12 site-level supervisors honored for their fairness, authenticity, and leadership that helps others succeed.
The Navy’s newest test ship, the Mobile Ship Target, arrived in Port Hueneme Jan. 14, where Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division teams will prepare it for operations supporting advanced weapons testing.
Gunderson Marine built and launched the 260-foot Mobile Ship Target, known as MST-2 and designated MST 2301, in Portland, Oregon, in July 2025 for builder’s sea trials before delivering it to the Navy.
Mark Hilde gave China Lake two weeks.
It was June 1985, and the temperature topped 110 degrees when he arrived in Ridgecrest. His first day brought another surprise: no desk, no office, and no one who remembered an intern was coming. After traveling halfway across the country from North Dakota for a government job he never really wanted, Hilde decided to give the Naval Weapons Center two weeks to prove itself.
That was 40 years ago.
When contractors quoted mechanical engineer Vincent Malpaya $2,500 per unit to manufacture a switch matrix for rocket testing, he needed ten of them. Instead of waiting months and paying tens of thousands of dollars, he built the part himself in Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Innovation Lab for 20 cents per unit. The savings helped keep the project on track and supported the fleet’s test schedule.
For Malpaya and many others, solving problems fast is part of the job. The Innovation Lab gives them the tools and space to do it.
In combat over the Red Sea, an "ancient weapon" that most junior aviators had never heard of struck its targets with precision.
For Dan Carreño, who had delivered those missiles to the fleet years earlier, the strike was proof of what his 35 years at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division were always about: giving warfighters what they need, when they need it.
Carreño grew up in Tampa, spending weekends hauling furniture for his grandparents’ moving company.
James McMechan counted polar bear points before he counted missile hits
Growing up in Ames, Iowa, the future electronics engineer camped with his father through brutal Midwestern winters. Tents pitched on frozen ground. Thermometers plunging below zero. Boy Scout patches earned for enduring 100 nights of subfreezing cold. A young McMechan accumulated more than 200 polar bear points.
He kept score then, and he's been keeping score for Navy pilots in the world's largest video game, as he describes it, for nearly 40 years.
“Enjoy your work and, most importantly, be proud of it.”
Solid advice from Richard Perrine, who says serving the warfighter at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division for 35 years has been his greatest accomplishment.
In addition to his work at NAWCWD, he served in the Navy Reserve from 1994-2004.
As the son of a civil servant, Perrine grew up in the small Navy town outside the gates of China Lake, aware from an early age of the importance of the work done at NAWCWD.
Debra Zamarron, a self-proclaimed "people person" with a ready smile and a knack for remembering names, will retire in February 2026, wrapping up a remarkable 45-year career at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division.
Zamarron is a native China Laker; her father was in the Navy and most of her childhood was spent between China Lake and Miramar. She recalls exploring the base, a thrilling adventure made possible by a family friend with access to the gates. "It was a blast," she remembers fondly.
A sophisticated missile is useless without the maintenance manual that shows how to service it, the spare parts to keep it operational, and the trained personnel who know how to load it onto an aircraft.
For 45 years, Mary Feldman has worked behind the scenes serving the Navy first in uniform and now as a civilian, ensuring the fleet receives essential logistics support to back up its weapons.
Worcester, Massachusetts, 1974
The glasses slipped down 9-year-old Russell Gordon's nose.
"Since fourth grade, I knew I would never be an aviator," Gordon recalled. "But I did have a shot at being a naval flight officer."
Naval flight officers operate weapons systems, sensors and electronic warfare equipment from the cockpit. They don't fly the aircraft, but they direct the tactical operations.
