Coal miner's daughter finds her niche

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Imagine a job where you spend months in exotic, isolated and distant locations and can't talk much about what you do. That might sound like a CIA operative or an FBI agent, but no, try a signature measurement team engineer at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC). 

"My dad thinks I am some kind of top secret agent or something like that," said Cherise 'DeeDee' Dockrey, an Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) signature measurement team engineer. "He thinks it's neat that I have stuff I can't tell him I guess. He's kind of funny about that, but other than that, no one makes a big deal about it."
 
Dockrey, who has been working at Arnold's Advanced Missile Signature Center (AMSC) since 2002, says her parents provided an environment where learning was a priority. 

"My mom's a teacher and my dad - he's a coal miner, but he has a master's degree in guidance counseling, so education has always been important in my family," she said. "My older sister also has a master's from Columbia, and my younger sister has a teaching degree, so, it's all in the family, I guess."

Dockrey, who attended Murray State University in Kentucky, had a fairly good idea what direction she wanted to pursue before applying to the school's then newly accredited engineering physics program. 

"As far as physics is concerned, I've always found it interesting - I've always loved math and science," she acknowledged. "They had recently modified the engineering physics program at Murray. They had just gained engineering accreditation for the program, and they were trying to recruit people and giving scholarships, so I accepted the scholarship and it kind of went from there."

Dockrey and other members of the signature measurement team travel to places like the Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site in the Kwajalein atoll, located 2,100 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, or the Missile Range Facility off the island of Kauai in Hawaii. 

The team may spend weeks or months at these locations and use sophisticated sensors to collect and measure data of missile plumes. A plume is basically the exhaust exiting a missile during flight. She may work on acquiring data from something as sophisticated as a space-launched ballistic weapon or as simple as a shoulder-launched missile system. 

The long hours spent working together can test an individual's patience, but also lead to strong bonds and a shared sense of humor. 

However, it's not all work and no play. 

"When you're not working, you get to do things you wouldn't normally get to do, so I've been snorkeling in Kwajalein and been to different national parks," she said. 

Dockrey said she never imagined a place like AEDC existed and she would end up in such an interesting work environment. Her college professors, however, are not surprised that one of their better students found a place where she would be able to apply and hone her skills. 

"DeeDee was a strong student who performed very well in our curriculum," recalls Dr. Stephen Cobb, dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology
at Murray State University. "She was solid in her analytical and technical abilities, and from the beginning she showed the work ethic and persistence to be successful. Equally important was her ability to work well with others. She had a pleasant and cooperative personality that let her work well in groups. She communicated clearly and easily, and we take pride in preparing students to work well in a team environment as well as being individually competent." 

Rick Gamble, the ATA manager of the missile section at the AMSC, said from his perspective the engineering physics program at Murray State provides a solid blend of disciplines "ideally suited for our specialized work." 

He went to Murray state and Dockrey was one of the students he interviewed for positions at AEDC. 

"I had recently developed a list of somewhat unusual interview questions based on a reading assignment from the Jacobs Leadership Development Course," Gamble said. "She gave the impression of measured self-confidence and she appropriately answered my questions. She also seemed able to think on her feet - a quality we need in the office or when deployed to remote test ranges." 

Dockrey said some of the places the AMSC analysis team goes are not exactly tourist attractions - like the Tonapah Test Range. During the day, the place is very desolate, sparsely populated - not the most exciting location. However, after the sun goes down, it's another story. 

"It's awesome at night - the clear skies, you can see for miles," she said. "It's so dark out there - it's amazing to see that many stars and they're so bright." 

However, home is where her heart is and spending so much time on the road has helped her to appreciate time with family even more. She also enjoys a pastime she learned from her mother. 

"My mom was a cake decorator when she was in college," Dockrey said. "She helped to pay for college by cake decorating. So, all my life she's made all the birthday cakes - I just kind of watched her and enjoyed it, so now I do it on the side for fun, for birthdays and stuff."