Keeping the connection

Across thousands of miles of ocean, a two-person IT team brings reliable internet to remote Salvation Army communities.

For as long as The Salvation Army has been present in the Micronesian region, one challenge has remained: connectivity.

“They’ve been on the outs of having good internet access forever,” said Salvation Army Western Territorial Information Technology Director David Brown.

For an organization committed to serving remote communities, not having reliable internet to coordinate ministry, communicate needs and access the resources needed to meet them was a problem the territorial Information Technology department sought to solve.

This year, a two-man team traveled across the Pacific to install Starlink terminals at facilities in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Guam and Saipan.

The nearly three-week-long excursion was years in the making.

Courtesy Randy Haan and Mike Wong

The IT department first successfully piloted the use of Starlink in 2022 at several remote locations in Alaska. Following, the goal for getting sites in Micronesia properly online came into focus.

After getting the green light from territorial leadership, Territorial IT Infrastructure Director Randy Haan and Territorial Systems Manager Mike Wong began preparing.

They first sent a unit to Majuro, Marshall Islands, in early 2025, and a visitor from divisional headquarters installed the device. 

The territorial team supported the final steps from afar, which resulted in Marshall Islands Coordinator Lt. Colonel Leopoldo Posadas being able to connect his laptop to the internet.

“Then we began planning for the entire trip,” Haan said. “The preparation alone took months, and the final configuration, I think we spent two full weeks or about 140 man-hours to get everything ready and tested.”

In June 2026, Haan and Wong set out on the multiweek journey to install the Starlink terminals, beginning with the Majuro, Arno, Jaluit and Kwajalein atolls, before continuing to Pohnpei, Chuuk, Guam and Saipan.

“We had to prepare for everything,” Haan said. “It's like you're going to Mars, and once you leave, there's no turning back, so you better pack it all.” 

In the end, Haan checked 11 large bags full of technical equipment and anything else the team could need.

“I had to get some ropes and make a train,” he said of the luggage setup. 

Getting from one site to the next presented its own set of logistical issues. 

“Traveling in the Pacific Islands is challenging because flights don't fly every day,” Wong said. “And in some places, we had to travel by boat, and the boats don't travel every day, or you have to arrange it.” 

On one leg of the trip, the pair traveled about 60 miles by boat across open ocean to reach an outer island. Elsewhere, they rode in the back of a pickup truck over rough roads to reach the install sites. 

Courtesy Randy Haan and Mike Wong

What started as a trip for eight installations ended up being 16 to ensure the remote Salvation Army locations were better integrated with the rest of the West—and the world. The team tailored each installation to the site’s infrastructure. 

Some buildings had tin roofs, while others ran on generators. Each installation involved climbing roofs to mount the Starlink terminals, running the necessary cables down into the building, and configuring the equipment to get the sites online. At each site, they walked local staff through the process, including how to connect and disconnect the terminals.

At some locations, accommodations and meals weren't readily available, but they made it work. Sometimes they slept on the floor of a chapel, other times they ate ramen, granola bars and Spam. Sometimes, the locals would catch fresh lobster for them. 

The experience gave the pair a firsthand look at the connectivity challenges they faced from afar.

“When I was there in 2007, the telecommunications and internet were not great. Fast forward almost 20 years, and it still was not that great,” Wong said, adding that for some locations, a lot of communication didn’t happen unless personnel took a boat. 

“Giving them the opportunity to communicate better was, for me, the best part of being a part of that,” he said. 

Courtesy Randy Haan and Mike Wong

Shortly after the pair traveled home, a typhoon hit Guam. In preparation, some locations removed the detachable Starlink terminals from the roofs to prevent damage or loss. 

“We didn’t see them come back online for a week and a half,” Haan said. 

But when they did, Brown heard from a corps officer thanking them for installing Starlink. 

“They said, ‘The last time there was a big typhoon, we didn’t know whether some of our officers were even alive for days,’” Brown said. “Now they knew right away what was going on…That’s a big shift.” 

As Marshall Islands Coordinator, Posadas said the enhanced connectivity is positively impacting leaders serving in remote communities, keeping the mission moving forward.

“In a region separated by thousands of miles of ocean,” Posadas said, “Starlink helps ensure that no corps has to minister alone.” 

Vivian Lopez is a contributing writer for The New Frontier.