Ignacio Hernandez, left, is pictured with his son Andres, center, and his wife Maricela, right. Hernandez will be retiring from WSMR at the end of the month. (Photo by Vanessa Flores)

Ignacio Hernandez looks back on 35 years at WSMR

Ignacio Hernandez, who will be retiring at the end of the month after working 35 years at White Sands Missile Range, was recognized during the quarterly honors and retirement ceremony July 16 at the Post Theater.

Hernandez, who most recently worked with Range Operations Met Support Branch, started his career at WSMR working at the Materiel Test Directorate in 1989, where he spent 10 years.

After that he was the test conductor for several test programs such as the Delta Clipper and the Sentinel. Hernandez said he was hired by Mario Correa, who retired as the Director of Information Systems Operations at WSMR in 2005.

Born in Juarez, Mexico, Hernandez attended school at the University of Texas in El Paso, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

He also took programming classes to get into programming and went to work for Range Operations. After that he went to work for the Real Time Group, where he stayed until he took another slot. Followed by a slot in Data Reduction before ending up at the Real Time Group again, where he became lead controller with programs such as GMLRS and ATACMS. He also got to go to test in Kodiak, Alaska.

In 2021 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He received radiation treatment and by 2022 he was in remission. During that time, he took a job with the Met Branch because it was a better fit for him during this difficult time.

Through it all Hernandez and his wife Maricela have been advocates for his son Andres, 32, who has Down Syndrome, and is an award-winning paralympic competitive swimmer.

“He has taken us all over the world,” Hernandez said of Andres.

Andres started swimming when he was 7 years old with Special Olympics. As he grew up, he started getting better and began competing. At one point he was selected to go compete in Italy as part of the Mexican Special Olympics team. Followed by competitions in Morelia, Michuacan, Mexico, then to Florence, Italy and Canada.

With the Paralympics team he competed in Australia. Hernandez said Andres was recently invited to compete at the paralympic games in France.

Unfortunately, due to Hernandez’ health condition Andres has not been able to train so they decided to hold off on the trip. Hernandez said that because there is no funding for Paralympic athletes, he and his wife have funded all the trips they have made with Andres.

Hernandez said he is currently working to bring the Paralympics competition to El Paso in a joint event with Mexico.

Hernandez said Andres loves to sing and dance. He was recently selected to participate in “Viva El Paso” and was also part of Ballet Folklorico of El Paso for many years and even got to participate in an event at Disney World in Florida.

Hernandez’ oldest son, Daniel Ignacio Hernandez, is a medical doctor and lives in London, England, and his daughter, Adriana Hernandez, a pathologist, is getting married soon and will be moving to Florida. Hernandez also has two grandchildren who live with his son and his wife in London.

His wife, Maricela, got a degree in business but after her son Andres was born, she went back to school and got a certificate as a Special Ed teacher.

“I feel very happy, and I am very proud of Ignacio because I can truly say that he always came home from work happy,” Maricela said. “In these 35 years he never complained about work. He would come home very happy.”

She said Hernandez would tell her that he would always pray to God on his way to work and on his way back home. He would say that God is with him, and he knew everything was going to be o.k.

“I am so happy to see that he has accomplished what he wanted to do and that he is satisfied with his accomplishments and that God allowed him to do so much,” Maricela said.

She said Hernandez has been a great example for his children by doing what he loves to do.

“That is the life God wants you to have and you should give it your all, even if you stumble along the way,” Maricela said. “If you are happy doing what you do and you are in the place you want to be you can be a light to others. That was also a lesson for me.”

Maricela said she is so thankful to everyone at White Sands Missile Range because all his co-workers loved working with her husband.

Next for Hernandez, is to start his own business where he will sell computers and drones. His plan is to capture events such as the Special Olympics via video and show them in a place where family and parents can watch in a comfortable environment.

He also plans to travel with his family and spend time with his grandkids in London.

He said the memories he will take away from WSMR include working around very good people.

“I have enjoyed working with every person that I have dealt with here at WSMR.”

Hernandez said that working with his son and recognizing is abilities has helped him deal with people at work.

“It is the same way I view people at White Sands, as a supervisor you need to recognize each individual’s ability.”

Sometimes life presents you difficulties that you must learn how to maneuver.

His advice to the workforce is to take advantage of the opportunities that come up and not be afraid of being or doing something different.

“It is great to think that you can do whatever you want. If you think you can do something you can, and my son is a great example of that.”

He said living with someone with Down syndrome is a learning experience every day.

He said his son has a great sense of humor and is hardly ever upset.

“I believe I have an angel in my first child, who we lost, and Andres is my guardian angel.”

Miriam Rodriguez

WSMR Public Affairs