Stan East passed away Saturday January 24, 2009 in Alamogordo NM. He was born June 2, 1945 at Pasedena, CA to Stanley and Ellen East who both precede him in death. He moved to Otero County on October 1, 1981 from Helena, Montana. He had served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. He earned a Master's degree in Education from New Mexico State University. Stan married Sandy Steckler on July 27, 1968 at Helena, Montana.

For the past 28 years Stan's career was devoted to the development and testing of High Energy Laser Weapon Systems located at the Army's High Enery Laser System Test Facility at White Sands, New Mexico. In 1980, Senior Chief Petty Officer East was transferred to the Navy's White Sands Directed Energy Weapons Detachment and was assigned the responsibilty of technical liaison to Hughes Aircraft Company,  Hughes was developing a megawatt class High Enery Laser Beam Director for the Navy. Following his retirement from the Navy in 1985, he joined the Hughes engineering team responsible for directing the Navy's megawatt class Mid Infrared Advanced Hemical Laser to targets of interest. His most recent empolyment was with the Army's HELSTF Directorate; he was the Principal Project Engineer in charge of overseeing the testing of a mobile laser weapon system. During his HELSTF career, he witnessed the laser weapon destruction of in-flight drone aircraft, cruise missiles, rockets, and mortars.

Stan is survived by his wife Sandy, a son, two daughters, 6 grandchildren, 4 sisters. He was preceded in death by a grandaughter.