Node(s) disappearing

I have a missile and am attempting to place smoke_node0 node on it. The missile exports fine but it loses the node. I've tried other node names, in hopes that I was simply using an obsolette node naming. To make my node i made an empty group and renamed it and placed in position...(this is correct?). I move it to place, then put it under the start01 node in the hypergraph hierarchy. Then i hit the "Export" button.

What am I doing wrong or simply NOT doing. I've looked through Danny's documentation and i am doing everything from the docs.

Any and all help is appreciated,
thanks