Sgt. Daniel Morales (left) and Pfc. Wayne Murray, Huachuca Platoon, 518th Signal Company, 504th Signal Battalion, work on a connection outside the Fort Huachuca MARS Station.
Thom Williams
Posted on 07/17/2006 8:00:44 PM PDT by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz. (Army News Service, July 17, 2006) – Mention the MARS Station to retired service members and they’ll probably tell you about how they were able to talk with loved ones back in the United States while serving overseas through this system of phone patches, high-frequency radios and volunteer radio operators.
The U.S. Army Military Affiliated Radio System is still going strong with morale and welfare phone-patching and MARS messages. Today, it’s also a critically important backup emergency-communications system.
“MARS has evolved into emergency-communications support not just for the Army, but for other government agencies, as well,” said Kathy Harrison, chief of the Army MARS, which is part of the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command/9th Army Signal Command at Fort Huachuca.
The Army MARS system operates 24-7, and participates in the National Communications Systems Shared Resources High Frequency Radio Program, a system designed to bring together federal, state and private-industry HF resources so emergency messages can be passed when normal communications channels are destroyed or unavailable.
Government agencies involved in the program include the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
During Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Fort Huachuca MARS Station relayed messages that could not be passed in the affected area because the communications infrastructure was destroyed.
“We’d call in a rescue mission to the Coast Guard, and they would then dispatch the helicopters in New Orleans and rescue people,” said Grant Hays, contract project manager and eastern area MARS coordinator.
Along with voice traffic, MARS can pass large files with bulk information, such as patient or supply lists, via computers.
MARS is made up of 2,500 member stations in the continental United States. Only 270 are military stations; the rest are civilian-volunteer stations. MARS relies almost exclusively on volunteer operators who donate time and buy their own equipment to make the system work.
“We have volunteers who have invested hundreds of thousand of dollars in communications gear,” Hays said. “One volunteer has his own trailer and participates in the Grecian Firebolt signal exercise as a MARS player.”
Equipment and antennas at the Fort Huachuca MARS Station also serve as training aids for 11th Signal Brigade Soldiers.
“We help Soldiers here at Fort Huachuca when it comes to knowing about HF communications and antennas,” he said. “All our antennae work here is done by a team on post, and they get a lot of training just by using these towers to climb and repair the antennas.”
The NETCOM/9th ASC manages two gateways for HF radio traffic into and out of the continental United States. Fort Huachuca takes care of the Western U.S. and Pacific connectivity, and Fort Dietrick, Md., houses the Eastern gateway into the U.S.
The U.S. Army Signal Corps founded MARS in November 1925 under the name “Army Amateur Radio System.” It was shut down during World War II because of security concerns and later reemerged as Army MARS.
Hays predicts a bright future for MARS.
“I see a pretty good picture because of our involvement with emergency communications, and we can provide a service to both government agencies and non government agencies, he said.
For more information on MARS visit www.netcom.army.mil/mars/default.htm.
(Editor’s note: Thom Williams writes for the Scout at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.)
Thom Williams
Care to talk to MARS?
It was about all there was a few decades ago. I tried a couple times from Pacific outposts and never worked my wasy up to the head of the line. Glad our guys and gals have better comms home during deployments now. Snail mail always meant stale cookies and dated letters (but I loved them) and read them a couple dozen times.
Hurricane Katrina proved that MARS is still necessary, because it was ham radio operators that got most of the information out of the affected areas right after the hurricane. Most other communications were wiped out.
CB radios also played a vital role in spreading vital info after Katrina.
TNX SandRat, de N5SDO
Thanks SR
Brings back memorys
"AFB6YPX this is AIA3TA with phone patch traffic....."
ping to the Ham listkeeper.
The shack was that of K7UGA--Barry Goldwater--and he had a group of about a dozen operators who rotated in and operated. One of them was a guy I worked with at the time.
Helluva setup.
Actually, his MARS call was AF7UGA.
Thanks my friend. Back in the day it was the only reasonable way to get a message home. The MARS station was so busy (Yongsan South Korea) that you had to schedule an appointment and pray like heck you were off duty in time to make that appointment.
Again thanks for the happy memories.
John
is the United States the only country that makes word sounding acronyms?
I called my girl from Nam-OVER
Back when I was in the Army, I was our unit's MARS operator. My call sign was AEM1HKE. I did the MARS thing for Schwaebisch Gmuend, (West) Germany, and it was a lot of fun.
However, I always found it a bit ironic that the stateside recipient station for all European traffic had the callsign WAR.
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