Air Force Member Operators Stories
Robert Gromer James Geisinger Ken Gordon Bob Preston
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KB6RG (WA7NMJ) USAF MARS
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AFB7NMJ Not too long after I had achieved my General Class license, I was invited to operate Southeast Asia Phone-patch traffic at the Barry Goldwater, K7UGA, Station (AF7UGA). My duty days were Saturdays, in the mornings from 0700 Pacific until band-closing, usually around noon. On occasions, however, the band would be open as late as 1600 hours (Pacific), making it a very long day. There were always a line of "fly-boys" waiting to talk to wives, mothers or other family members -- no matter how late the band was open. It was gratifying to be able to help the guys/gals (there weren't many gals over there during that fiasco) spend a few minutes in communication with their loved ones. I especially enjoyed those who were expressing their love for family and country, instead of ranting about conditions in any area/s. My special feelings were for Senator Barry Goldwater, who occasionally came into the 'shack' to work "Station-B" while I was at "Station-A." His occasional routine was to converse with (then) King Hussein of Jordan (the only licensed Ham in his own country). The normal day involved getting one telephone operator who would be on our lines full-time, lining up calls, three at a time, so we could go from one to another with no gaps -- or so it tried to happen. Telephone operators would change shifts on us about every four hours, or so. Each Christmas Day, one of which fell on my watch, Senator Goldwater paid for ALL collect calls to the families, for the entire day. You cannot imagine the tears of joy that this little act of kindness brought. It was not a small act, when it came to the total cost of the gift. |
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K3QQN USAF MARS
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AA3QQN I was a civilian operator in MARS Army at home and at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. I was individually licensed in Air Force MARS and worked many of the stations in Thailand and Vietnam from the station at Bergstrom AFB, TX. I was out of the military for 3 years and joined the Navy. I worked the stations on the Nimitz, Eisenhower, Forrestal, and several other ships, as well as from home here in Virginia Beach. I joined Army MARS to participate with some of my friends who were involved the summer I graduated from High School in Aberdeen. I was a Army member at least 4 years and worked the nets above 75 and 40 meters from home and the 14 and 20mhz nets at the base. I was enlisted in the Air Force in February 1969 and joined their operations after Tech School at Keesler AFB, MS. I was involved with the hurricane Camille operation in Aug 1969 there as a ham club member and got the Air Force Commendation Medal. I was shipped out to Bergstrom after tech school and was very active on the nightly phone patch nets on 14,17, 18, and 20mhz running phone patches for the guys in SE Asia. I worked virtually all of the AF Thai based and Vietnam based stations on a regular basis until I was sent to Iran 11 months later having completed my advanced Microwave Radio Relay Tech training and combat school. While overseas I helped to maintain the KWM-2 at the MAC terminal in Tehran and traveled to Dahran, Saudi Arabia, where I was able to talk to my mother from their station. I was again active in a limited way at Shaw AFB, SC primarily from my mobile during the last 6 months I was there. As I recall there was no military stations there. And, I bought a cheap HF rig to play with as I could only use it from my car. In 1976 I joined the Navy. The war was over, and I signed on to finish my military career. I joined Navy MARS and was active after I moved to the East Coast and while recovering from surgery at Bethesda. My real contribution came during several cruises on different carriers. On the way home from the Indian Ocean I operated the station aboard USS Nimitz for a total of over 2500 phone patches for the men who carried out the Iran Hostage Rescue. I had no job aboard as I was moved from the Eisenhower when they relieved the Nimitz. I was assigned to HM14 Squadron. We gave most of our aircraft and some of our personnel to the team that did the raid. We were supposed to do overland SAR to support operations in Iran. I truly enriched my military experience and helped me through the long at sea periods by allowing me something to do with my spare time that was fulfilling of my interests in radio and allowed regular contact with the outside world. My life would never have been the same with out the experiences I had in MARS and amateur radio. It is a truly worldwide fraternity. |
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W7WKB USAF MARS
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AF7EKB I first joined Army MARS at the request of my "Elmer", Woody Davey, W7CJB/A7CJB. I wanted to handle traffic. I learned a lot about proper military radio procedure, but, probably because at that time there was not much military activity going on, and also because I had no real experience at traffic handling, there was none forthcoming. I also became very involved with high school and other family activities, and thus soon dropped out of Army MARS. A year or two later, I joined Air Force MARS, which was quite active. Shortly thereafter, I got VERY heavily involved in traffic handling first, on CW in the amateur bands, then within AFMARS. Later (and I am really fuzzy on the dates) both I and Bob Preston AF7DPG built two stations at our homes about 2 miles apart specifically to run phone patches into SEA. Vietnam, and Thailand were our primary connections, although we also did some into Greenland, among others. Bob and I ran many, many patches. In fact, it got to the point that we would dial "0" for th operator, tell her that we wanted to run patches, and the supervisor would put an operator on a separate board for us to run the patches with for as long as conditions held in. Bob later counted up HIS patches, and quit counting at somewhere around 10,000. My score was at least equal to his. In fact, I got a commendation from General Creighton Abrams for my work, which I still have. The Vietnam ops pushed it through for me!! I was quite surprised to find it in the mail one day. I don't know how much room I have to write here, so I better stop now, but I have a lot more anecdotes and stories to tell about the work. I most thoroughly enjoyed the phone patching and wish there was some way to do that today. As I said above, I have MANY other stories to tell about Bob and my phone patching work, but would need a lot more room. One incident I will always remember was what happened one Christmas: band conditions on the AFMARS frequencies we used above the 20 meter band opened up to Vietnam unusually early on Christmas eve. I fired up and made contact with one of the Vietnam MARS stations. It may have been AI6AIJ, but I now don't remember for sure. Soon there were a number of stations lined up. I called the local telephone operator and got an operator and board lined up and started patching. Very surprisingly to us, the band conditions held in all the rest of that day, all night long, all Christmas day, and into the day after Christmas. Bob and I took turns, catching an hour or two of sleep as we could, when we could. We ran continuously the entire time, one every three minutes, except for short breaks. The telephone company changed operators as needed and never left us until band ! conditions faded out. There is more to this little story, but I think I better stop now. |
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Bob Preston W7DPG USAF MARS |
Bob Preston, W7DPG, went on to become one of three gateway stations in the western US after I had to drop out. At one time, he had three stations operating, and he was most definitely NOT a rich man: he was a gas-man who worked for the Montana Power Company. None of the equipment he used was paid for by anyone other than himself and his wife, other than the first amplifier, a converted BC-610, which he got through AFMARS. When he was patching hot and heavy, his wife would bring him his meals in the shack. She did this almost every night for several years, and never so much as complained even once. He also got a commendation like mine. (Ken Gordon) |