N0EFD
Will Dunn Mike Malsbury Jimmie D Bogue Joe G Brown Jr Larry DeBoni Bob Runyon
David Lee Foster Mike Linger Dick Whitten Bill Wolfram Ed Seaward
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Cpl 3/66 - 4/67 |
I had an amateur license and the station at 29 Palms was closed because of lack of operators. I responded to a request in the base paper for anyone with a ham ticket to help run phone patches at K6MCA from KR6MH Okinawa for families of Marines left behind when several units from 29 Palms moved to Camp Hansen Okinawa in the fall of 1964. K6MCA was the amateur/MARS station at 29 Palms. When my 155mm artillery unit (K Battery, 4/11) was ordered to Okinawa in July of 1965, I was transferred to Special Services, 1st Mar Div and sent up to Camp Schwab, Okinawa to run patches at KR6MB (which had been closed for lack of licensed operators) for the 5th Marines and 1st Force Recon Battalion. When the 1st Mar Div moved to Chu Lai in March 1966, Rick Norris, Mike Malsbury and I packed up a Collins S-Line and Henry 2-K linear into a converted radio van. Loaded the van on board APA 27 (the greasy USS George Clymer, best food in the Navy) and were three days going down to Chu Lai. Loaded a radio jeep and generator aboard an LCVP and went in to the beach. We dropped the ramp and I drove ashore through the water, the generator still worked later amazingly, and we established N0EFD at Chu Lai. While at Chu Lai we were working both Pendleton and 29 Palms. We used 13.927 and 14.385 for patches to the states. Camp Pendleton had that big rhombic with 11 to 13 dB gain and we could work patches for about 2 hours 30 minutes to 2 hours 45 minutes daily. We always got a couple of extra calls in because of the extra gain of that rhombic. Typically we would complete about 22 to 25 calls with 5 to 8 "no answers" which we would try again. Even when things were going smoothly it was hard to complete a patch in less than 5 to 6 minutes. The worst thing to happen was to have 15 or more "no answers" with a bunch of disappointed guys loading up at 2 AM to head back to their area. The other two operators rotated back in late summer / early fall of 1966, and I extended my tour for another 7 months. Bob Rotella, Don Chilcote and Dick Stulz joined me at the station for the winter and spring of 1967 at Chu Lai. Bob sent me to Da Nang to recondition the station and quarters of N0EFA which had moved to Dong Ha and prepare for the move of N0EFD in April/May of 1967. I rotated back to the states in April of 1967 for RELAD (release from active duty) and started college at the University of Missouri the fall of 1967 working on a degree in electrical engineering. I ran 6,000 phone patches and 12,000 QTCs during my three years duty. I had many young Marines and old salts who hadn't communicated with family for upwards of a year give me goose bumps listening to their joyful conversations with loved ones. I also sat in on deaths, divorces and family disasters. I ran patches for privates and generals and they all had the same impact. We had Marines come into the van and sit next to the operator and use the mike. I had installed a foot switch on the phone patch line and would say "tell your mom you love her" and stomp on the switch, then tell him to "say over" when he had completed that sentence. That would get them rolling. I hated to get to the part where I had to say, "You have 30 seconds, so start saying good bye. I had Privates who had earned a couple of Silver Stars and Major Generals who had three wars under their belt sitting next to me. I was 19 when I got to Viet Nam and 49 when I left. We all ran many emotional calls, from birth announcements, deaths, Dear Johns, Is it really you? etc. I still shiver a little when I think about all the grunts I was able to serve. I didn't run the patch for Jimmy Howard the night he called to tell his wife and girls he was coming home and the President would be presenting him with the Medal of Honor. I was talking to him, preparing him for his turn in the van and he said, "Will, I'm catching a plane home tomorrow." I said, "What for?" He said, "The President's going to present me the Medal of Honor before Congress." I had run a patch for him earlier that summer and had met him before, I also had several friends in 1st Recon Battalion where he was a platoon SSgt (he was a SSgt when he earned the Medal of Honor, he was quickly promoted to GySgt). I always said that I would do anything that the Marine Corp asked me to do. They asked me to run phone patches for Marines away from home a long distance in a lonely dangerous place. I would have done my MOS job calling in arty for grunts with the same dedication to service. I believe that being useful in whatever you are called on to do and doing a first rate job is important for personal mental health and spiritual satisfaction. I never have been ashamed of my service and I am proud to have been useful to so many men so far from home. That cheerful attention to duty is what I have carried with me throughout my career in engineering and in being a husband, father and man in general. I had spent 19 months out of country and hadn't been home for two and a half years. When I got back and I still wasn't old enough to buy a beer. I was rotated RELAD (release from active duty) to El Toro. Ten days and out. I got back home and saw a friend who said, "Say, I haven't seen you in a couple of months." I said, "I've been gone three years." So much for anybody knowing what was going on in Viet Nam. A Ham operator while still in high school with callsign WN0HKG, Will Dunn joined the Marine Corps in 1964 at the age of 18. |
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3/66 - 9/66 |
As a kid I scrounged old Philco shortwaves from repair shops. I hung out with the old brass-pounders who formed the club in Griffin, Georgia. A fella named Henry Ammos taught me and a few other Scout buddies Morse Code. We got to be pretty good. He would rattle along at 34-40 wpm I'd guess, cigarette burning under his lamp in the dark of his shack. His gear was home made and reception was sharp as a razor. Q filters, double conversion all the magic that strained in those rare DX stations. John Howell was another senior, a former Naval Officer, he taught me Amateur Radio. I'd stay up all night when I became a novice at 16 and later a General Class operator K4CWN, chasing DX, which was really Ohio, or on a good night California. My first transmitter was a Globe Trotter, from Globe Radio. Once we went on a field day, hauled out an old military generator way up on a hill in the country. We were in high school then and we were all slide rule carrying college bound radio geeks. It was about one or two in the morning and the generator was grinding away-exhaust blowing red and three or four guys pounding away on the keys and bugs making contacts. I was fooling around with a flash bulb and a 6 volt battery when I made contact right in front of my face and a flash lit up the whole tent. I sat there stunned and these guys were running every which away. They thought the generator had lit the whole place up. I still howl when I think of that. Scared the hell out of 'em. I ended up joining a few good men after a few semesters in college and each tiny increment of duty moved me closer and closer to my service with 3/7/7 81 mortars in South Vietnam. I was on the ground during Operation Starlite in August 1965 and after some Search & Destroy, headed up to Phu Bia where I rotated back up to Okinawa to take over my old TAD station KR6MB. I was so glad to get back there. Soon after Will Dunn and Dick Stulz and I were shoulder to shoulder putting up N0EFD on a cliff over looking the South China Sea. We handled some tough calls from that station. I still think of one particular call from time to time. .....Will Dunn handled huge volumes of traffic from that station, far above our initial volume at start up. We would be catching some Zzzzz in the tent at midnight and suddenly whole units would appear outside, straight from combat operations, they were so exhausted they just laid down in the dirt and went to sleep. We'd handle what calls we could, then by dawn they were gone. Later in my tour I spoke with Bob Rotella back in the states. It was Bob who had welcomed me to Camp Pendleton in early 1964 as I reported for duty as a Grunt. W6IAB had an enormous antenna farm at that time. As the VN War initiated I found myself as operator at N0EFD speaking with Bob again. Bob arrived at Chu Lai shortly after I rotated back to the states, leaving for a time Dick and Will at Chu Lai. I recently discovered the Bob Rotella passed away a few years ago. He was a mentor to me, and was responsible for my MARS TAD assignments throughout my four year enlistment. |
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SSgt 1/69 - 12/69 |
Assigned to MARS between tours in RVN. Until reporting aboard MCSC Barstow I had never heard of MARS. Got more stories and memories than I do time. I think Wayne Justis and I were the only MARS operators personally ordered "Thrown in the brig & throw away the key" by a Commandant. Wayne was in Chu Lai, RVN at N0EFD (before it moved to DaNang) running phone patches from the hospital and I was his stateside gateway at N0RTW in Barstow. Well, one of the WIA's we ran a patch for unfortunately died of his wounds the next day. His next of kin had not been notified and it raised a pretty big mess. Needless to say procedures for hospital calls were immediately modified. I think we did a lot of good for a lot of people. I'm proud to have been a small part of it. I wish I could remember all the names of everyone I worked with. They were all a great bunch of guys. |
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Cpl 7/68 - 8/69 |
Also served with Jim Bogue, I see he is a big contributor here. Had a bunch of my stuff stolen years ago, all the pictures I had when he was at delta. Glad to see he has submitted a few. I was there when he built the back porch. Was the senior man. I remember the "fearsome Four". pussycats. am sending some pics of life around N0EFD When I arrived at the airbase in DaNang I was one green gyrene, like most everybody else. There were 4 of us 2531's who all went through radio school in Pendleton. They called us up to the desk and said they needed 2 to go to 1st Force Recon and 2 to go to a MARS station. They said we could decide among ourselves who goes where. It was me, Jim Cournoyer, Steve Grandusky and ___ Smith. Smith was gung ho and wanted to go recon. We asked the Sgt in charge what the hell is a MARS station. He says hell if I know, it's some little com shack up in the mountains. Grandusky pipes up and says, I'm takin' recon. Jim and I look at each other like oh s__t. So a couple hours later we're on a deuce and a half making for where ever in the hell MARS was at. We got a couple of salty dogs that been in country for a while ridin' with us in the back. They had M16's, frags hangin' on 'em, dirty, stinkin;, and they say they're going the same place we are, 1st MARDIV. We're thinking oh s__t. We're going thru Dogpatch and here are all these "gooks". and us with no weapon, hell not even a helmet. The salts are actin' like no big deal and besides, they got the new M16's. So we start to relax a little and check out the lay of the land. Looked like some pretty big mountains up ahead, just where we were heading. Anyway, we got to HQ, checked in and waited to be picked up. Place didn't look too bad. Soon this SSgt shows up. ( I still remember him as Ernie, can't come up with the last name). Turns out the station was just a short hike up the hill. If I had to be in RVN, MARS duty was certainly not a bad way to go. There was the occasional rocket and mortar attacks (seemed they used our antennas as aiming stakes). I met a lotta good folks and some not so good. Made a lotta guys happy with the calls and MarsGrams, and made a few sad. Had one guy blow his brains out just outside the station after talking to his wife and she telling him she found another man. |
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Cpl 8/68 - 8/69 |
Chuck Goebel & I were in radio school & Vietnamese language school together. I went to 1/7 & he went to 3/5. One night we had signed up for phone patches home from 1/7 on hill 10 & the MARS operator turned out to be Chuck. They were looking for operators & he knew I was an amateur so he asked the CHOP to have orders cut to send me to 1st MarDiv MARS N0EFD. Al Murphy & I finished our tours there & then we extended for 6 months. N0EFD was the incoming tty gateway for Marines. We received traffic from NAV14 in Hawaii during the day and worked phone patches with N0RTW in Barstow, CA at night. When I first reported to N0EFD, GySgt Cooper was looking for a TTY replacement as he was getting short. When he found out I had TTY experience with the amateur radio club I was elected. At that time we had Teletype Model 15 & 19's and some Kleinschmitt tape transmitters. We used Collins S-line gear with a Henry 4K2 linear. We had the TTY's jacked up to 75 words-per-minute. The old station was pretty well destroyed in a typhoon and they built a new one just up the hill. At the new station we managed to con Comm Center out of a Teletype Model 28 so we could run 100WPM. After our CHOP rotated in late 1968 I ended up acting CHOP until SSgt Jim Bogue came over from N0RTW. I survived Tet '68 & '69 before I came home, but I had to travel on a set of orders because they managed to blow up my SRB before I left. I was supposed to leave in late Feb '69 but because of Tet the air base was closed and I didn't get out until March, about 3 weeks late. |
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Sgt 1/67 - 1/68 |
I really don't know how I got assigned to MARS. One day I was running convoys with a PRC-25 on my back, and on the last trip I remember I meet some female foreign correspondent, she rode in the comm truck with us, and the next I knew I was at N0RTW. I expect it saved my life. I was the one who requested, built and set up the "phone booth" at N0RTW. I contacted the telephone co in San Diego and asked if they could send me a red state side phone. We built the phone booth and installed the phone in the booth so the guys could have a little more privacy when the calls were made. I have copy of the paper around here some where with a picture of the telephone operators in SD all grouped in a V to show support. That was the office that sent over the phone. I remember some Gunny from Stars and Stripes doing a photo shoot and interviewing me but that was about it. |
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Cpl 7/70 - 11/70 |
I entered the Marine Corps in Jul 1968 and attended Basis Electronic School, Telephone Teletype repair and Radio Relay. While at MCRD, San Diego I learned of the MARS program and visited the station as I was a licensed amateur (WA2BQT). After being transferred to 29 Palms, CA I assisted in phone patches with Cpl. Ernie Young and ran K6MCA. I first received orders for MARS duty with Barstow, CA and met Jim Kuhl, Bill Biggs and others at the station. With the untimely death of Bill Biggs, I was transferred to WESTPAC and was sent, inadvertently, to An Hoa where I worked at the Fire Support Base with Division Recon. After a brief stint at Camp Reasoner, I was "found" by MARS and was sent to N0EFD at DaNang just above Freedom Hill and worked with Dick Norris. Utilizing teletype repair, I went to N0EFB at 1st MAW at DaNang until I rotated back to the States. While in RVN, I visited or worked at various installations including N0EFJ with Lee (Reisenweber). Upon my return stateside, I worked at HQMC at N0MHH, Henderson Hall with Wes (Wilson). A best memory I have is a young Marine pilot arranging for his R&R with his wife and telling her she "should be sure to have a mattress strapped to her rear when arriving at Hawaii. OVER. You better be the first one off the plane", came the reply from his wife. Overall, I have very fond and warm memories of working with a great group of people, using outstanding Collins gear and Henry amps, and having the time of my life at 20 years of age. Some of the friendships have lasted to date. As I went on to college, law school and began to practice and teach I continually encountered operators, users, etc. In looking back, I feel we provided a lot of comfort at a difficult time and had a great deal of fun doing it. From working with a Rhombic mounted on 90 foot telephone poles at DaNang to a YAGI on top of a fuel storage tank (also at DaNang) to running radio relay phone patches thru a PRC25 back to An Hoa for Recon, it was fun. Today, I look back and really appreciate "it was the best of times and it was the worst of times". |
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LCpl 12/67 - 6/68 |
I got active in Navy MARS as a civilian at age 17 and was licensed as N0FVC prior to my flunking out of college and enlisting in the Marines. After the war, I stayed active for many years in Navy MARS as NNN0FVC in the region 7 area and later as NNN0HLO in the region 5 area. I had several well remembered special calls for soldiers (mostly Marines) that were dying aboard the Repose. Some of these were calls that a guy got to talk to his family just prior to his death. I can go into more detail later. I love amateur radio and have been very active ever since. I still have 2 Collins S-lines on-line at my station at home and love to use them. |
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LCpl 3/69 - 2/70 |
A most rewarding experience. It allowed me to effectively use my civilian ham experience to fulfill my military experience. I had to stretch myself just as hard, if not harder, than I did in boot camp. |
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SSgt 6/70 - 7/71 |
My MOS started as a 2533, then to Radio Chief 2539, My first tour in 1966 to 1967 was with the 11th Marines (GUNS) and so was my second for about two months, I looked my friend up at N0EFL Sam Dunn who I have known since our old day's as CB (Children Bands). He then took me over to meet Jack Williams at N0EFB to try and get me into MARS. Jack mailed for a Conditional License Test, which he received in a couple of weeks. I took the test and passed my call was WB5CTZ, my next call was WB4CTQ, and later upgraded to Advanced N4AKH. If it hadn't been for those two guys I don't know if i would have come home walking!!! I think it prepared me for civvy life making lots of new friends civvy and military. |
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Cpl 9/69 - 10/70 |
Most of my time in the Marines I was at 2 different MARS stations. My original MOS was 0846 in 1969 when I arrived in Okinawa I stopped at the MARS station in Camp Butler and told the NCOIC of that station that I had a Technician ham ticket. Before I was shipped to Vietnam I had orders for N0EFD in DaNang which was where I spent my full 13 month tour. After Vietnam I was discharged from active duty . I spent from 1971 to January 1973 in civilian life. In 1973 I reenlisted and got orders to go to Camp Pendleton. I spent 6 months in an artillery battery at Las Polgas. I visited the MARS station and Sgt Parks said he would like to have me work at N0RSE. So I got transferred from the artillery battery to the MARS station until January 1975 when I left the service for good. Since then I have been very active in ham radio but nothing further in MARS. I have been active in ARES and available for any emergency that comes along in the area where I live. I have also taken the course for emergencies by the American Radio Relay League. |