Amateur call N0EFO  is not assigned.

POD had notice anyone with amateur radio experience should contact Ensign "someone". My call at the time was WV2YXF (though I was not active) sounded better then weeks in the bush so I throw a couple of dit da dits and the Ensign stood and said "Clark you’re my man!".  It so happened the CO for ALL Seabees in country (Third Naval Construction Brigade) was a Rear Admiral named James V. Bartlett. He was a HAM and would come over to run patches on occasion.  The looks the guys will get when they looked through the window to see the two stars on his collar, ROFL (roll on the floor laughing).  With no specific experiences the best and worst had to do with family matters, birth, death, "Dear John".  Whenever I received a call from the Chaplain I KNEW it was going to be a tear jerker. 

At 20 years old I was pleased to be in a "safe" location (safe being a relative term in country). Three hots, we even had one of the very few A/C units (had to cook a few 6146's to get it). With the maturity of 35 years I realize how important our job was.  For most of the guys we were the ONLY way to hear "Home".  I'm proud of the job I did and guys I helped.

Dave Clark , USN, N0EFO , 1967, MCB-74 - 1st Deployment   Back to top

I was in charge of a MARS station at Red Beach during 1968.  I was part of MCB 62. Our call sign was N0EFO.

When our battalion got to Vietnam they found out that they needed to supply one personnel to man the local MARS station.  Since I had an A.A. degree in electronics I was picked to man the MARS station. We went up with certain other MARS stations on a daily basis (In-country). Others we contacted whenever when ever we could (USS Hope, Okinawa, Hawaii, USA).  Mostly we did Phone Patches or MARSGRAMS.  I had one high ranking general that called every day for updating & listened to WWV for the correct time.  I had one guy that wanted to pay us a lot of money to act as bookie contact with the states.   

Being able to help people contact home made the MARS operators VIP.  

I was “Little Leapin’ Looney Larry”. 

Larry Siebold, USN, N0EFO  Jan-Oct 1968, MCB-62              Back to top