I was a radio amateur since 1963.  I enlisted in the Army to get Signal Corps training in high powered transmitters.  I was passionately interested in communications.  I was afraid to go to college because there would be no margin for failure.  If I flunked one subject I could have lost a college deferment. Since I was 1-a already, I saw no need to hassle the draft board.  I would get an engineering degree in three years after my obligation was fulfilled.  I kind of liked the Navy and the Air Force but there was a year long waiting period for them because too many people were afraid of the infantry (i would know why at a later date).  The Marines wanted four year enlistees at the time and I felt that four years was too long for my strategic plans.  Besides, my Army recruiter was such a cool guy.  I was amazed at the shine on his low quarters.  He badgered me into embarrassment when I asked him about the National Guard.  "They're a bunch of pussies" he told me. 

Well, I got my training at Fort Monmouth in MOS 32a10, fixed station operation and maintenance.  I was told  I'd be going to Europe but when my orders were posted it said R.V.N., Nha Trang to be exact.  But when I arrived at Long Binh I got my orders changed along with my MOS I was now an 05b20, an RTO. with a radio station that would be strapped to my back.  I remember asking the personnel dude "what's 'dis 'b' shit mean in my new MOS?  Is it the same kind of 'b' as in '11b20'"??  I cracked the schmuck up with that question he said that I didn't have to worry, that I would still be in the Signal Corps.  When I was processing in at Can Tho another personnel guy wanted to send me the HHC 3rd. Brigade, 9th Infantry in Dong Tam. They needed an R.T.O.  

I did some fast thinking and talking. I explained to him that I had very little infantry training and that my Ft. Monmouth schooling was in 50,000 watt transmitters with antennas that would cramp the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.  He looked less doubtful after I told him this but he still wasn't seeing the light.  Finally, I said " look, you've got MARS stations all around the area, don't you?" he said " well yes but..."I whipped out my plastic coated F.C.C. license which clearly displayed my name and call sign and said "Well I'm your guy from MARS!"  he finally indicated okay and cut orders for me to go to AB8AF.  He was a short-timer.  He had to be!   

Phone patch 379 of October 1969 was almost a work of art. An artillery lieutenant came to the station just minutes before he was to chopper out to his firebase over a hundred miles away.  He was distressed when he arrived at the station and confided to me that he was having big troubles with his wife at home.  She wanted a divorce and probably more than she could ever be entitled to.  Elmer (I won't divulge his surname) and I developed a rapport with him through his previous visits to the station, one which transcended the military tradition of non-fraternization between officers and enlisted personnel.  In short, I liked the guy and thought of him as a buddy. 

I busted my ass to make his connection. I broke several rules for this including tuning up to the 20 meter amateur band using the fake call sign of 3W8FTA.  3W8 was the international prefix for the nation of Viet Nam. And just ask any army vet what FTA stands for!  This only caused a big pile-up on twenty meters.  Too many guys around the world were interested in DXCC awards from the American Radio Relay League to be able to help despite my announcements that I had emergency traffic.   I think most of them simply thought I was some kind of crackpot pirate.  I had to QSY in a hurry if I wanted to make the patch.  I tuned  everywhere in the HF spectrum where  I thought I could find other MARS networks.  Any network, anywhere on the globe.  I changed several crystals in the Collins KWM2A before I found an Air Force network around 20 mhz (I think) operating in Okinawa.  I spoke with Jay Rudko, told him the situation and he was more than happy to break some rules on his own.  He dutifully stood by while I tried to assemble the in-country link. (Jay Rudko, I learned lives in Miami Florida.) 

Getting to Elmer while in country was the hardest part of this phone patch. I had to reach him at his fire base.  He left me instructions as to how I could connect.  Doing so was almost as hard as repealing the federal income tax amendment.  The 52nd Signal Battalion operated Western Electric end office and cross bar tandem switches throughout the delta. The switch guys were under the strictest, most brutal orders to guard against un-authorized class A Autovon calls. If the Signal Corps weren't so anal it would have been easy for Elmer and all of us to call home. I had to bribe this guy in our platoon named Mitch with Hennessey cognac and two 35 mm Film cans of cum-sai (not sure of spelling).  He began with an autovon connection up north but it was dumped because class a lines were monitored somewhere.  Mitch was un-daunted and organized a series of "order-wire" connections through the tandem network. These were  un-monitored maintenance lines. After a few hours we were able to ring Lt. Elmer at his firebase over his TA-312 field phone. With Elmer on the line I got back to Jay Rudko in Okinawa and the patch was made but just barely.  Band conditions were starting to deteriorate. 

That was the good news.  The bad news was that he was served the riot act by his "estranged" wife.  She was cruel and vicious.  She said that she would take everything, that she deserved it.  The killer remark was that he shouldn't plead with her because she slept with his "best" friend, "over". She never wanted see him again. 

I never saw my friend after that day.  In 1983 I visited Washington D.C. to see the Vietnam War Memorial and his name was inscribed. 

I felt guilty as hell.  At first I thought of myself as a smart guy, somewhat academic, mentally agile.  I was oblivious to the fact that I was somewhat arrogant.  I had the edge on the average grunt.  It took a while but I got to know these guys intimately.. They covered my ass matter of fact like.  Eventually I came to love them more than anyone in my family.  There came a time when I wanted to be with them, in their boots if I could.  My smartness witnessed an ever decreasing population of these soul-mates.  The chopper crewmen especially.  I knew their D.E.R.O.S.S but asked no questions when they disappeared months ahead of time, one by one.  Why them and not me I  began to ask.  Elmer's phone patch in October wasn't the only one of its type.  My bringing of the homefront was damaging to many more of our guys. Was I doing the right thing by hounding them to call home so that I could stay out of the infantry? 

If you could please contact Mary, AD6VIB whom I believe is from Encino,  California I would appreciate it.  I would love to talk to her once again.  Come Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year she'd be on freq to help us out.  I would know how to contact her if I could remember her American amateur call sign.  Also I would like to locate Miss Maryann Byrnes (possibly Burns), operator 60 of the Bell System's San Francisco Pine Office, CA 1969-70. Operator 60 broke some rules on her own by not punching up long distance tickets for phone patches.  In doing so she probably became a short-timer wit' da' fone company!  Some guys I knew said they were going to visit her with flowers and fervent thanks after they out-processed from the Oakland Army Base.  In my mind these two women are as magnanimously patriotic as any American fighting man. >>>> By the way, "Garry Owen" I say to you with respect.