Fred  Slaughter

1970-1971

Just for info I was part time MARS operator at AB8AG (Nha Trang) RVN in 70-71, was assigned to Co A 459th Sig Bn but in my off duty hours ran phone patches to US mostly thru A6NAZ in CA, later in 71 when I came back to states I was assigned to Pentagon requisitioning ALL surplus property for the CONUS MARS program, worked that until my ETS in 1972, was active from K4USA/WAR from the concourse of the Pentagon, used to run a lot of patches to Germany in the afternoon hours.  Robert B. Woodside was Chief Army MARS & a finer gentleman never lived (he passed away in 1998 his ham call was W3SZW, I also worked with Joseph H. Ziglinski who was in the MARS Ofc at the Pentagon in 71/72 & secretary was Beatrice Wilder from MA, it was a very memorable time for me & I have never forgotten the funny little things that sometimes happened when we were running phone patches. I also have never been able to remember the names of the guys who worked at AB8AG at the time I was there, I was rather shy & didn't make a lot of friends just went in & ran patches to pass the time.  I do remember a Sgt Brown but can't remember his first name.

I will always be proud of the fact that I operated from AB8AG, K4USA (Uncle Sam's Army) & WAR, anytime I checked into a MARS net anywhere in the world on Army MARS the net operators first question was," WAR   do you wish to assume net control" , I never did but I would like to think that by just checking in from the Pentagon that I brightened up those nets & gave the guys something to talk about for a few days.....I'm now 57 yrs old & have bent your ear enough, hope to catch everyone on the air sometime & will be listening......    de W8WAR, Fred L. Slaughter, Yep that's W8WAR    73's 

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