"The Rat"
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Rat was retired Air Force. He was a radio operator and flew in B-29’s during WWII. He was terribly special to me and I miss him terribly. I am glad that I was able to spend his last Christmas on earth with him. While I was stationed at MARS, he gave me something that no one will ever be able to take away from me. He taught me how to be tenacious, showed me that not everything is what it appears to be, and taught me how to find the good in everyone.
Gregg Richie |
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Bob Ratliff was more than the sum total of anything that will ever come close to describing him. Bob was the only person that made it possible for N0NWF, the MARS station I was running in Subic Bay, to become the busiest MARS station in the Pacific during the latter part of the Viet Nam War.
When Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines in the year 1972, it became very difficult to get message or phone conversation off the island. Marcos had closed the overseas phone center in Manila. During that time, I was a Corporal in the Marine Corps., TAD to the Navy, and working for a Navy Commander in Subic Bay running the Subic Bay MARS station N0NWF. After martial law was implemented, I was asked to get the station operational around the clock, seven days a week. After terrific and intense training efforts, I was able to comply and N0NWF became operational 24/7.
Only one big problem remained. We had more than quadrupled our MARSgram traffic, and the phone patch numbers went well off the chart. We had many times more traffic than all of the other stations that also shared N0NRI as a west coast gateway. This caused many hard feelings, and tensions resulted from other pacific stations having to stand by as we tied up N0NRI. Bob, on numerous occasions, stepped in on the air, calming several very upset operators at the long wait our station was causing. One such occasion had him break in on the net and remind one of his own N0NRI operators of proper procedure. The operator was attempting to have us wait until last, while passing all other traffic before us. Bob broke in, while driving up the Pacific Coast Highway and managed to remedy the problem from his mobile 100 watt station. I was very thankful, and impressed. Several days later, Bob called me and informed me that he had a possible solution and was wondering what I thought of it. His idea was perfect. Bob was instrumental in coming up with N0JPJ to become our exclusive gateway solution during time of heavy load. Bob had contacted N0JPJ and had somehow set up an exclusive schedule with the Hughes MARS Station so that they could help us to accommodate the heavy phone patch loads we were incurring, without putting other MARS stations on hold. Only when my traffic was heavy, did I utilize the Hughes gateway, but thanks to Bob, we all managed to get through a very difficult MARS time successfully.
During my duration with N0NWF, Bob and I became very close friends. He often came on frequency, when all QTC’s were sent, and just visited with me as I struggled to stay awake overnight. He always got a kick out of the fact that I was a Marine, yet most of the complaints he received were from Marine stations, complaining bitterly about me and my station.
This is one Marine that wishes Bob Ratliff all the best. You gruff sounding old fart, with your heart full of gold, may God bless you and allow dwelling, in his house, forever.
Mark Coker KC7JOG |
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During my years as the Director, 11ND NAVAMRCORMARS, "Rat" was one of the staunchest supporters of MARS. He and his staff at N0NRI passed many thousands of MARSGRAMS 24/7/365. "Rat" always had MARS in his heart and the people that it helped. I will always be thankful for folks like him that served me and their country so graciously. He will be missed. May God bless his soul. Please pass this along to his family and to the folks at NRI.
Respectfully,
Jack Hughes, RMC/USN (Ret.) (NNN0JMH) Former NNN0ASE |
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Bob was a great operator, and for some reason I always thought he was an active-duty sailor. I hope that sounds like a compliment. I don't get the apparent difficulty with the Marines in his unit, because I never at any time had a feeling that he was anything but very respectful of our branch. Maybe by the time I knew him he had reestablished good relations with them.
Without NRI all of us would have had more-difficult jobs. He made things work on the operational side very well. I'm comforted that we will all be together again someday upstairs.
Doug Thomas |