"Our CHOP Sgt Wuergler is taking a extended vacation in the hospital while recovering from an appendicitis operation.  Things have been busy here with just two operators..."

The summer of 1969 finds the station with a new CHOP in SSgt Bill Biggs and the station moves to a new location just outside the gate of the Yermo Repair Facility.  The station is lauded as the best in the Marine Corps by the Commandant on his visit to the station in September of 1969.  The station remains busy as it handles phone patches with three RVN stations and is the Primary RTTY relay for 7 districts.  N0RTW and all hands are featured on the Zero Beat cover in March of 1970 and sadly in the May Zero Beat, Sgt Jim Kuhl reports the deaths of SSgt Bill Biggs and Sgt Ed Gillespie in an April auto accident. 

1970 moved forward as time is wont to do.  In the fall, Sgt Dan "Boone"  Borgman was assigned to the station.  He recalls:

"The CHOP was SSgt Doug Thomas,  who pretty much gave us a free hand  as long as the work got done.  Jim gave us most of our day-to-day direction.  "Us" being Cpl John "Chris" Christianson and myself.  I had a 2831 MOS and wasn't a ham.  I met Jim, Chris and Johnny Horton (who I eventually replaced) at a bar called the Frosted Mug in Daggett, CA.  The place was run by retired GySgt Tom Morrison and his wife Margaret.  (Margaret was the actual owner of the place.)   This was a respectable establishment where Marines could quench their hot afternoon thirst in one of two ways.  An ice cold frosted mug of Coors on tap or with a Desert Martini.  (An ice cold frosted mug of Coors on tap containing a green olive stuffed with pimento.)  Should one feel hungry, the haute cuisine consisted of  a seeming never ending supply of pickled eggs, pickled ham hocks and pigs feet to satisfy one's palate.  Entertainment was the country-western juke box, a pool table, a wonderful shuffleboard and of course the camaraderie of fellow Marines.

I expressed an interest in ham radio so Jim took it upon himself to Elmer me.   I soon became WB0ERA (conditional).  This became the most rewarding assignment of my Marine Corps duty experience. 

Jim had us running phone patches with RVN several times a day, whenever the propagation  was good enough to make contact.   We were the Primary relay for RTTY and had morning incoming and afternoon outgoing sessions.   The pace was hectic at times with paper tape strung all over the station as we repaired and corrected messages.  Our usual sustenance for our midday meal was burritos and tacos from the Del Taco down the road, with plenty of hot sauce and extra grease!

In late 70 or early 71 Jim loaded up some radios, grabbed Chris and headed for Las Vegas and the annual ARRL convention at the Tropicana.  There they set up in the lobby and had many celebrities (Phil Harris etc.) come over and speak to the men in Vietnam.  I traveled over on Sunday for the day when N0JPJ took our phone patches for us. 

In early February. Jim and Chris loaded up a van and headed for the San Fernando valley to assist in emergency and health & welfare messaging for the area stricken by an earthquake which lasted about 60 seconds, and, in that brief span of time, took 65 lives, injured more than 2,000, and caused property damage estimated at $505 million.  Of the 65 killed, 49 were killed by the collapsing buildings at the Veterans Administration Hospital at San Fernando.

Returning to base, Jim and Chris stopped at a roadside bar and grill for lunch.  On entering the establishment they immediately noticed the somewhat bizarre behavior of the patrons, many of whom were walking around and heartily slapping another on the back while shouting, "How you doin' you old Bastard?!"  They had stumbled into the watering hole and local chapter of the International Order of Old Bastards.  Jim returned to Barstow determined to start our own chapter of IOOB at the "Mug".   We signed up all of the patrons of the Mug and then Jim said we should invite all of our MARS brethren to join up.  So we put the word out over the system and soon had MARSmen from all over joining up.  When we received our Charter, Jim said - "We need an inaugural party!"  So soon the word was passed far and wide and everyone was invited to Daggett for a big shindig at the Mug to commission our Chapter of the IOOB.  And come to Daggett they did!  A weekend of happy festivities as the Frosted Mug Old Bastards wet down the event. 

Soon Chris was released from active duty and he, Jim and I spent a wild night in Vegas for Chris's send off, returning him to his wife in the wee morning hours, thankfully in time to catch his airplane back to Minnesota.  It would soon  be my turn to either re-enlist or separate.  Jim and I had many talks about it.  We spent one pleasant night out back of the Mug at Tom & Margaret's eating fresh steamed clams that a friend of Tom's had shipped out.  He mentioned while we were talking that he was going to stay in and hopefully become a Mustang Captain, as he always wanted to be called Captain COOL!  In the end I decided not to ship over.  Jim received orders for Okinawa my last week and after turning in my quarters, I stayed with Jim and his wife Ellen until I left on April 27th, 1971.  Jim was a gentle man, an ideal Marine and one of the best people I ever knew."