Meet Joe Johnston N7HAE of Knappa, Oregon, who found himself in the middle of things when the Pacific Northwest was battered by hurricane-strength winds and torrential rain last December. His operation during five days of nature's onslaught is as good an example as you're likely to find of ARES, RACES, and MARS working together with state and local authorities during crunch times.

“I was sitting here in Northwest Oregon with no power, no phone, no cell phone and no Internet and for a time no water,” recalled Joe, a retired National Weather Service staffer and since 1984 a ham, “All roads were closed due to mud slides and fallen trees. Clatsop County ARES/RACES activated a net of which I became a part. I switched back and forth between Amateur frequencies and MARS frequencies many times.”

“I spent the next five days on generator power relaying Airmail traffic from the Clatsop County EOC [in Astoria] to the OEM Center in Salem [the state capitol] plus keeping the Department of Homeland Security informed via [MARS “Elements of Essential Information”] reports. I was amazed I didn't lose my antenna in the wind. I had to get a little resourceful getting some of the Airmail traffic through. I need to give credit to these PMBO operators both amateur and MARS. They are a lifeline!”

Two of the most crucial messages that Joe Johnston handled were Clatsop County's state of emergency declaration and the local government's appeal to the governor for assistance. With telephones out, the two text files traveled the first 16 miles by Pactor from Astoria to Johnston's shack just up the Columbia River. Propagation was extremely poor and fading, but after a search he was able to connect with the amateur Winlink PMBO operated by William Rohrer, W7IJ, near Ft. Lewis, WA. WinLink carried on from there. Johnston remembers, “The propagation to W7IJ held up and [the PMBO] indicated it was in contact with the CMS so I knew the messages would be relayed via the Internet connection . . . I later got confirmation from W7OEM [the Oregon Emergency Management Amateur Radio Unit].”

(Bill W7IJ, by the way, will be remembered by hundreds of hams, maybe thousands, as KC4USF operating aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter South Wind in the Antarctic. He spent 30 years in the Coast Guard.)

Joe Johnston signed up with Army MARS as AAR0PY/T in September 2005, about three weeks after Hurricane Katrina. His years in the weather service gave him some experience with emergency situations and the role of ham radio. It only took him five weeks to complete his MARS training (six months is more usual).. In 2006 he logged over 500 hours of MARS on-air time. And in late 2007 when MARSgrams started flowing again to and from American troops overseas, there was Joe busily relaying them off the Army MARS WinLink messaging system as AAT0TOR.

Then came December 3, 2007, and the disastrous storm-driven Pacific floods. Joe was home close by where the Columbia River meets the Pacific, taking the brunt of the storm.

He filed his MARS information reports (EEIs) via an Air Force MARS PMBO, AFD5WA, in Puyallup, WA. Within a few hours of the initial EEI, federal authorities released emergency resources at Camp Rilea, the Oregon National Guard training base on the coast near Astoria

At one point Joe couldn't find a digital connect due to the bad conditions. He put out a voice call for relay assistance on the 80-meter ham band. Mark Beadle KD7ZPP came back from Reno, Nevada, a good 700 miles distant. Considering Joe's G5RV antenna was configured for NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave propagation), that was a pretty lucky catch. For a time KD7ZPP assisted coordinating traffic for Clatsop and other coastal counties in distress.

This one ham had so many irons in the e-comm fire that it has taken a while to assemble the full story, but it leaves no doubt as to his versatility: He filed via the MARS WinLink messaging system for his EEI reports, he used amateur Pactor and WinLink for communication with the EOCs, he completed some traffic via the ARRL national traffic system, still more by VHF voice and Packet, and he fell back on 80-meter daytime voice if that's where he could find a contact. His after-action report to MARS lists 60 pieces of record traffic processed.

Chief Army MARS Stu Carter said in his biweekly broadcast, “I take great pride in sharing the story of this operation with our membership. Unfortunately I must add that because of a family emergency, Joe had to resign his MARS membership shortly after the December storm. He leaves with us a great example of dedication and initiative, and his Region Director Larry Smith, AAA0RD, says Joe has agreed to help out in the future if needed. We'll keep his call sign ready for the day.”