Start at the bottom of the Army or Air Force MARS ladders as new members, should they want to continue.
From an impromptu post-Dayton Hamvention parking lot meeting at our hotel, the Chief of AF MARS and the Army MARS Program Manager both agree that this is not a competition to see who can recruit more Navy MARS members. Our goal is to make the process of transferring from Navy to another Service as smooth and painless as possible. Our preference is to keep Navy MARS members supporting the DOD and the Services in the MARS program regardless if you go Army or Air Force. Your experience, dedication, and desire to support our military is too great an asset to let slip away. Here are the salient points briefed at the MARS Forum and discussed at the MARS booth:
- Navy MARS members in good standing transfer to both Army and AF MARS as full members...they do not start over. Navy members still in training status will continue in training regardless of the Service they choose.
- Letters of resignation are not required as the member is not resigning...they are transferring to another Service.
- Both Army and AF MARS leadership concur that if Navy members want to keep their Navy call until the end of the program, they should still send their transfer request forms to the Service of their choice ahead of the 30 Sep date for processing but date/time stamp them for 2359 on 30 September.
- Navy members who are SHARES authorized by Navy, will have to complete the SHARES form one as an update after they receive their new MARS call sign. The form ones will then be sent to SHARES so they can update their database. You will continue to support SHARES.
- Navy members who operate Winlink RMS', will have to change over to their new MARS call sign and change their operating frequencies to their new Service Winlink frequencies.
- Navy members who cannot decide to which Service they should transfer, Army and AF MARS leaders concur that the Navy member should check in to the other Service Region or State nets to see if that helps them to decide which way they would like to go.
- The decision as to which MARS Service Navy members should transfer to is a personal decision. MARS leadership cannot dictate which Service you must choose.
- There is no plan to change the Joint MARS patch. Army and Air Force MARS will continue to support all branches of the DOD just as we always have.
- Navy members who operate VHF repeaters, digipeaters, etc. must inform the Service to which they transfer to ensure that spectrum authorizations are also transferred.
- Army MARS has requested that Navy transfer a block of the Navy MARS spectrum to be retained in support of Army and AF MARS to supplement our support to the DOD.
If there are other questions that Navy members have about the process, they should contact:
Paul English, Army MARS Program Manager, paul.a.english.civ@mail.mil
or
Dave Stapchuk, Chief AF MARS, david.stapchuk2@us.af.mil