Wow!
I was looking to get back into HAM radio after being away from it for a while. I was going through the threads and found this!
You see, I was an Operator for NNN0CVG. Hence the screen name/call sign. I worked on USS Forrestal as well and that is where I cut my teeth in MARS.
If I understand this correctly.. is there a question about the worth of MARS, past or not? I was an Aviation Electrician. The Forrestals MARS Station was operated under a non-MARS callsign. I do not remember what that call sign was. On my second ship, there were no RM's interested in running the station, I got wind of it and volunteered.
I ran Phone Patch traffic, AMCROSS calls, BBS Packet after working my 12 hours in an Avionics shop. I routinely got about 4 hours of sleep a night on deployment. When someone on the ship recieved bad news from home, I was the guy who helped place the call from thier work space, the Chaplains Office, or Department Heads Office, or had the person in the "shack" with me.
I was the guy who held a fellow shipmater when the inconceivable came over the air and the stateside operator wasn't fast enough to cut the news off before it came out. I was the guy who ran 779 MARS Grams for the 10th Mountain Division before they landed in Haiti. I was the guy that kept the shack open and ruinning until the last person had a chance to make thier 5 minute phone call.
There was nothing more satisfying, nothing more gratifying, to see the smiles, to hear the emotion in the families voices on "the other end". To be able to help in this way. At the time there was nothing better. Not until you reached port and could make a phone call. There was nothing better.
AND the Stateside MARS operators made it happen. With out you guys the 6 months deployments would have seemed like 12 month deployments. Some of the good nights were nights before we pulled into a port. Not many people in the shack, and I could make a phone call home or talk to the guys (mostly) who helped us on the working frequencies. I have those frequencies burned into my brain to this day.
Thank you to NNN0KRG, NNN0NHA, NNN0HRB, NNN0NIM, and many, many others that I could list if I had my log book with me.
Sincerely
Eric J. Gregg AEC (AW/SW) ret.
NNN0CVG 1991-1995
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