Army Military Auxiliary Radio System

I was, some 35 years ago while a student at NAS Millington, TN. I had my own Navy/Marine Corps MARS call sign (can't remember for the life of me). I did work traffic but then got busy building quals and making rank. We did have a station on the USS Coral Sea(CV-43) that was quite busy during the world cruise in 1983. It was quite interesting working traffic after leaving the San Francisco Bay area to Hawaii, the Aleutians through West Pac and all the other locations in between till new home port in Norfolk, VA.
I was in the Helo squadron onboard and flew off and back to San Diego. I actually got to work aeronautic mobile from the aircraft with the HF onboard on the way home but that's another time.
I last did training with a helicopter detachment on HF about 3 years ago down south. I'm a civil service avionics tech rep these days, my self and the det OIC (O-4) were the only 2 in the bunch with any experience. After I helped them finish the original problem what else did I have to do but eat, sleep and train till I left the ship? :)
73,
WB9TIO
transplanted 9 lander in So Cal land of wild fires.

I was in Air Force MARS a little over 20 years ago. At the time there was little traffic to pass. I was the only AF MARS station in a 200 mile stretch of Virginia and Tennessee, and I only remember receiving one message to pass, and it required a long-distance telephone call (anyone remember those?) for me to pass it, but I was glad to pay the toll. I initiated a few pieces of traffic to my sister and others, but they were never delivered. I dropped out of the program in 1995.

I understand MARS has gone through major changes since those days. Please don't rely solely on my experience to make a decision about MARS participation. When I finally decide to retire for good (can't live on my military retirement alone), and have more leisure time, I plan to investigate MARS again.

73,
WB4E (ex-AFA2WH, YI9B4E)

I used to work at a MARS station at Fort Sam Houston, that is a pretty amazing program. Learning how HF radios work and how to build field expedient antennas are truly invaluable skills that transfer to a lot of other technologies. Heck, just understanding how real radio wave propagation works and getting to see it in action is a pretty amazing thing.