Re: [Milsurplus] Re: BC-348 data plate needed

[Mike Morrow]

>I can't speak for anywhere else, but here in central Texas, there was 
>so much corruption in the MARS program that no one knew which 
>equipment was legitimately issued and which was "acquired".

I was in Navy-Marine Corps MARS, then later Army MARS, from 1968 to 1986.  In the 1960s, the Army and Air Force MARS programs had, as you say, notorious and well-publicized problems in the area you mention.  In contrast, the Navy MARS program exercised quite strict control and accountability of issued equipment (even real junk), making it clear that anything issued had to be returned when the member left MARS unless cannibalization had been authorized.  We had to sign DD-??? forms for everything issued.

The last item I ever requested in MARS was issued in 1970.  Years later the DD-??? forms I had signed were sent back to me, marked that the USN had dropped accountablity of the equipment I had been issued.

But, I think the phenomenon of hams ripping the nomenclature plates off their military gear goes all the way back to the immediate post-WWII era.  Don't know why, unless they just thought it was ugly.

Mike / KK5F