[Milsurplus] End of life: Navy MARS, effective 9/09

[Mike Morrow]

Ed wrote of the termination of Navy-Marine Corps MARS operation:

>I spent 25 years in the Navy MARS program Got out when the equipment 
>dried up and the message load went to telephones in the early 90's. I 
>had a feeling this was going to happen.

Navy MARS was very important to me 40 years ago.  Joining it was the only
reason I got my ham ticket.  I handled a lot of Vietnam-era serviceman
traffic, and called many an [old]Eighth Naval District Net.  I was most
active from 1968 to 1970, but then my own military service time pushed
MARS to the background.  I spent 1968 to 1981 in Navy MARS, then 1982 to
1986 in Army MARS.  The equipment program was unimportant...1969 was the
last year I received a piece of MARS gear.

I considered re-joining MARS about a decade ago, but by then Morse operation
had been banned.  It's ironic that a couple of years ago Navy MARS brought back
Morse operation, but now pulls the plug on the whole works.  The Navy was the
last service to implemment a MARS program, in the early 1960s, and now will
be the first to drop it.  It was inevitable.

I believe that the other services will do likewise in short order.  I made
several inquiries to Army MARS Headquarters in the past year and  received
no responses.

It's understandable.  Today's servicemen (except submariners on patrol) have so
many diverse and easy methods to communicate with family that those of more than
twenty-five years ago couldn't imagine.  MARS no longer has a place in today's
cell phone/e-mail world.

Still, it's sad.

Mike / KK5F