[MRCA] Fort Miles After Action Report

[B Smith]

An interesting couple of days spent with  U.S Army Coast Artillery 
Units, WWII German Infantry,   U.S. Military Police, U.S. Merchant 
Marines,
infantry, cooks, HQ personnel, manned switch board, daily bulletin, 48 
star flags,  chow hall, formations, live fire demos  and even a 
Military Chaplain. The event started on Friday with setup and went 
through Sunday, You dropped off what you needed into the Ft. Miles 
compound then then parked your vehicle away from the area as "civilian 
vehicles were not allowed" so it was sort of challenging deciding the 
necessary equipment and maintenance items to bring as well as 
"survival gear". Fortunely I had my WWII painted Radio Flyer wagon and 
did make one emergency run to the 86 Suburban War Wagon for tools and 
a radio which were carried back in the wagon under a canvas cover. The 
Battle Ship Missouri 16 inch gun barrel ceremony was well presented 
and especially appreciated by the audience was  the U.S. Marine Color 
Guard.  I received a special private tour of the enormous Battery 519 
with  Jason Garver KB3ATV as the tour guide and saw all the "secret 
rooms".
I set up the BC-474 with power being supplied by hand crank generator 
and a "secret" solid state inverter that ran off of 12 volts and the 
usual military "furniture" and camo net back ground.  Like Flory I 
found that  the set worked perfectly most of the time in previous 
weeks  but developed strange symptoms while on site.  For the Moose 
and Squirrel net I set  up in the Sand Dunes  where the   reenactors 
and the German Secret Police  could not see me operating a semi modern 
1980 plastic radio, my trusty SGC-715 with external DDS vfo and the 
now famous "Half Wave End Fed Antenna"  match with the "Fuch" tuner. 
. .  and  Ditto for my schedule  with Flory as the BC-474 receiver was 
flaky, it worked fine for local BC-611 work etc but not for DX. 
Favorite items with the visitors was cranking the gen set and making 
the BC-474 come alive and as usual field phones were popular, in 
addition my  "manual field typewriter" got quite a work out. When 
folks asked me what unit I was in I told them I was a WWII RCA 
Technical Rep. I guess I could join the reenactor  unit there at Fort 
Miles - - - but started off as a Private and doing all that marching 
does not appeal to me.  Been at the bottom of the heap before  so 
think  I will remain a civilian  RCA Radio Tech Rep in the future. 
Aberdeen Military Vehicle Rally is next   - -- - -

   Z