[QCWA] Vietnam Era Overseas Phone Patching

[Dan H. Gaylord]

Bill-
   I don't know if you were one of the guys that made my phone call back to 
the world possible, it doesn't really matter...  Thank you!  from the bottom 
of my heart Thank You! Because of you and guys like you, you helped us 
regain some sense of normalcy out of a very bad dream.  It helped the folks 
back here in the world as well.  they felt re assured that their son and 
daughters too, were OK.  Ya done good my friend.  Thanks!
Dan W7IDG
'Nam 70-71
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bil Seymour" <wrseymour at eee.org>
To: "Discussion of QCWA" <qcwa at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2005 10:33 PM
Subject: [QCWA] Vietnam Era Overseas Phone Patching


> Jeffrey D Angus wrote:
>
>> During Vietnam, Barry Goldwater ran phone patches into the country
>> for people to talk to the soldiers. That was 40 years ago.
>> Even then, most people didn't know about it.
>
>
> =========================================
>
>    I did this, too.  For several years, I had sked's three nights a week 
> with various stations on military bases throughout the Pacific Ocean. We 
> would start at around 1:00AM (Pacific Time) and cycle the soldiers and 
> sailors through at the rate of about one call every 10-minutes.  The 
> sessions would usually last until about 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. I 
> would get the military personnel's home telephone number and call his 
> family collect.  (Of course, none of them knew the call was coming and I 
> would invariably wake them up in -- especially for the East Coast 
> families -- the middle of the night.)  Not one family ever refused to 
> accept the charges.  I would have to educate the people on the telephone 
> how to say "Over" and to stand by during the time their son was talking --  
> and we had the occasional mix up -- but it was generally a smooth 
> operation.  This was almost always on 15 Meters and I used my Yaesu 
> FTdx-560 with factory phone patch and my Mosley 3-element Yagi-Uda.  I was 
> going to college at the time and the next day I was usually very tired 
> from being up so late, but I considered it my contribution to the welfare 
> of our troops -- who must have been pretty miserable much of the time. 
> And, you're right, not very many people knew about this aspect of Ham 
> Radio.
>       73,
>
>          <<<<    Bil  --  WA6MOD    >>>>
>
>
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