San Antonio Hams

Good evening.

I am a retired Marine writing a book about an October 1979 typhoon, fuel spill and fire at a U. S. Marine Corps training camp on the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan. The incident left 73 injured — most of them Marines, many horribly burned. Thirteen died. 38 of the injured were evacuated from Japan to Brooke Army Medical Center.

Among the many people in San Antonio who rallied to help those Marines and their families were volunteer MARS operators who set up a station on the hospital’s seventh floor. They spent hours arranging phone patches for the Marines’ families — allowing them to avoid long-distance telephone charges while keeping relatives updated on their loved one’s health, and taking care of business in their hometowns.

The help made it easier for family members to remain by their Marine’s bedside — which doctors said increased patients’ likelihood of survival.

Would your club (sent ot SARC originally) by chance have any sort of historical records documenting this kind service? Might any of the volunteer operators who helped be available to share recollections?

I will be doing research in San Antonio from Saturday, May 21 until Saturday, May 28. Should it be possible to learn more about this aspect of the story of the Camp Fuji Marines, I would be most grateful for any available information.

More about me — and examples of my work — can be found at ChasHenry.com.

Thank you for your consideration.

Gratefully, and Semper Fidelis,
Chas Henry

Mobile: +1 703.303.3083

The Skywarn Operators at the Austin-San Antonio NWO are in the process of updating our files and call-up list. Recently we have found the EC’s, Skywarn Coordinators and Net Controls have changed drastically in the various counties we serve.
It has also been found that several repeaters used in the past to contact and monitor Skywarn operations have changed or are no longer functioning.
If someone from each county could please e-mail me the contact information, frequencies and other pertinent information for ARES and Skywarn it would be greatly appreciated.
Also be advised that we have created a Facebook page and Twitter account to help get the word out. Feel free to like or follow to stay up to date with our operations.
Thank You, Louis – K5STX
e-mail to wx5exw at gmail dot com

W2IK

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“National Guard Helicopters drop supplies to support towns completely cut off due to Hurricane Irene” “No power, phone or roads to towns hard hit by Hurricane Irene”

I’m sure you’ve seen the videos of cars being swept down swollen rivers in Vermont. Who would have ever thought that a coastal hurricane would dump so much water over land-locked Vermont to cause such devastation! This reminds me of the time back in the late 1990’s when I was dropped along with supplies in to a town in upstate New York to supply emergency communications during the North East Ice Storm. It’s just another reminder that emergency communications teams must be prepared for any event. This is also a glaring reminder that we need well-trained “Jump Teams” in every area to assist with emergency communications support. EVERY local emergency communications group needs to have a Jump Team on hand to help cope with this type of disaster. Just as it happened in Vermont, it could happen in Texas. Towns being cut off. No power. No communications.

 If you don’t know how to start a Jump Team, or what your team would need, just go to this website for information and support: http://www.texasmars.com/

 Bob W2IK

Due to lack of response, W2IK and the Bexar Operators Group (W5BOG) have decided to cancel the 2011 Jump Team Boot Camp  for emergency communicators. It takes a great deal of lead time and planning to run this program, reserve the wildlife refuge area, line up the two Army survival specialists, check out several tons of jump team gear, etc. With no inquiries, usually by now the reservation list would be almost full, we can only assume no one feels this training is needed so we will also retire from offering it in the future.

Bob  W2IK

HAITI: ECOM Operatoins appear to be slowing down somewhat.  The hospital ship USNS COMFORT is no longer accepting trauma patients, at the request of the Haitian government, and is preparing to return to the U.S.

The University of Miami Mediashare Operation has beem moved from the International Airport to another area, so that the airport could open for regular commercial traffic.

Our MARS volunteers continue to provide support to the effort and will, for a while yet.   Keep them in your thoughts, as they are in a less secure area now that they have moved off the International Airport.

W2IK now has a new EMCOMM only web site:  WWW.W2IK.NET   which contains emcomm info including parts of his 250 page “EMCOMM AND YOU” CD.    

This site is a work in progress and is constantly growing, but it’s presently  loaded with lots of useful information about developing your own emergency communications skills.   

 This site contains ONLY EMCOMM material.

The new Canadian training course contains over 100 pages which were written by W2IK, so we must be doing something right.

On Wednesday, December 23, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued an Instruction concerning MARS, effective immediately.

This Instruction gives the three MARS services — Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps — a new focus on homeland security and a new name: Military Auxiliary Radio System.

 The Instruction is the first major revision to MARS since January 26, 1988 — as such, the first revision since the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, two major events that changed the way Amateur Radio dealt with emergency communications.

The DoD defines a “military auxiliary” as “an organized body of volunteers prepared to supplement the uniformed services or any designated civilian authorities by provision of specialized autonomous services when called upon or when situations warrant,” and gives the Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxiliary as examples of auxiliaries.

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