Good evening, Army MARS members and guests from Navy-Marine Corps and Air Force MARS, and fellow amateurs monitoring this net.

Next weekend many of us will be at Dayton. It will certainly be one of the year’s real highlights for me. There’s only this one opportunity to communicate face-to-face with members from all over the country. It’s a rare and special joy escaping the e-mail world long enough to see the faces and shake the hands of members. Please make yourselves known and more important, make yourselves heard. That’s important to me, as is the equally rare opportunity to spend face time with the other MARS Chiefs.

I’ll have five topics for the net this evening.

1—Army MARS at Dayton

2—AFD Crossband Test is Here

3—Communication within MARS

4—A Hard Look at Member Qualifications

5—Fifty-two Years and One Historic Experience

Two-way communication is particularly necessary this year with the Army MARS Road Ahead on the front burner and MARS 101 Interactive Training in progress as we speak. The Tiger Team along with national training coordinator Larry Nicholson AAA9TC and myself are already beginning to plan a uniform training program following MARS 101. Gathering feedback is a significant part of that planning. So it’s tops on my Dayton agenda.

Representing headquarters, will be Grant Hayes AAA9O and me. From the Tiger Team, there’ll be Pat Lane AAA9EC and Pat Drothler AAV4DJ, two major participants in drafting the Road Ahead and MARS 101. Look for us at the MARS booth, and of course at the three-service MARS forum. The forum is scheduled for 3:15 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, 16 May in Room 5 at the Hara Arena. Chief Lindfors, N-MC MARS and Chief Eierman, AF MARS will also be there.

Don’t forget—the Armed Forces Day Cross-band test gets underway in the morning. WAR will be on the air from the Pentagon starting at 1200Z, AAC from the Army Reserve Center, Lexington KY from 1300Z, AAZ from Ft Huachuca at 1400Z. I hope the MARS gateway crew will give me a chance at the mic. You want DX, try ALM in Alaska and ABH in Hawaii both from 1600Z. That’s just a partial listing. Among the

two other services, the Navy-Marine Corps MARS HQ station Williamsburg VA will be first to open at 1200Z and the Air Force’s AIR and AIR-2 the same hour from outside Washington and Chicago respectively ,for the beam pointers. The full AFD schedule is listed at the Army MARS web page.

I’ll take this opportunity to thank all the personnel giving their time to make this popular annual event possible. That especially goes for Navy CPT Rick Low AAR3GP who is coordinating at WAR in the Pentagon MARS station; Bill Fitzsimmons AAA2RD, coordinating at AAV Ft Monmouth NJ; Barry Jackson AAA4KY at AAC, Lexington KY, Pat Lane AAA9EC at WUG231, Army Corps of Engineers, Memphis. and CWO4 Rod Mitchell, ALM, Ft Wainwright AK.

As much as I look forward to communicating with members at Dayton, the fact is that most of the time when you hear the word "communication" used in MARS, it refers to the traffic we carry for outsiders. Winlink, for example, has done so much of its work for TSA, or the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, or the Texas Military Forces, to cite several examples. Our Incident Notification/EEI program, too, is primarily an alerting service for external agencies.

This evening I want to address the communication we do for ourselves, that is, the command-and-control communication within MARS. This is a complex subject, a vital subject, and a very timely one. Please bear with me for a few minutes of some rather heavy communicating.

On the previous command net I offered up an alternative perception of the MARS 101 project. Just for the purposes of discussion, I looked at it not as a course of study but as an operational exercise. As a test, that is, of Army MARS capability for responding to a simulated nationwide alert of some undefined but serious nature.

Activating MARS nationally: How quickly could the whole MARS system, leaders and members, take on an entirely unprecedented assignment requiring a measure of mobilization in all 50 states over a relatively indefinite period? That’s the situation that occurred beginning 23 FEB 2009, a system-wide real-time activation that included training as the traffic handled, a mass of traffic in the form of lesson units in digital mode and the concurrent tactical voice communication on training nets. A real disaster could work like that.

Now at this point we have already learned from MARS 101 how the newly-updated National Incident Management System prioritizes its various tasks. It puts Preparedness at the top. To quote NIMS specifically, Preparedness is "Component 1."

Looking at the MARS 101 activation as a test of Component 1, I suggested two weeks ago that Army MARS did very, very well. That may not have been the original game plan, but everyone involved can take pride in this outcome.

This evening I’ll continue on with this vision of MARS 101 as a test of MARS capabilities. The focus at this time will be on NIMS "Component 2," Communication.

What "communication" means: In Section A, paragraph 1 of the eight-page chapter on communication. NIMS uses the words "gathering, collating, synthesizing and disseminating incident information" in defining communication.

Now if this were an interactive training net I’d probably say those elements again and then ask a question of the class. So listen and prepare a response: "gathering . . . collating . . . synthesizing and . . . disseminating."

My question to the class is . . . Shouldn’t there be something more after "disseminating?" Is something missing?

What’s missing, in my view, is any mention of receiving the information—that is, recognizing and comprehending the message, and acting on it. NIMS concentrates entirely on the transmitting end, but by definition, transmitting is only half of a communication. Receiving is equally important—obviously.

Getting to the point: OK, I’ve spent a lot of time laying the ground work. Now I’ll make my point, which is how well our organization fared in the Component 2 aspect of MARS 101.

Not well enough, in my opinion.

I’ll give good marks for the job of "gathering, collating, synthesizing and disseminating" done by the Tiger Team. They had no precedent and very little time but they got the show rolling and I think our training model has been changed for all time even if there’s still room for improvement. It’s the aspect of receiving that’s my primary concern—the recognition, comprehension and action part. Remember, we’re not discussing the training per se. We’re discussing the process of communication, the transmitting and receiving of command and control information.

With two-thirds of MARS 101 under the belt, I see a lot of room for improvement in the process. Let’s get specific. My AAR for the virtual exercise would have to include a number of Problems or Issues Encountered. For example: Trainer failing to comprehend and implement the interactive process as spelled out in the Instruction Guide. Routine business given priority over training on the 101 net instead of handled by e-mail. On-air training begun less than 24 hours after Unit e-mail received by net members despite the specific timetable from HQ allowing trainers and members adequate time for preparation. Net discussion allowed to wander off the designated topic. Continued argument over use of abbreviated call signs after Unit 8 specifically prohibited it. Erroneous relay of the instructions for transmitting Incident Notification/EEIs via Winlink. All of these issues had been clearly addressed in HQ communications.

Why the concern: Viewed against the overall accomplishment of the last two months these are very small points. I cite them only because each reflects the failure to recognize, comprehend and implement a very clear instruction, and it happened on a wide enough scale to be cause for concern

How did such failures of reception this come about? I see two likely causes. One, a lot of data was unloaded in a hurry, all those CAMS, Chief’s Net Notes and the multi-page Tiger Team lesson units. No excuse. Any disaster brings a flood of input. We must train as we fight. As for a likely second cause, there seems to have developed a casual attitude toward digesting documents from headquarters, perhaps on the assumption somebody else will do it for us—the state director, perhaps, or training officer. That’s not acceptable. Again, we train as we fight. A procedure change

announced today in whatever form from HQ could become crucial in an actual incident tomorrow, long before a training net might take it up.

Let’s all be on the same page here. Whether an instruction arrives by CAM, CAMO, Chief’s Net or national training document, it’s meant to be promptly read, comprehended and implemented. There may be questions and they definitely should be asked. But there’s no room in MARS for crafting local exceptions to rules and procedures. One of the prime purposes of the Road Ahead is to eliminate just those variations accumulated over the years. All of them.

End of sermon. We’re doing fine. Just going to work on getting better, and communication is a good place to start.

I was asked this week about a member with many years of loyal service, an estimable veteran of the CW and packet era. He lacks the equipment to complete the MARS 101 training on HF voice. Can the new interactive training mode be waived for him? He definitely wants to remain a member.

I have already made it clear we will do all we can to help those who want to become fully mission capable, but may be a bit slow to accomplish all of the training and technology upgrades. I don’t want to see anyone depart Army MARS. I appreciate that this member has been a member of Army MARS since I was just beginning grade school.

At the same time we need fully capable members who can do the full range of activities we’ll need to effectively serve our Federal/local agency/military customers. So, this is one of those situations where one must step back and ask the question, what MARS is about.

1--It is about fulfilling a mission to provide emergency communications to the military/Federal and other agencies.

2. This mission requires skills and knowledge much different than 20 years ago—or even 5-years ago. Modern equipment is required to accomplish the mission—because our modern customers don’t understand or use the old technology or processes—they expect us to provide state-of-the-art processes and technology – systems they understand and are familiar with using – like e-mail.

Three options: Though many of our members solidly identify with their membership in Army MARS, it really isn’t meant to be a social or fraternal organization -- never has been. There are three options-- become a SAMR simply to retain membership, or upgrade his capabilities and complete the training, or decide to resign.

Fifteen years ago we didn’t have the internet or cell phones – five years we didn’t have Google, four years ago we didn’t have FaceBook—now the digital natives couldn’t even imagine life without these IT capabilities. The same holds true to our Federal and Agency Partners—E-mail is here to stay, Google is a constant tool. Our members must be able to deliver e-mail (and the other skills we need them to develop/provide), use it, understand it, and be conversant about it or else they no longer remain relevant to our mission.

I hope this doesn’t come across too hard, but the reality is we must make the commitment to hone our skills to the new needs of our federal/military/agency partners or decide not to, and call it a day.

Back when Clifford "Mack" McGuyer AAR5BFof Evansville IN received his first Army MARS license, the U.S. had just suffered its first combat fatality in Vietnam, Soviet troops were invading Hungary, Egypt had seized the Suez Canal and Elvis Presley’s first movie opened in New York. The date on his license was 6 NOV 1956, which coincidentally was also the day Dwight Eisenhower won his second term as President.

But 27 MAR 1964 is the date that really established Mack’s career in MARS. Late that afternoon what became known as the "Good Friday Earthquake" struck the North Pacific coastal region killing 115 persons in Alaska plus an additional 16 in Oregon and California. Most were victims of tsunamis. Many towns and villages were devastated, including Anchorage. Damage reached $2 billion measured in today’s dollars. The quake, 8.4 on the Richter scale, is still the most powerful ever recorded in the U.S.

Mack McGuyer’s role is told in the letter that COL W. E. Smitherman, chief of the U.S. Fifth Army’s communications operations division, sent commending him. QUOTE: "for the outstanding manner in which you handled emergency traffic."

COL Smitherman continued, "Fifth US Army MARS distinguished itself by being the only Army MARS net to be in operation less than one hour from receipt of the alert. You demonstrated a great deal of interest and a high degree of ability in handling the emergency traffic."

The colonel concluded: "The success of the Alaska operation is a direct return of the time and effort invested in the many hours of training in net procedures and net discipline conducted in the past."UNQUOTE

Mack, now 90 years old, has been in ill health recently and finally decided to retire. I quote Indiana State Director Jeff Hammer who sent this message to his members this week: "Attention all MARS stations, let it be known that Clifford C. McGuyer, AAR5BF, is retiring from MARS service after 52 years of Dedication . . . It is with both sadness and joy that I ask each of you to congratulate Mack on his service to the MARS program, its members, and to his country. Mack has seen and heard a lot over the years . . ." UNQUOTE.

You’ll be missed, Mack, but I’m confident the example you and your fellow MARS members have set, responding to disaster, will stay with us and will guide us for many years to come.

Team, we are making great progress towards completing the training goals I set forth in Mid Feb. You are rising to the task, you are preparing and you are succeeding.

Keep up the effort to make our team more relevant to meet the disasters that surely await us. Hurricane season starts on 1 June-barely 3-weeks away. I’ll be in Dayton next weekend, and really look forward to seeing all who attend. Remember, I’m here to serve not only the Army and our Federal partners, but to support you, who make this thing work so well.

Happy Mother’s days on Sunday to our lady teammates who are mothers, and Men - be particularly attentive to your mothers and brides on Sunday.

Until we hook up again, continue to aggressively complete the MARS 101 training. I’m proud to be your Chief. TCAMO! CAM Out