Posted: 12 JUL 04
To the radio operators at Base Camp Iceberg, Belize, duct tape was not the stuff of jokes. It performed very well in the jungle of Central America, thank you, supporting the camp’s inverted-V dipole from a standard U.S. Army military mast.
(Right: Lt. Col. Darrel Wyatt’s Army Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) station linking the 73rd U.S. Army Field Hospital Belize)
Nor was there anything lightweight about the antenna fashioned entirely of plain-vanilla tv-type twinlead. This worked just fine for Lt. Col. Darrel Wyatt’s Army Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) station linking the 73rd U.S. Army Field Hospital Belize Detachment with its home base in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Why duct tape and twin lead?
"The antenna had to fit in a duffel bag,” Wyatt explained. “There wasn’t room for anything fancier.”
ACM7RAA, one of the newest soldier stations in the Army MARS, proved to be a very busy one on its maiden deployment in February 2003. During the first days of operation it handled priority resupply traffic plus phone patch connections by the dozen between the deployed troops (predominately called-up reservists) and their families back home.
The soldiers’ mission in Central America was humanitarian, with an overtone of preparedness for war. The 73rd provided medical care for Task Force Jaguar, an engineer team drawn from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps building community facilities for the impoverished population. Its medics also brought unfortunately rare health care to villages nearby.
Wyatt is a physician in the civilian side of his life (based in Crystal River, Fla.) and a 33-year veteran in the Army reserves. He’s also an extra-class amateur radio operator known to Florida MARS by the military call sign AAV4FB and the billet assignment of state MARS recruitment coordinator on the staff of state MARS director Bert Fow AAA4FL.
Wyatt and the initial detachment arrived in Central America Feb. 15. By 5 p.m. that day he had joined the regular Florida MARS afternoon traffic net.
Among the first messages handled was a MARSgram (morale-and-welfare message) to his friend and fellow MARS member Becky Norman, AAV4FN, back in Crystal River: “All arrived safely. No landline. No e-mail. In case of emergency send MARS priority.” (Becky Norman, who is Florida MARS webmaster, responded to the MARS operator relaying it, “Roger. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”)
While Belize was getting on the air, MARS phone patch stations back in the United States went on the watch to handle contacts with families back home. Operators in nearly a dozen states pitched in to relay the calls as propagation came and went. (When veterans and friends in Ocala Fla., site of the Florida MARS phone patch station AAR4CSS, heard of the operation, they began contributing phone cards to help pay for the long-distance connections within the United States)
Chief Army MARS Bob Sutton was quick to congratulate Wyatt and his Belize crew and the stateside members who worked with them.
“For all of those that were/are involved, our hats are off to you,” Sutton declared in his weekly broadcast. “Thanks for a job well done.”
After a week, Wyatt set about training fresh operators to keep the station going after his rotation home. This was on top of supervising erection of the portable hospital and providing medical care for the engineers, whose work can be dangerous.
Later, back home, Wyatt described the operation.
“Base Camp Iceberg started with an empty field,” he said. “No electricity, no water, no phone, no fence. Plenty of bugs! Including very large scorpions. There was one small boa constrictor."
“On rotation one, our principal duties were to establish the base camp, including the hospital. This included the establishment of water, power and security for the site, along with sleeping quarters (tents) and the hospital (also in tents, but with climate control)."
“The mission of the 73rd Field Hospital in Belize was multiple, first to support Task Force Jaguar, in their planned construction of four schools and one community center for the community of Dangriga, Belize. These engineers doing ground prep and using large, heavy equipment, tend to be at risk of major crushing accidents. Support of a unit of this type requires continuous ambulance support at the job site and a constant state of readiness for serious trauma." One serious accident did occur, involving a vehicle.
“The second mission was to run was we call MEDRETTE missions to outlying civilian communities. This area is medically under-served.” -- Bill Sexton, AAA9PC