Bill Sexton N1IN/AAA9PC
Posted: 12 JUL 04

"What next?" wasn't just a rhetorical question for the hams who volunteer in MARS, the Military Affiliate Radio System, following the terrorist assault on New York and Washington, D.C.

With vital communications hubs at least as vulnerable as airliner cockpits, one of government’s predictable first concerns had to be keeping in touch with all its agencies and offices across the nation. The availability of hundreds of trained volunteer radio operators spread throughout the 50 states would help with that.

And available they were on Tuesday morning, September 11.

Within 15 minutes of the first crash, the first of many emergency information messages had been transmitted by a MARS member to the Pentagon. Within an hour, a coast-to-coast backup net was forming.

The initial call for assistance came from the National Communications System in the Department of Commerce. An e-mail alert just before 10 a.m. EDT (1400Z) ordered NCS participating stations to operational level 2, "emergency potential exists." The alert, said the NCS message, "is requested by the FBI, the National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications, and the General Services Administration."

This activated a national coordination net. By 2 p.m. more than 200 stations had checked in. Among the participants were FEMA outposts, FAA offices, the American Red Cross and state emergency operations centers, as well as the MARS members enrolled in SHARES, the HF "Shared Resources" program of the NCS.

A general alert to all MARS members came soon afterward from the Fort Huachuca, Ariz., Army MARS headquarters, and then a formal request for assistance from FEMA.

By the end of two days of operations, Army MARS Chief Bob Sutton N7UZY (MARS call AAA9A) could report from Fort Huachuca that 23 state and regional nets had been activated with 229 individual stations participating. U.S. Army Europe’s MARS contingent also responded. Air Force and Navy-Marine Corps MARS operations were in addition to these, swelling the response.

So far there was no attack on the communications lines, although a massive surge of calls had the same effect of blocking normal connections into much of Washington and New York. But MARS and its partners in NCS SHARES demonstrated their effectiveness during a genuine emergency of international scope.

The MARS program dates back to 1925, when licensed amateurs were invited to assist the military in times of emergency. The NCS came later. During the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, fear of another type of attack prompted President John F. Kennedy to create the program by executive order. Army MARS became a part of the then-new SHARES HF collaborative in 1990.

At that time many government bureaus and branch offices had HF radio equipment for use within their own agencies. SHARES provided the frequency planning and network organization for them to interact if telephone and digital lines should fail. Amateur participants, selected by Navy-Marine Corps, Air Force and Army MARS managers, provide skilled net control stations, as well as broad geographical coverage, and they are geared to handle digital and ALE links, in addition to voice, on designated frequencies outside the ham bands.

In both MARS and SHARES, the ham mission of long-distance connectivity differs from ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) and RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service), which primarily conduct close-in communications support (as within the Manhattan disaster zone). They complement each other.

Wilbur Goll of Shawnee, Kan., (ham call sign W0DEL, Air Force MARS call AFA3HY), is the volunteer who serves as central area net control for SHARES. He counted 63 Army MARS, 44 Navy-Marine Corps MARS, and 28 Air Force MARS stations in the initial operation. His log also recorded 54 Federal agency offices, 35 Civil Air Patrol stations and six commercial carriers such as AT&T participating.

One of the first government agencies to require emergency communications was SHARES itself. Located in an office building near the Pentagon, the SHARES staff was immediately evacuated. Operations chief Ken Carpenter KD6DBX, a retired Marine Corps communicator, quickly returned to the air with portable equipment at a secure Northern Virginia location.

Regional SHARES nets also activated across the country, bringing in many more hams. Among the busiest was the Northeast Coordination Net, which provided links from Arlington, Va., near the Pentagon, to Long Island, N.Y., immediately outside the disaster zone, to western Pennsylvania. During the first hours, 29 stations, the bulk of them hams in the MARS organizations, stood by to handle traffic.

From Essex County, N.J., Bill Fitzsimmons, N2LMU (Army MARS call AAR2CB), was on the air within sight of the plume of smoke over the World Trade Center. Fitzsimmons not only joined the SHARES net, but also operated the MARS Region 2 digital gateway (covering N.Y.-N.J.), relaying emergency traffic to higher headquarters — including the first bulletin on the crash.

This came within 15 minutes from David Popkin, W2CC (AAA2NJ), the New Jersey state MARS director. He lives in Englewood, just across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan. By the end of the operation Popkin initiated 28 “essential elements of information” status reports.

Arthur Walsh, AB4BG (Navy MARS call NNN0FAD), checked in from Annandale, Va., noting close proximity to the Pentagon. Leland Willett N2EMG (Army MARS call AAR2ML) checked in from Baldwin, Long Island, near JFK Airport.

Don Gibb, WA2VSL (Air Force MARS AFA1NY), returned home at Conestoga, Pa., from an early doctor's appointment to discover SHARES going full blast. Gibb, who manages the Northeast regional coordination net, quickly took control.

Jeffrey Bixby, W4BIX (Air Force MARS call AFA2EA), of Arlington, Va., close by the Capitol, offered his mobile station for use when it became known government buildings were being evacuated.

Chief Sutton credited Army MARS members with initiating 49 "essential elements of information" reports for use by Pentagon planners, including early damage and transportation status reports.

“We want to personally thank all of those that were involved in the MARS support after this incident,” Sutton said. “You have done a great job.”

He singled out the work of Delaware state MARS director Bob Harding W3JEE (MARS call AAA3DE) who, responding to a broadcast call for operator assistance from the Delaware Army National Guard, hurried to state guard headquarters. There he established a radio link with the guard’s alerted helicopter units, activated ALE (automatic link establishment) with the National Guard Bureau, signed in on the SHARES regional net, and monitored local nets for six hours until sufficient guard personnel were on site.

“A terrible day that will never be forgotten,” Harding summed up in his after-action report.

The Army MARS eastern area coordinator Bob Hollister, N7INK (AAA9E), whose territory included all the Tuesday incidents, messaged members afterward: "As we stop and take a moment to reflect upon the events of the past 48 hours, I would ask each of you to renew your commitment to yourselves and your families to continue to make this country strong against the enemies and to prepare to meet what may be even more serious challenges in the future."

Bill Sexton N1IN

Army MARS public awareness coordinator
413-698-3247

P O Box 428 Richmond MA 01254

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