Direct military linking has nothing to do with Active duty soldiers. Do you even realize how many civilian employees work for the military? I suppose none of those have a "direct military link"? BTW, the latest DoD instruction that repurposed MARS has nothing to do with the internet, cell phones, etc. The DoD didn't "hype" anything in it's instruction document. It set out a very clear purpose...have you read it?
BTW, as the state training officer for Navy MARS, I think I'm as qualified as there is to make the statement that we don't discourage anyone who is capable of operating HF from participating in MARS. You don't have to be an Extra class licensee, nor would that license level even apply to any of the MARS training. Regardless of license class, I'd guess that about 80% of the people that apply never even make it through the training.
gee, LOTS of fuzzy logic in the above paragraphs.
"Direct military linking has nothing to do with Active duty soldiers."
??? i STRONGLY disagree with that concept.
"Do you even realize how many civilian employees work for the military? I suppose none of those have a "direct military link"?
NO, they don't,. they are CIVILIAN employees
"the latest DoD instruction that repurposed MARS has nothing to do with the internet, cell phones, etc....have you read it?"
i assume you are refering to DoD inst. 4650.02 yes, i have read it, and THAT WHY i said that MARS has no reason to exist.
they have "lost" their own "customer", the ACTIVE DUTY military member. The traditional land or sea based MARS Radio Phone Patch is largely a thing of the past because land and sea based MARS stations have been dismantled . Morale and welfare messages are no longer the largest activity in MARS due to the increased use of the
Internet and
e-mail by deployed military personnel. .
the DoD instruction only reorganizes (Navy/Marine Corps)MARS as another agency very similar to the Coast Guard Aux. or the Civil Air Patrol. MARS now has an increased role in providing interoperability communications between
Army National Guard and
Air National Guard forces and civilian state agencies .
"as the state training officer for Navy MARS..."
then perhaps you may want to inform the amateurs on 7.173 that they need to refrain from using their MARS calls on the amateur bands
"You don't have to be an Extra class licensee, nor would that license level even apply to any of the MARS training."
i agree, that is what the instruction says, however,..... i stand by my previous comment.
but, just for discussion, as you state: "... nor would that license level even apply to any of the MARS training." if thats the case, then why is a valid AMATEUR license even required to operate on the MARS freqs?
op: why can't "billy-bob" the CB'er be trained too?
don't get me wrong, in the past MARS was a great organization, i operated the MARS station at numerous military units, however, today they are just not needed to support the ACTIVE DUTY military member.
