[SCCC] SCCC & OCRG Get Together - Reminder

[Jim Forsyth]

Our guest speaker will be Dennis Vernacchia, N6KI.

This program is for anyone who would be interested in hearing how 
soldiers during the Vietnam War, got to talk home to their families and 
friends when long distance overseas telephone rates were prohibitive for 
the average income person and/or no phone lines existed at bases and 
remote outposts in Vietnam. Only some pertinent logistics of the MARS 
Vietnam system will be presented to outline the difficulties the Army 
MARS administrators caused us.

The talk will also show how the cunning and "Yankee Ingenuity" by a 20 
year old, marginally trained soldier, shanghaied into an elite and 
remotely isolated combat Airborne Infantry unit firebase, managed to 
mostly stay out of harm's way and employ all his very focused civilian 
skills, as a young ham radio operator, to provide one of the best morale 
boosting services for his fellow comrades when he maneuvered himself 
into the penultimate job his skills could offer his unit.

Because the U.S. Army did not have a formal assigned MOS (Military 
Occupational Specialty) as MARS Operator, as did the Air Force, 
Navy/Marines, many other hams that served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam 
had similar experiences getting into MARS stations which possibly may 
have also saved their lives, or at a minimum, their mental sanity, by 
applying their ham radio skills learned in civilian life.

Poignant audio clips, recorded in the late 1960s segment of the war, of 
soldiers talking to their loved ones, interspersed with a unique 
collection of color and black and wide slides, will, at times, keep the 
audience on the edge of their seats, and again prove that Amateur Radio 
is a valuable public resource that, at times, can and has saved lives!

We will meet at the Hotel California - 10931 Hunting Horn Drive, Santa 
Ana, CA 92705-2499 on Saturday, February 13, 2016 at 2:30 PM. The 
program will commence about 3:00 PM. Please RSVP to Arnie by email at 
n6hc at aol.com or landline at 714-573-2965.