Here's your answer:
You don't get into MARS because MARS is going away, permanently as of July 1st 2009. There is no longer a need for amateur radio support to the U.S. Military. I was a member of U.S. Navy Marine Corps Mars and am sorry to see the MARS programs going away.
Truth be told, ARES, RACES, SKYWARN, and the whole lot of disaster ops are also going away on part of amateur radio. My source for all of this info: an e-mail posted to radio reference not that long ago from the MARS Chief himself.
I have it on good authority that amateur radio will lose the licensing requirement and become another CB service within the next 5 years. Plans are well underway at the FCC due to the economy and the FCC's financial inability to staff region offices with field agents. Also, the FCC Enforcement Office is so overwhelmed that it will take many more enforcement heads AFTER Laura retires before they ever get any head way. The FCC does not have any desire to pursue the amateur service.
With the internet, cell phones, FRS Radios, GMRS, and a real need for the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security to administer huge batches of frequencies for administration / communications at the local levels all over the nation, the plan currently is that the amateur bands will become channelized and we will be secondary users subject to the FCC rules governing the CB bands, and what other frequencies we are not allowed on will be given to Police, Fire, etc. I will not name my source until I have permission. That is all.
I can not comment on your MARS information because I know very little about it but I have heard of the talk of sunsetting the system; however, to say ARES, RACES, and SKYWARN are going away is completely untrue. At least here in North Carolina, a place with relatively mild weather (compared to other parts of the country) and few disasters, ARES and SKYWARN are very strong. We love SKYWARN and while the ARES guys get mostly a lot of practice and work events such as bike races; all across the country, amateur radio has and continues to prove it self as a viable service and many states have begun enacting laws, NC being one of them (noting pro-tower/antenna legislation in the last several years), that make it easier for amateur operators to due what the service was formed to do, in case of emergency provide reliable communications. The media gives ham radio credit when they have to step in for these emergency situations and the FCC is aware of this. They have every care to pursue amateur radio.
Need I mention the mere cutting of some fiber cables in California earlier this year brought basic communications, comms people rely on everyday, to its knees. Emergency services coordinators, police, etc CALLED ARES emergency coordinators to mobilize and provide communications for 911 and to pass traffic for whom ever needed it, on a priority basis of course.
And how about Greensburg, KS:
"The Greensburg tornado killed 11 people, but many more could have died if not for the efforts of forecasters and storm spotters. Most spotters, like Sean, volunteer for the SKYWARN Network. They are amateur radio operators, lawenforcement officers, firefighters and dedicated citizens. The National Weather Service (NWS) trains these storm enthusiasts to recognize the signs of imminent severe weather."
Greensburg Tornado - NBC Action News KSHB-TV 41
Some news agencies have ham radio operators working for them (not paid to be hams but they just happen to be, such as the meteorologists) and set up radios in their offices to catch storm and other activity that is news worthy that could save lives. Ham radio may be hurting here or hurting there, but that is an issue of members living a long time and passing away and going silent. But there has been an influx of new members that CARE about our service and for the most part have maintained best practices. The fact that you have to study, take a test, pay a fee for that test and suffer the scrutiny of other operators if you misuse the service keeps most of those trash talkers off of our bands that would normally be on FRS, CB, GMRS, or MURS.
Lets note that GMRS as it is now is no replacement for amateur radio. You can't do very much with it. FRS was intentionally made to be very limited with its type-acceptance, MURS again, no replace and is even more useless than FRS except for the fact that it is VHF instead of UHF, and CB radio was born out of recognition that an unlicensed channelized low power service was needed in the HF bands but lets note, low power and CHANNELIZED. Cell phones, the Internet, and even billion dollar state wide emergency radio systems, with all their fancy features and bells and whistles, are no replacement for reliable, non-centralized, amateur radio. History tells us this and so will the future.
And you also forget that, on your comment about DHS needing HUGE batches of frequencies, that much of the radio spectrum has been opened up thanks to TV being moved off to small slices of frequencies not that it has gone digital. There is rebanding going on and emergency services will not be blasting into our frequencies. They've steadily been moving off of VHF and UHF (400MHz) into 700 and 800 MHz systems and they are using them quite well especially thanks to trunked radio systems.
However, if this is a joke, this wasn't the place for it