US Congress - House Armed Services Committee "Urges" MARS Coordination

[loumaag]

ARRL - On May 18, the US House of Representatives approved HR 4310, The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. This bill authorizes appropriations for military activities and prescribes military personnel strengths for Fiscal Year 2013. When the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) sent the bill to the House, it included language in support of the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) and called for the three MARS branches -- Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps -- to be brought under one umbrella.

House Armed Services Committee "Urges" MARS Coordination

 

[902]

How times change...

When I was part of Air Force MARS, the "A" was "Affiliate." Interesting.

At least this direction provides for the continued relevance of HF communications circuits which are, I suspect, more important to continuity of operations than most IT types these days think.

 

[RohnsRadio]

yeah i used to be Army MARS too.
the "a" changed a few years ago. something about the "change of mission in MARS"

really they should have been combined years ago. but some people would not hear of such a thing.

 

[K9WG]

In practice they have been "combined" for several years. There were many times Army and Navy/Marine Corps would operate on our AF nets. The big catchword was "interoperability".

 

[loumaag]

I too was in Army MARS but dropped it when I moved to Texas in 1999. I suppose there have been many changes since then.