06/01/08
Being selected as the Army MARS Region 4 Deputy Director is a great honor for me. As such
I aid the Region 4 Director who has overall responsibility, covering 10 states. These are divided into
to regions east and west. I am responsible for the east region which covers North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida. My role is to aid the Region Director
with admin and operations within my Region.
The MARS program has been around for some 80 years. It involves all three major services
(Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine Corp). MARs has traditionally been involved with mars grams
from our deployed service men and women to their families. Since the internet and cell phones have
come into play, the MARS role has changed to emergency communications in support of Federal
Agencies. MARS still handles some mars grams for those who are deployed,
as it is a great morale booster.
MARS members go through a training period and after completion there is continuous training
in message handling, proper procedures, different modes of communications to mention a few. At
present the program is going through some changes to insure complete interoperability with the other
services, and in support of the Federal Government.
As a member I was involved in the rescue of three people in New Orleans during Katrina. I am
also an alternate net control station for The National Communications System's Shared Resources
(SHARES) High Frequency Radio Program.
If anyone desires more information on the MARS program, feel free to contact me at
n4nwa@embarqmail.com
. I will be glad to assist as much as possible.William R Faust (Roadkill)/N4NWA
Army MARS Deputy Region Director
Region 4 East
MARS is keeping me busy.
I am no longer the NC State Army MARS Director, I am now the Deputy
Region Director East another first for people of our persuasion (that fly in the
milk
just wont go away). I now am responsible for South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida and of course North Carolina. I have the responsibility to make
sure all training is done correctly, nets are operated at their scheduled
time and operated correctly. In an emergency I am responsible for
coordinating all communication within the four states if they are affected and
insure
that the affected area has comms. If the situation is not within my
region I will coordinate with the Deputy Region Director West to give any
assistance
needed. Emergency Communication (emcom) is the name of the game now.
Mars still handles on a secondary basis Health and Welfare traffic for
the military but with the advent of cell phones and the internet we
don't see a lot of traffic. Although you can go to the Army MARS web site and
send a message to any
wounded soldier( a great morale booster) over seas. Mars is now tasked
by several Federal Agencies to handle communications in an emergency;
TSA, DHS to name a few.
Roadkill/N4NWA/AAR4QR/AAM4RDE