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State Agency Calls Army MARS into Action
TEMA Chief of Communications David Wolfe, WA4VVX (MARS call sign AAR4CY), operates the MARS
Winlink station back to the state's Emergency Operations Center. [Steve Waterman, K4CJX, Photo]
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) called Army Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) into action as tornados swept across the Southeastern United States February 5-6. According to Army MARS Chief Stuart Carter, "For the first time as far back as we can remember, a state government called for MARS deployment in response to an actual emergency. The resulting teamwork and use of Army MARS Winlink capability gave TEMA its only e-mail link during President Bush's visit to the storm-stricken area." At least 70 messages were sent during the state operation ranging from casualty figure updates and signal reports to staff rosters and photos.
TEMA's Chief of Communications David Wolfe, WA4VVX (MARS call sign AAR4CY), said, "Although there was no commercial power at the deployment site, TEMA's communications infrastructure was fully operational. Both the VHF high band and 800 MHz repeater systems had good coverage for voice command and control. Our shortage was Internet connectivity, and our unmet needs were e-mail and the ability to send pictures. MARS Winlink provided exactly what was not available by any other means."
Carter said that this event illustrates the importance of detailed preparation and training that has taken place during realistic disaster response exercises over the past several years. "In the case of Tennessee, the story goes back a year and a half. Steve Waterman, K4CJX (MARS call sign AAA9AC) began working with Wolfe in late 2006, preparing for just such a deployment. At the time, Army MARS was just beginning to adopt the Winlink 2000 radio e-mail network system, and with the assistance of the then-Tennessee State Director Paul Drothler, WO4U (MARS call sign AAV4DJ), Army MARS had just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TEMA. This MOU just served to strengthen an already strong relationship between TEMA and Army MARS. Wolfe led TEMA staffers who were already hams to becoming MARS members and to become qualified MARS Winlink 2000 operators. The rest of Wolfe's team soon obtained their Amateur Radio and Army MARS licenses."
The next step, according to Carter, was joint training for TEMA staff and Tennessee Army MARS members. Some was classroom training followed up with extensive field training. The culmination of the field training was TNCAT07, a massive exercise that included the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), an eight-state alert consortium along the New Madrid fault line. This exercise also included the participation by ARRL Amateur Emergency Radio Service (ARES), Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and other EmComm services that clearly demonstrated interoperability between TEMA, Tennessee Army MARS, the Amateur Radio community and other municipal communications services.
"To make a long story short," Carter said, "we now have seen a demonstration of seamless collaboration between Army MARS and one of our supported agencies under 'Real World' emergency conditions. This was the first Army MARS deployment since the Katrina/Rita disasters two years ago. Successfully meeting the challenge involved deployment readiness on the part of our members, and it required total Winlink 2000 mobility. First of all came the building of relationships with existing and potential customers, and then came meticulous training of state and federal staffers, and frequent exercising at home and in the field. With this pattern of established collaboration between our customers and MARS members, we enter the new era of Army MARS Emergency communications support."
Page last modified: 06:56 AM, 29 Feb 2008 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2008, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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