During the Vietnam conflict, there were no individual personal cellular or landline telephones available for soldiers or sailors to use for calling family members back home. To address this, United States MARS (Military Affiliate Radio Service) stations from all branches of the service, Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, were deployed throughout Vietnam. The MARS system offered soldiers and sailors a way to personally communicate with loved ones back home via the use of a “phone-patch” telephone connection over short-wave radio. MARS stations would allow each soldier a free 5-minute personal radio telephone call home to the United States.
The Navy-Marine Corps MARS program was established officially on 17 August 1962, and began operations on 1 January 1963. This follows the Cuban Missile Crisis and President Kennedy’s concern for viable and extended communications capabilities. Each military service had it own MARS program, networks, frequencies, operators and stations. A ham could apply for MARS membership and help service members call home.
One of the operators explains the process in making a patch. First the band would have to be open to patch quality conditions. Then a MARS operator would call the MARS station in Vietnam for a “Listing” of service members who wanted to make a call, to whom and what phone number. The only cost was a collect call charge the family had to accept from the ham’s location. The HAM operator in the states would then get a telephone company operator on their home phone line and have the collect call placed. Once the charge was accepted and the family member was on the line, the operator would instruct the family member that only one person could talk at a time and they had to say “over” when they were finished talking and not start talking until after the service member said “over.” Then the operator would call Vietnam for the service member to come on line. The call then proceeded.
When using this system, soldiers were required to follow a certain protocol. Since this was a non-secure band, we were not to mention anything about where we were or what we were doing in Vietnam. The time limit was also strictly enforced – the crew member would hold up his hands and count down from 10 before terminating the call.
The most difficult part of the conversation was in remembering to say “over” when completing your comment, this was required for the ham radio operators listening in to switch back and forth. I remember speaking with my mother once when she forgot to say “over” after her comment and there was a longer than usual silent pause. I hollered into the handset several times for her to say “over” but she couldn’t hear me until the circuit was switched. Finally, after what seemed to be almost a full minute of silence, I heard her gulp and quickly respond, “oh, over,” which then allowed the switch to take place so I could talk again. In just about all cases, MARS was the only way soldiers could call home from Vietnam. In other words, “MARS was the soldiers’ Telephone Company.”
When wanting to place a call, there was a sign-up list for your name, the name of the party you’re trying to reach and that phone number. For us grunts, sometime. we weren’t able to use the system because of an exceptionally long waiting list or the MARS group was unable to get a decent connection. Both required time, a luxury that grunts on stand down did not have. I should mention that in any location where field hospitals were present, a patient wanting to place a call always got to skip to the front of the line.
The process was a science! Operators on both ends had to know:
- when the peak of the sunspot cycle would ionize the ‘E’ layer of the ionosphere
- when to point an antenna at exactly the right spot a hundred miles out in space
- how to reflect a high frequency radio signal off the ionized layer, over the curve of the earth, and into a similar station in the United States
- how to hook it all up to a telephone line for the call to take place.
Sometimes, when the signals became too weak to be ‘phone patch quality’, they sent and received written messages for the troops in the form of MARSGRAMS by ‘CW’, or Morse Code, that could blast through the interference.
Photo courtesy of Gardina-mars7-454
A network of more than 80 Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine MARS stations in Vietnam transmitted more than 2.5 million phone patches and handled more than 1 million MARSgram messages to several hundred stateside MARS stations, some in the homes of volunteer ham radio operators and the others on military bases.
| Station | Location(s) | Sponsoring Units | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| AB8AB | Qui Nhon | HHD, QNH Sub-Area Command | 66-72 |
| AB8AC | Cam Rahn Bay | C Co 41st signal | 67-68 |
| AB8AD | Di An | 121st Signal Battalion, 1st Infantry Division | 66-70 |
| Kontum | Task Force #2, ADV | 70-72 | |
| AB8AE | An Khe | 509th Signal Battalion | 66-67 |
| An Khe | 41st Signal Battalion, 1st Air Cavalry Division | 67-70 | |
| DaNang | 142nd Trans | 71-73 | |
| AB8AF | Soc Trang | 52nd Signal Battalion | 67-70 |
| Long Binh | USARV Headquarters | 70-73 | |
| AB8AG | Nha Trang | 54th Signal Battalion | 66-73 |
| AB8AH | Phuoc Vinh | 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division | 66-69 |
| Bien Hoa | HQ, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment | 69-70 | |
| New Port (Saigon) | USS LTC Page | 70-72 | |
| AB8AI | Bac Lieu | MACV Advisory Team 51 | 66-69 |
| Ca Mau | MACV Advisory Team 51 | 69-72 | |
| AB8AJ | Cu Chi | 125th Signal Battalion, 25th Infantry Division | 66-71 |
| AB8AK | Phan Rang | 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division | 67-68 |
| Camp Eagle (Hue) | HQ, 1st Brigade. 101st Airborne Div. | 68-71 | |
| Song Be | MACV Advisory Team 28 | 71-73 | |
| AB8AL | Lai Khe/Thu Dau Mot | MACV Advisory Team 70 | 66-71 |
| AB8AM | Bien Hoa | 173rd Airborne Brigade | 66-68 |
| Due Pho (LZ English) | 173rd Airborne Brigade | 68-71 | |
| AB8AN | Can Tho | 13th Aviation Battalion | 66-72 |
| AB8AO | Xuan Loc | MACV Advisory Team 95 | 66-71 |
| Cao Lanh | MACV Advisory Team 84 | 71-72 | |
| AB8AP | Hue City | Special Forces Advisory Group | 66-70 |
| Camp Eagle | MACV Advisory Team 3 | 71 -72 | |
| AB8AQ | Phu Bai | 8th Radio Research Field Station | 66-73 |
| AB8AR | Cam Ranh Bay | 1st Trans Battalion, USNS Corpus Christi | 66-68 |
| Off of Vung Tau | 1st Trans Battalion, USNS Corpus Christi | 68-72 | |
| AB8AS | Pleiku | 4th Infantry Division | 66-70 |
| AB8AT | Co A 53d Signal Bn, II Field Force Vietnam | 66-68 | |
| Long Binh (north) The Plantation | Units of the 25th Infantry Division | 68-70 | |
| AB8AU | Camp Bear Cat / Dong Tam | 9th Signal Battalion, 9th Infantry Division | 66-69 |
| Bien Hoa | HQ, II Field Force, USARV | 69-71 | |
| AB8AU/AZ | MOBILE Unit Traveled throughout AOR | 9th Signal Battalion, 9th Infantry Division | 68-69 |
| AB8AV | Vung Tau | 369th Signal Battalion 36th Evacuation Hospital | 68-71 |
| AB8AW | Nha Trang | HQ, 5th Special Forces Group | 66-71 |
| AB8AX | Hoi An (Hawk Hill) | 196th Light Infantry Brigade | 68-70 |
| AB8AY | Phan Thiet (LZ Betty) | MACV Advisory Team 37 | 67-68 |
| Phan Thiet (LZ Betty) | 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division | 69-70 | |
| Tan Son Nhut (Saigon) | 224th Aviation Battalion | 70-73 | |
| AB8AZ | Dong Tam | 9th Signal Battalion, 9th Infantry Division | 67-69 |
| Phu Bai | 501st Signal Battalion, 101st Airborne Division | 69-71 | |
| AB8AAA | Long Binh | 1st Logistical Command | 68-70 |
| Saigon | Headquarters, MACV | 70-72 | |
| AB8AAB | Bien Hoa | 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division | 68-70 |
| Bao Loc | MAC V Advisory Group | 70-71 | |
| AB8AAC | Bear Cat Mountain | 4th Infantry Division | 68-70 |
| Dau Tieng / Phuoc Vinh | 587th Signal Company for 3rd Brigade 25th Infantry 1968 13th Signal Battalion, 1st Air Cavalry Division |
70-71 | |
| AB8AAD | Chu Lai | 523rd Signal Battalion & 27th Evacuation Hosp & Americal Division | 67-72 |
| AB8AAE | Camp Eagle (Hue) | 501st Signal Company, 101st Airborne Division | 68-71 |
| AB8AAF | Tuy Hoa | 261st Signal Company | 68-71 |
| AB8AAG | Camp Evans (north of Hue) | 1st Air Cavalry Division | 67-68 |
| AB8AAH | Duc Pho | 11th Infantry Brigade | 67-71 |
| AB8AAI | Dong Ha (near DMZ) | Units of 101st Airborne Division & 5th Mech | 69-71 |
| AB8AAJ | Pleiku | 43rd Signal Battalion & 71st Evacuation Hospital | 68-71 |
| AB8AAK | Camp Red Devil (Quang Tri) | 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) | 69-71 |
| AB8AAL | Phu Loi | 520th Transportation Battalion | 69-72 |
| AB8AAM | Pleiku (Camp Frank Jones) | 146th Signal Company | 70-73 |
| AB8AAN | Dalat | 5th Special Forces Advisory Team | 69-72 |
| AB8AAO | Dong Ba Thi | MACV Advisory Team | 70-71 |
| AB8AAP | Vinh Long | 7th of the 1st Air Cavalry & 164th Aviation Group | 68-71 |
| AB8AAQ | Camp Evans | 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division | 69-72 |
| AB8AAR | Firebase Mace | 199th Light Infantry Brigade | 69-70 |
| AB8AAS | Phu Bai | XXIV Corps HQ & 101st Airborne Division | 69-71 |
| AB8AAT | Da Nang | 37th Signal Bn Compound 69-70 China Beach 71-73 | 68-73 |
| AB8AAU | Phu Lam (near Saigon) | Stratcom HQ, USARV/MACV | 69-73 |
| AB8AAV | Song Be (Phan Rang) | MACV Advisory Team | 69-71 |
| AB8AAW | Cat Lai | MACV Advisory Team | 68-71 |
| AB8USA | Long Binh | Headquarters, USARV | 65-72 |
| Tan Son Nhut (Saigon) | 69th Signal Battalion, USARV | 72-73 | |
| AB8SG | Saigon | U.S. Embassy | 73-75 |
The last MARS facility to go off the air was probably AB8SG located in the American Embassy in Saigon during the evacuation of the Embassy in 1975. Just about every Army unit in the field had a MARS station, including Airborne Brigades, Special Forces Advisory Groups, Infantry Divisions, Transportation Battalions, Medical Units, Aviation Battalions, and of course most Signal Corps units.
The traditional land or sea band MARS Radio Phone Patch is largely a thing of the past because land and sea based MARS stations have been dismantled in favor of Satellite Phones. However, modern military aircraft are still equipped with HF radios, and many military aircrews still use MARS Phone Patches as a backup or substitute to Satellite Communications. The USAF MARS Phone Patch Net provides 24/7 HF Radio Phone service to all branches of U.S. military aircraft worldwide.
Today, satellite phones and using Skype with a laptop makes it much easier for soldiers around the world to keep in touch with families.
I think I used the MARS system twice during my tour in Vietnam. Anybody else?
Sources:
http://mymilitaryheritage.com
http://ki6cm.bappy.com/catalog_1.html
https://www.geneseo.edu/~scipione/Excerpts/Mars
http://www.vietnamwar50th.com/military_amateur_radio_system
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Used MARS several times during my three tours and was really thankful for them. During my second tour we had one helicopter with a HF radio and was able to use it once (before it was removed) to call home from the helicopter though I think MARS was still patched in somewhere. Seemed like magic at the time………….
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Hmm I was in the Nam from early May 1970 until, early May 71. Assigned to the 48th Trans based in Long Bihn / Saigon. Then appx 6 mo. later we joined forces with another Truck Co. & then we took all our equipment to Port Of Saigon. A couple days later we all loaded on C-147z at TonSonNhut and flew north to a landing zone near, Quang Tri. Been so long, I’ve forgotten the, actual day I arrived and left there. I never called, anywhere. However, on my R&R from there to HAWAII. I did try to call, home from HAWAII. Different hours/times meant, I could not talk with the people, I tried to call. I see in 1 picture, a dog with some men. I’m wondering where the Dog, came from. The only animals I ever saw, in Viet Nam was Water Buffalo.
On Fri, Nov 10, 2017 at 3:47 PM, Cherries – A Vietnam War Novel wrote:
> pdoggbiker posted: “During the Vietnam conflict, there were no individual > personal cellular or landline telephones available for soldiers or sailors > to use for calling family members back home. To address this, United States > MARS (Military Affiliate Radio Service) stations f” >
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Hi Okie.
I had an uncle that was a HAM operator and he often was the other side of the MARS calls for soldiers calling home. At the time he was in Harrisburg Pa. In addition, when I ten, our family were stationed at Kadena AFB, Okinawa and we used MARS to call family back in the states. You might say I grew up with MARS and HAM. Okie, I’m glad you are contributing to John’s posts.
John – you did it again with an outstanding post. Thank you, friend.
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If anyone reads, my comments ? I’d appreciate a, reply. Good / Bad. OK
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I took Basic 11/65 at Ft Gordon Ga. Whenever we walked to the ranges we’d pass a large array of tall antennas that had a MARS logo on a sign.
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Like I, worked at AB8AQ in 69. Lots of good times on the air, met a lot of great ops.
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I got one call through around Christmas, finally got through after incoming mortar attack cut me off the first time. When I came home I became a Ham Radio operator and did calls myself for others. You read about it if you go to QRZ.com and look up my radio call sign K2VET. Thanks to those radio guys in 1969, you don’t know how much that meant when your thinking you might not come home. 73’s Michael
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I remember calling my girlfriend who became my wife in mid 68
The funniest thing was at the end I said I love you over, she said your over loving me >>??? No I love you over, say you love me then say over
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All comments are sensible.
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Anytime 2 people are communicating VIA telephone. Some things will come out to be different than what the messenger / sender means. LoL
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Hello! Thanks for sharing this story. As an Iraq Vet, it’s amazing to hear how different things are for my generation. In Iraq, I would sometimes complain about not having cellular service from my combat outpost in Tarmiyah, or an internet connection that could link the video calls quickly enough. I think my unit would have gone bananas had we been required to deal with MARS. Welcome home, and thanks for sharing your stories.
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This article surprised me cause Worked a MARS station at Cam RHAN Bay in
1971 with a E 5 I met at the O club
(snuck in ) on the hill. Got a letter of
Reconition from the Base Commander
For the clear communications He had when he made his call home. But there was on thing that got me. In September of 70 I arrived in Nam Got assigned to 65 Engineer Battalion
25th INF DIV 3rd BRDG at DAU TIENG
I was there till March or April of 71
And never knew about the Mars at DAU
TIENG
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It’s late, for me. I’m signing OFF
On Sun, Nov 12, 2017 at 7:32 PM, Cherries – A Vietnam War Novel wrote:
> Russell Harrington commented: “This article surprised me cause Worked a > MARS station at Cam RHAN Bay in 1971 with a E 5 I met at the O club (snuck > in ) on the hill. Got a letter of Reconition from the Base Commander For > the clear communications He had when he made his call home. B” >
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I operated AB8AQ at Phu Bai a few times when they needed help in 1968. Ken W8ASA
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Never too, late. Sometimes, too early might not be, so good either.
On Sun, Nov 12, 2017 at 11:09 PM, Cherries – A Vietnam War Novel wrote:
> Ken Gunton commented: “I operated AB8AQ at Phu Bai a few times when they > needed help in 1968. Ken W8ASA” >
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Hey Ken. I operated AB2USA on Okinawa 68-69 handle was Dave. I ran net control for all AB8 and stations running phone patch traffic and MARS grams on RTTY. There was an operator at AB8AQ his handle was Chip. Talk to him every night. My brother was stationed at Camp Eagle use to talk with him every Wednesday night through AB8AQ. “Phu Bias is alright”
DJ
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John, bravo on your Nam books and website. I am astounded I hadn’t read your stuff before. I got your MARS Nam piece from my MARS Nam buddy Dennis V. (N6KI) who was at AB8AY. I was a PT volunteer op at AB8AQ at Phu Bai during 1969-70 when I ran the 101st Airborne’s Personnel Trans Branch at Camp Campbell (101 Admin) at Phu Bai, just down HW1 from the 8th Radio Research (Spook-Spooky). I had briefly been a ham before college. Dennis got me back on the air in 1989 with the help of his Newark buddy Don (KO2K) and I went from Novice to Extra in 10 months. My FCC callsign has been AA2AV for two decades. I also hold the N0AI club call (November Zero American Italian). Author of two Nam books — the novel Shades of Gray (my life in the Khaki Mafia) 1969 and MARS: Calling Back to ‘The World’ from Vietnam 1994. I wrote the latter book while I was Natl Public Relations Officer of Army MARS during Desert Shield/Storm. My 10th book, A Nation of Numbers, was published by Quirk’s MR Media in 2015. I am now at work on my 11th book, the novel “Three Wise Men,” the sequel to SOG. Three of my short Nam stories have appeared in Vietnam Mag & they just got two more. just finished writing a feature article (Esquire) about the infamous Draft Lottery of Dec 1969, which my buddies and i viewed on a 12 hr delay on AFVN-TV at sunny Phu Bai. I was wounded in early Mar 1970 and spent nearly 2 months at the 249th Army Hosp at Camp Drake, Japan, and then returned to Conus to get my honorable discharge and get back to grad school. You can read my Bio on my author’s website at http://www.nationofnumbers.com. Some of my Nam pix (both during 1969 & during my return trip in 1994 as Chairman of the New Jersey Agent Orange Commission can be found at: http://www.geneseo.edu/~scipione. Sorry for the long post. Once we connect via email we can share our phone# and go from there. For all your other blog readers: my 1994 MARS Nam book will be out soon as an ebook, published by the Vietnam War Center at Texas Tech Univ. No way N6KI and I are going thru the hassle of getting the book out a second time! BTW, it was a great honor to have Sen. Barry Goldwater (K7UGA) write the Forword to my book. Best 73s, Paul AA2AV
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My parents ran patches out of our house in Hawaii from 1968-70. I think their call letters were KH6GQK. Dad was stationed at Hickam at the time. I’m going to ask my mother for more details!
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Dear Theresa,
Thanks for your kind words! I guess I really tapped into a rich vain. I want to emphasize that the Vietnam War Center at Texas Tech will be bringing out an updated edition of my 1994 MARS Nam book as an e-book sometime during the next year or so. A lot of the ops from both sides of the Pacific that were listed in the database at the end of my book are probably gone now, including Sen. Goldwater. That is one reason why I decided to research and write the book back in 1994. The book includes a wealth of details, including the Collins transceivers and linears we used, plus the wide range of antennas, phone patch units, small the Nam stations as they were arranged into nets of four to six stations each, even the frequencies that we used. Plus hundreds of fascinating stories of the ops as well as vets and their relatives back home. Both funny and sad stories. Priceless. Yes, now those days are long gone. The guys deployed overseas have lots of much better alternatives for calling home, but we used what we had at the time. Nearly 3 million phone patches were run between 1965-1975. During 1990-1993, while I was Natl Public Relations Officer for Army MARS, I organized a team of nearly two dozen NJ hams who ran thousands of phone patches from the old MARS station at Ft. Monmouth during Ops Desert Shield & Storm. We were using the same Collins tube rigs that had intercepted our Nam calls 2+ decades before! We had an outstanding 1,000+ rhombic antenna pointed at the Middle East that gave us a top signal.
Best,
Paul
AA2AV / N0AI
ex AB8AQ
ex AAA9PR
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Great article. Looking for more information on my former MARS station AB8AJ at CuChi. I was in the 25th ID in 68-69 and for 3 months was assigned to the MARS Station. I worked for SSG Ray Butler who I am still in contact with. Looking for other members of the detachment.
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