Message From AFN1EC

Pls review the comments from Mr. Bob Hollister US ARMY MARS Eastern Area Coordinator,
REC's and SEC's pls share with your folks in your region/state.

Bob's comments are outstanding and right on target.

The following information is provided as a result of a couple questions that were asked during the past two weeks. Due to its length, I have decided not to put it in the form of a formal message. I do ask that it be provided wide dissemination among the membership. It has been staffed with Chief Army MARS.

What do I as a MARS member do when an Alert Notification is broadcast to the membership?

This is both an easy question to answer and a hard question to answer. For those states and regions who have aggressively identified a clear and well defined set of customers (State EOC, State NG, etc) MARS members know who they are supporting and what frequencies to go to immediately. There may even be some designated deployment stations to go to a county Emergency Management Agency EOC or other locations. Members know what reports to send and where to send them. Members in some other states seem to have a real problem understanding who their customer agencies are, what frequencies to go to, what reports to send and complain that all they do is listen to "dead air " when alert notifications are sent.

In the most recent situation, this HQ sent out an Alert Notification for Hurricane Lili. It looked like states in Regions 4 and 6 might be seriously impacted. Those states in Regions 4 & 6 who have already established a working relationship with their state EOC or National Guard EOC would have contacted their points of contact and advised them that Army MARS was ready and willing to provide any backup function already identified in the MOU between MARS and the State or customer agency. The state director may have even received the call initiated by the state Emergency Management Agency. States located outside the impacted area could quickly look at Annex B of the Emergency Operations Plan (4-02) and see what rally frequencies were going to be used in these two regions and be prepared to assist in relaying traffic out of the affected regions using one of those frequencies.

Liaison stations should be designated to work with the SHARES and FEMA nets. Liaison stations must have radios that meet the stricter NTIA frequency standards when working on non MARS (FEMA designated) frequencies.

A criticism leveled at this headquarters recently was that we do not provide enough specific guidance in our Alert Notifications and simply point to the national and state emergency OPLANS for guidance. The reason we do this is that we believe the specific guidance is already located in the National Emergency OPLAN and should be in your state OPLAN. If it is not, it needs to be revised and included.

The National OPLAN was written to provide a single reference source of frequency and reporting guidance to use during emergencies down to the regional level. The state OPLAN augments by providing specific state and zone level information for use within the state but does not need to repeat what is already in the National OPLAN.

One thing that perhaps has not been explained well is that responses to specific incidents have moved to a Regional level. The regional implementation plan occurred in 1997. We expect that Regions will be able to respond to most incidents by providing states with an outlet for most traffic handling through the region gateways. Operations at the region level is a function of the region management team consisting of the region state directors, a director selected to be lead from those state directors, and the respective area coordinator. The task to establish region level gateways with a designated backup that is geographically distant from each other to ensure redundancy and that an incident near one region gateway won't wipe out the alternate as well was identified in that same plan. Any state gateway should be able to pick up the functionality of the region gateway if things go south. I am not convinced that we currently are fully capable to do this but we need to look at ensuring we have that level of redundancy. Proof that we need to be prepared to do this was provided when the Region 4 gateway recently suffered severe storm damage and was off the air for 24 hours while repairing antennas and replacing radios. We should be able to transfer the functionality quickly to other state gateways to pick up the slack. It is a tribute to AT4TFC that he was able to recover and get back on the air so quickly.

We still aren't where we need to be in many areas. But I also believe we have moved forward over the past two years. I know we have improved our EEI reporting, I know we have improved interoperability between service MARS programs. I know we have improved interoperability with other amateur organizations including RACES and ARES. I know we are more prepared to react to a 911 type situation but our work is not done yet.

So what is the correct answer to the question at the beginning of this message?

An example of what I would do upon receipt of an alert notification is to quickly review the procedures in my state OPLAN. Depending on when the execution was to be declared, I may tune up on my region or state rally frequency to see if there was an emergency net in progress.

If the emergency had already occurred or was imminent and there was no net in progress, I would open a net. (What does your state OPLAN say?) If I were the state director or state emergency operations officer, I would contact key staff members to activate the member alert procedures. If appropriate, issue an additional alert notification with additional details or instructions concerning the specific incident.

Although there is no single correct answer, it will depend on who you are and what your task is at hand. I know what my basic job is, but your job is likely to be different. Read the National OPLAN and your State OPLAN, if you still do not understand, ask your state staff members. Discuss different scenarios, options, and solutions on your nets. Ask the "what-if" questions until you get answers that you understand.

For starters The events of 9/11 are behind us. The legacy of 9/11 is still in front of us. Homeland Security is part of our evolving mission. If you do not feel prepared to deal with that, what are you doing to become prepared? Are you part of the problem, or part of the solution? When you decide that you are going to be part of the solution, you will also know the answer to the question.

The MARS program is changing. Although we will continue to support the old mission of Morale and Welfare traffic that we knew and loved, we also know it has greatly reduced in scope. The expanded emergency communications mission continues to grow and is picking up speed like the starship Enterprise. The parameters of our mission continue to unfold as does the identification of our destination. One thing you can count on, it will be challenging. It should be also be rewarding, it should be fun, and we encourage you to stay for the ride. If you are not willing to deal with the bumps and detours we encounter and the jump to warp speed as we make this trip, you might want to get off the ship now. I am personally enjoying the ride and on board for the duration.

Bob
Robert L Hollister, AAA9E/N7INK
Eastern Area MARS Coordinator

HARRY L. MARSTERS II, CMSgt, USAF
National Emergency Communications Manager
USAF MARS/AFN1EC
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