U.S. ARMY NETWORK ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY COMMAND/9TH SIGNAL COMMAND (ARMY)

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Stuart S. Carter, the new Chief Army MARS, enlisted in the Air Force in 1971 as a base-level computer operator. A staff sergeant by 1977, he was sent to the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed his B.A. in Computer Science, and then to Office Training School, graduating as a second lieutenant. During 30 years in uniform he served in England, the Netherlands, Germany, Turkey and Saudi Arabia in a series of staff and command positions dealing with electronics and communications. He retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 2001, but returned to the Defense Department as a civil servant following 9/11.

The New Mission
    With updated command structure and a package of sharply-honed new objectives, the Army Military Affiliate Radio System is putting the lessons it learned from Hurricane Katrina to work.
    Priorities and procedures have been reshuffled following an 18-month analysis of MARS performance during the storm. Two areas receive particular attention: retraining of all members and the building of tighter bonds with the federal and state agencies that MARS is designed to interconnect in an emergency.
    “The challenges we face are new and more demanding than those we’ve prepared for in the past,” the recently-installed head of Army MARS, Stuart S. Carter, told his membership of volunteer amateur radio operators.
    “We need to know that all of our members are well-trained, ready, capable and willing to meet those challenges,” Chief Carter continued. “We’ve also got to tell the nation that the 2,600 trained, and dedicated members of Army MARS, along with our Air Force and Navy-Marine Corps partners, bring a huge and agile readiness to the front lines of emergency response.
    “No other resource at America’s disposal is positioned to or capable of providing this kind of support,” he said.
    MARS members were already prepared and on the job when 9/11 and then Katrina put government’s ability to respond to the ultimate test. After the terrorist attacks, however, a new National Incident Management System (NIMS) introduced government-wide emergency response protocols for the first time. At Carter’s direction, MARS training requirements have been ratcheted up to include NIMS training courses as well as doubling of the on-air drill requirement in state and regional HF radio nets. And because Katrina revealed numerous responder agencies to be unaware of MARS resources, he has begun planning for an aggressive informational campaign within the federal establishment.
    Carter identified the American Radio Relay League, the leading association of American amateurs, among responder entities with which a defined relationship will be sought. "The objective would be to enhance the amateur community’s overall emergency readiness while minimizing duplication of effort," Carter said. "We need to know each other better."
    MARS sees its own long-distance HF capability as a natural fit with the strong local and state operations of ARES, the ARRL-sponsored Amateur Radio Emergency Service.     A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel with 30 years’ uniformed service in communications and information technology, Carter assumed command last December. He is based at Ft Huachuca AZ as a civilian operations executive for NETCOM/9th Signal Command (Army), of which Army MARS is a part. His concurrent assignment is as Deputy Chief, Current Operations (G3) of NETCOM. The Chicago-born Carter replaced Robert Sutton, who retired at age 65 after 16 years in the chief’s post.
    In the early 1990s Chief Sutton initiated the critical transition from MARS’ previous emphasis on transmitting messages for troops overseas (a traffic now dominated by e-mail and cell-phones) to the present focus on emergency response.
    A watershed came in 1994 when the Pentagon’s Directorate of Military Support called on MARS for urgent reconnaissance of the Northridge (CA) earthquake. That disaster killed 51 persons, seriously injured 9,000, destroyed thousands of homes as well as miles of freeway, and wiped out telephone service for much of southern California. MARS delivered. Out of that test was born a new mission of automatically providing the Pentagon with alerts to local and regional emergencies, so-called Emergency Elements of Information (EEIs).
    Building on the foundation established by Sutton, Carter within a couple of months of taking office had called for measures amounting to a new watershed:     Region Command—States are grouped into 10 regions under the operational command of volunteer regional directors (call sign AAAnRD). Region boundaries coincide with FEMA’s districts. The change will facilitate response to multi-state emergencies as well as streamline leadership; an intermediate level of area command—Eastern and Western—is eliminated. State directors retain administrative responsibility for recruiting, training and net operations within their states.
    Deployment—Traditionally, MARS planning envisaged members operating from their home stations to relay emergency traffic. Katrina showed the need for portable stations originating traffic within the affected zone. Carter messaged his membership: “We will be seeking volunteers from among you to mobilize to disaster areas along with Army/DHS/TSA/FEMA.”
    Headquarters-- The new post of Chief, Operations serves as Carter’s chief of staff and is responsible for planning, emergency activations, liaison with external agencies and development of training materials. Lawrence G. Hays, a NETCOM civilian contractor who had been Eastern Area Coordinator (and a long-time Ham), assumed this post with the call sign AAA9O. James Banks, previously the Western Area Coordinator, became Director of Regional Operations, call sign AAA9R, responsible for day-to-day region and state operations. Frequency Manager Dewayne Smith (AAA9F) assumes responsibility for tracking formal relationships (Memorandums of Understanding) with other agencies.
    Standard Operating Procedures--Basic documentation used by Army MARS for some years is being updated. To cite just one example, message style dating back to the teletype era (WHICH ONLY PRINTS CAPITAL LETTERS) is being changed to e-mail usage, and NIMS formats will be adapted.
    New technology--Army MARS has replaced its longstanding digital message network using HF and VHF with a newer WinLink 2000 system which combines radio and Internet links to assure swift, dependable delivery of traffic. Also, a software development team representing all three MARS organizations is nearing completion of an additional resource called Automatic Link Establishment. ALE will facilitate message delivery by radio on a government-wide scale.
    Interoperability—Collaboration between the Army, Air Force and Navy-Marine Corps MARS organizations will continue to be emphasized, with long-range planning and cooperation on new technology receiving particular focus. The challenge is to consolidate resources for optimal access by emergency response agencies while preserving the three services’ individuality.
    One additional element is pertinent at a time when the Army is fully engaged in combat operations. The MARS reorganization economizes on non-combat spending by combining the Chief’s billet with another NETCOM position that had overseen the Chief. At the same time, however, realignment of MARS headquarters duties should lighten the load at the top, and a new committee of volunteer counselors will improve liaison with members in the field.     Carter foresees a significant part of his time being devoted to coordination across the federal landscape. Already Army MARS has partnered with the Transportation Security Administration to provide emergency response teams to airports in need of emergency communications support, and with Army Northern Command (ARNORTH) for emergency response.     ARNORTH operations officers at Ft Sam Houston TX were briefed by Carter on the new readiness measures in late February.
    “In the months ahead,” he said, “I’ll be working with the TSA, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Army National Guard HQ, Civil Air Patrol, and others to establish Memorandums of Understanding with each, to articulate how we will support them, and what we can expect from them.”
    “The mission assigned to MARS is very important to our national security and presents challenges and many opportunities for Army MARS,” Carter said in his first message to the membership. “I intend to make Army MARS relevant to the 21st Century, to the nation I swore an oath to defend, and to the national agencies we must support to accomplish that goal. You are critically needed.”
    --Bill Sexton