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During the buildup to the Gulf War the worry and stress felt
by the families of U.S. service men and women began to grow quickly.
Several of my friends and business acquaintances who had loved ones
either on their way to or already in the Gulf began to talk about their
fears for the safety of their loved ones. It soon became obvious that
the stress was beginning to get to them. Especially, with a constant
flow of up to the minute news flashes about attacks and military
action. This fear was being compounded by the fact that mail was
running so slow that weeks and months were passing without a word
from their deployed loved ones and telephone service was not
available to a majority of those deployed to that part of the world.
As a communications professional I began to look around for a
resource that could solve their communications problem. I found
there were virtually no viable faster communications options open to
them as military families. The only option that I did find was a
Department of Defense program called MARS (Military Affiliate
Radio System). The MARS staff and volunteers were doing their best
to move an overwhelming amount of radio message traffic called
MARSGRAMS. I was told "there is so much radio message traffic we
are having to move it by airplane." The MARS program is also
authorized to handle radio telephone calls from the troops in front line
areas using their units tactical radio equipment, but it had gone through
budget cuts and had been downsized to the point where it only had one
High Frequency radio station left in the U.S. that could reliably maintain communications
over such a great distance, some 7000 miles.
I was introduced to Yvonne Minor the co-founder of a military
family support group called SOCM (Support Our Courageous
Military). Yvonne stressed to me the importance and dire need for
some sort of communications link between those in the Gulf and their
families back here at home that would not deprive them of the little
financial resources that many families had. She also expressed to me
that many of these families were under tremendous stress and needed
help now. As I owned a communications system design. consulting
and contracting company, I told her that I would give it some thought.
After a week of going over option after option, a workable solution
began to form.
On October 30th of 1990 I called Yvonne and told her that I thought I
could build the communications bridge needed by the families, but it
would be very large undertaking, expensive and that I could not do it
alone. I also asked her if she felt there would be anyone out there
willing to help me build this communications bridge. She assured me
that she was sure that if I made the effort to build this dream, and let
people know, people would come forward to help.
I then called the MARS contact I had made on the East coast back and
asked him, if I were to build a communications system capable of
reaching front line locations in the Gulf, make it available to them and
the military families without charge and operate it until they put more
of their own stations on line, would it help and would they use it. The
answer was a resounding YES!
On October 31st, I talked again to Yvonne and then told her I would
commit myself and do my best to move this dream into a reality, it
would be called "The Desert Voices Project".
I started by talking to companies and found many willing to help by
leasing or loaning the equipment, land and materials I would need on a
zero dollar basis for use in the project, if my company, NW Antenna
& Communications, would accept financial responsibility and
guarantee its return by the first week in May at the latest, sooner if the
project was concluded prior to that date.
I then contacted the media and informed them of my plans to build a
communications center that would work as a temporary
communications bridge between those serving in the Gulf and their
families here at home. I also asked for volunteers to help me build
this dream.
The phone began to ring almost at once. By the time 2 weeks had
passed over 100 people had called wishing to help. The amount of
work was limited to office work until we had secured the land that we
needed to act as the communications center. Work proceeded on
locating this land with all possible speed and on November 9th an old
26 acre Nike Missile Base was found in a rural location that was radio
quiet and large enough to hold the two massive antenna arrays that
would be the key to the projects success. That same day, the
government entity that owned it was located, a walk through of the
buildings and property was conducted and a lease request was made.
They were willing to help but it had to go in front of their legal
department, chain of command and a lease would have to be drawn up
and signed, this would take at lease 8 weeks so they would get started
on it right away. This would allow us to gain access to the base
around January 4 if all went well. But this was not to be as it seemed
their chain of command understood what we were up to and the
importance of it, plus they wanted to do all they could do to help.
On November 19th , only 10 days later, we gathered at the front gate
of the old Nike Base. Present were our volunteers, the representative
from the U.S. Department of Interior, the media and myself. The keys
to the base were turned over to me and the work began. I then made a
plea through the media for volunteer radio operators from the Amateur
Radio Community.
The building selected for the projects communications center had been
unused for about 20 years, the paint was falling off, windows and
doors were warped and would not open or close. The heating system
had not been drained and through the past winters the pipes had frozen
and burst. Underground heating fuel tanks had not been drained and
the fuel had jelled and was contaminated. The place was a mess, but it
was easy to see both the potential and the work that would be needed
to bring it back into operation. | 
