On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles broadcast The War of the Worlds
on The Mercury Theatre on the Air. The broadcast seemed so authentic that many
people, especially those tuning in late, thought that Earth was being invaded
by extraterrestrial beings from the planet Mars.
At the time of the broadcast, Welles had already achieved fame on
Broadway for his 1937 production of “Caesar”. In 1941, he released the movie
“Citizen Kane”, which is considered to be one of the greatest films of all
time.
Believe it or not, some of our friends in Minnesota have a close
personal relationship with MARS, which obviously requires a more complete
explanation.
In the early 1970’s, our friend Dave joined the Air Force. One of
his first duty stations was in the Azores, which are a long way from his home
state of Minnesota.
While stationed in the Azores, Dave’s wife DeeDee became pregnant
with their first child. Rebecca, who was born on February 7, 1972. As you might
suspect, transatlantic phone calls were notoriously unreliable at that time, so
Dave and Denise relied on MARS to let their parents in Minnesota about the
birth of their granddaughter.
To give you an idea how crude the system was, I’ll let them
describe it to you in their own words:
“The MARS shack was located next to the weather
balloon launch site on a ridge overlooking Lajes Field airbase, the Island of
Terceira, Azores, Portugal. Our operator connected to a Ham operator in
Ohio, who called long distance to St. Paul. Every phrase we uttered ended
with "Over!”.
MARS is an acronym for the Military Auxiliary Radio System, and it
has existed since November.1925, Originally known as the Auxiliary Amateur
Radio System, the name was changed to the Military Affiliate Radio System in
1952. In 2009, the name was again changed to the Military Auxiliary Radio
System.
The system was designed to provide better communication options
for members of the military, and it is supported by a series of licensed
amateur radio operators. It still exists today, in spite of the many other
communication options that we now have.
NASA has done an admirable job of surveying the planet Mars, and
has determined that there was likely some type of life forms on the planet at
some point in the past. It is highly doubtful there were ever any INTELLIGENT
life forms at any time in the past. However, if you have seen the movie
“Idiocracy” is also apparent that there are even places in our country that are
lacking in INTELLIGENT life forms.
Since its introduction in 1967 (as ARPANET) the internet has
revolutionized life on our planet. Believe or not, however, it IS possible to
send an internet message to the planet Mars. The official name for the network
is the NASA Deep Space Network, and it relies on a series of satellites. Even
though the communications travel at the speed of light, the vast distance
between Earth and Mars means that messages can take anywhere from 3 to 22
minutes, which would make it virtually impossible to carry on a phone
conversation of any kind.
Despite their early exposure to MARS, Dave and Denise have
suffered no long term ill effects. In fact, they just celebrated their 47th wedding
anniversary.
A perfect ending to this story, of course, would be that they have
since traveled to Roswell, New Mexico in their Saturn, and this is where truth
gets stranger than fiction.
In the early 1990’s, they bought a brand new first generation
Saturn. Also at some point in the distant past, they actually DID travel to
Roswell, and actually spent two nights in the town. I’m actually not sure if
they went there in their Saturn, but the possibility does exist.
And that’s all that I have to say …………….
