Re: [digitalradio] The US Ham radio service

[Danny Douglas]

Im sorry you think that way Harv.  This whole country was formed with volunteers, from the start, with non-professional military (I live right next door to the original (Don't Tread On Me) Culpeper minute men.  Even the Founders were volunteers.  If you want to pay 75 or 90 percent of your salary as taxes, I am sure the government can supply all the services you desire or need.  Well - maybe not at that.  I can remember back when our local "rescue" (Texas) was the local funeral director.  He would often get calls to go out to a wreck on US 66 , jump in his  "ambulance" (a retired hearse) and run through town looking for one of us teenagers to go help him.  More than once, I happened to be walking out of the postoffice, or headed to or from a Scout meeting, when he would see me, and come screeching to a stop.  I would hop in, and away we went.  We picked up the victim, threw him/her on a stretcher, shoved it in the hearse, and away we drove (probably about 35 miles) to the nearest hospital.  There was little or no treatment of the victim, other than what I may have known as a Scout.  In fact, when I got back out of the Army, was living at home and attending a Junior College, I took a red cross first aid class, and that same undertaker was a fellow student.  It was his first "emergency" first aid course also.  He was also my Scoutmaster for a few years, so pretty much knew the same first aid I did.    It was only in the early 70 and later  that most of the present volunteer rescue squads were formed, and then only because of the TV program "Emergency" and the sudden awakening of the public to the woeful ill equipped and trained - or competent non-existent emergency medical services that we had here in the United States.  Most every one of them started with volunteers.  City and County governments have taken over many of them over the past couple of decades, but the majority, in the suburbs and remote areas still run with a largely volunteer staff.  Ours here in Madison County Virginia has only very recently become a mixed bag of professional in the daytime 5 days a week, with volunteers making calls at night and on weekends.  Our fire department is still totally volunteer.    Given the fact of these very important emergency services, and the millions of free hours they provide the public, and the fact that they must also have money earning projects (here in Virginia its a weekly BINGO game that provides the majority of the monies, but the local governments do kick in a bundle too).  and must find staff to run those activities as well.  I find it ludicrous that we hams cant get ourselves out of our arm chairs and away from the screens for a few hours a month (at the least) and get out and volunteer our equipment, expertise and time to assist these other volunteers in their activities.  Refusal to assist the "government" , being it police or National Guard etc. is refusal to help yourself.  After all WE are the government.  These professionals are our servants and deserve every bit of support we can provide, and a few hour of public service are the very least of that.   I urge every ham to get involved.  Over the past 55 plus years as a Scout Leader, I have taught that, over-and-over, to Scouts. and have often been pleasantly surprised how often I meet one of them - adults now - who are our rescue or fire department squad members, or members of a local police department.  One father I met, chased me down in the halls of a senior center (where I was helping out in a Scout auction) and thanked me for being his sons Scoutmaster (in Ethiopia) some 30 years previous to that.  Seems he had just returned the day before, from the White House where his son Tim Wilkerson, had received the Silver Star from the President of the United States.  Seems Tim had  jumped out of a helicopter in a little place called Mogadishu a few month before that, and personally rescued (under gun fire) some army guys who were wounded in a firefight.  You can read a bit more about that, or see a movie :Grayhawk Down.  Volunteer!  Payback is great! Danny     ----- Original Message ----- From: Harv Nelson To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 5:50 PM Subject: Re: [digitalradio] The US Ham radio service mel, While military-ham organizations (MARS)do exist here. the vast majority of US hams do NOT partisipste. in them.  no body pays me anything to be a ham or supports my hobby in any fashion.  I got started 50 years ago at age 14 because it looked like a fun hobby.  I hope no one expects me to march in lock step, or spout a political philosophy proposed by some "official line", if anyone thinks he will command me or my operations, I will quit this hobby and see to it that all my equipment and antennas are disabled and no longer serviceable.  MY station is never at the disposal of any branch of goverment.  certainly, my neighbors, sould a need arise. but,  the police and military have far more resources than I do and can damn well buy threir own radios and hire their own operators.  for me, "Volunteer" is just a euphemism for unpaid slave.  and it takes away a job from someone else who needs to feed a family. 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