Amateur radio event gets high-level publicity

Defense Department Web site has story about May 28 event.
by Kevin Kilbane

A Fort Wayne ham radio event has caught the eye of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Rather than opening an investigation, however, the department’s news service is helping to publicize Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day.

Local ham enthusiast Emery McClendon worked with other area ham radio operators last year to organize the first event Memorial Day weekend during a Fort Wayne Wizards baseball game at Memorial Stadium.

Ham operators set up outside the stadium and allowed people to talk with U.S. soldiers at military bases and a few overseas locations.

A ham radio operator from Iraq also joined the conversation to express his thanks for U.S. troops ousting former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

McClendon, a U.S. Air Force veteran, already has put in a lot of time organizing this year’s Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day, scheduled for 1-6 p.m. May 28 at Memorial Stadium.

Hoping to help the event spread nationally, he wrote to the Department of Defense’s “America Supports You” site on the Web, said Linda Kozaryn, managing editor of the defense department’s “America Supports You” and “Defend America” Web sites. America Supports You, which can be accessed by U.S. troops, reports on efforts to support them here at home.

“The purpose of America Supports You is to highlight all these great people out there who are doing this on their own,” Kozaryn said.

A writer with the defense department’s news service called McClendon on Feb. 14 and interviewed him the next day.

The story about the amateur radio event appeared Feb. 16 on the defense department’s Defenselink Web site and on the America Supports You site.

“I’m very pleased and surprised,” said McClendon, who uses the ham radio identification of KB9IBW. “That will help us with advance publicity.”

He said he already has received calls and e-mails from soldiers and groups who want to participate, which should make this year’s event bigger than last year’s.

Find out more online

To see the U.S. Department of Defense story about Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day, which began last year in Fort Wayne, go to www.defenselink.mil/news . Under the heading “News Products” on the right, click on the link for “Press Articles” and scroll down to those from Feb. 16.

To find the story on the “America Supports You” site, go to www.americasupportsyou.mil. A link to the story has been appearing on the bottom of the home page. The story also can be found by clicking on the button for “America Reaches Out.”

For updates on Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day, go to the event site at www.freewebs.com/kb9ibw

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