Updated: 12-April-2008

 

About Me Mark Farmer AKA "KingSparta"

In 1973 To 1975 I Worked For Planters Peanuts On The Ocean City N.J. Boardwalk.

I Married My Wife Sue 2 May 1976 (2-May-2008 Will Be 32 Years)

In 1-July-1976 I Joined The U.S. Army, And Went To Fort Dix New Jersey For My Basic Training.

A.I.T. Was At Fort Belvoir V.A. For Air Conditioning And Heating Specialist.

My First Duty Station Was At 78th Engineer Battalion In Germany Where I Was A Radio Telephone Operator (R.T.O.), And A Generator Repairman.

I Then Went To Fort Campbell K.Y. Where I Was Assigned To 561st S&S Battalion Where I Maintained 19 Cold Storage Tractor Trailer Rigs And 10 Portable Cold Storage Warehouses.

In 1979 Completed Air Assault School at Fort Campbell

In 1980 I Completed Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia: United States Army Airborne School

I Was Then Assigned To 782nd Maintenance Battalion In The 82nd Airborne Where I Worked At Direct Support Level (3rd Shop) Of Engineer Equipment.

About 1982 A Friend Of Mine Who Worked In The Electronics Shop In 782nd Direct Support Shop Was Talking About His Computer, And He Told Me About This Device Called A "Modem" I Asked Him If I Could See It. So I Went Over To His House Where He Had A Atari 800 Computer Hooked To Two Atari 810 Disk Drives (88k Per Disk), A Atari 835 Interface Device And A Hayes 300 Baud Smartmodem.

Within Days I Was Running My Own BBS System Using AMIS (Atari Message Information Service) BBS System On A 300 Baud Hayes Modem With An Atari 800 Computer And One 180K Percom 5 1\4 Inch Floppy Disk Drive.

I Learned How To Program Using XL And XE Basic And Taking The AMIS Basic Code And Reviewing It Line By Line. I Then Stared Looking At Other Code From Other Basic Language BBS Systems And Modifying My Version Of AMIS Into A Faster And Robust Version Of The BBS System.

My Handle "KingSparta" Came From A 3rd Party MSDOS 3.2 Clone SpartaDOS And Many Of My Users Of Center City BBS Started Calling Me KingSparta Because I Knew Allot About SpartaDOS. You Can Read More Information about Center City BBS, and SpartaDOS on My Website CenterCityBBS.Com

In 1982 I Went To Fort Belvoir for My Advanced Technical Course, and Remember the Crash of Air Florida Flight 90 Very Well. It Was One Of The Worst Winters We Ever Had on The East Coast.

Air Florida Flight 90 was an Air Florida flight of a Boeing 737-222 airliner that crashed into the 14th Street Bridge across the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. on January 13, 1982 immediately after takeoff in a severe snowstorm. The accident claimed the lives of 78 people, including four motorists on the 14th Street Bridge. However, a few survivors from the shattered aircraft were rescued from the icy river by a combination of heroic efforts of civilians and professionals. Some of that heroism was commended during President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union speech a few days later. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the cause of the accident was pilot error. The pilots failed to switch on the engines' internal anti-icing equipment, used reverse thrust in a snow storm prior to take-off, and failed to abort takeoff per FAA regulations even after detecting a power problem while taxiing, and visually identifying ice and snow buildup on the wings.

I Went To Combat In Granada With 1st Brigade Combat Team When Assigned To Delta Company 782nd Maintenance In 1983 Where I Charged High Pressure Cylinders (6,000psi) For The Infantries Tow Night Sights, And Was The Battalions Senior 52C (Utilities Equipment Repair)

In 1986 I Changed My MOS To 13F Forward Observer

Fire support is the collective and coordinated use of indirect fire weapons, armed aircraft, and other lethal and nonlethal means in support of a battle plan. Fire support includes mortars, field, artillery (FA), NGF, and air-delivered weapons. Nonlethal means are electronic warfare (EW) capabilities of military intelligence organizations, illumination (illum), and smoke. The combined arms commander employs these means to support his scheme of maneuver; to mass firepower; and to delay, disrupt, or destroy enemy forces in depth. Fire support destroys, neutralizes, and suppresses enemy weapons, enemy formations, and enemy indirect fire systems.

I Then Was Stationed At The 3rd Infantry Division As A Company Fire Support Sergeant On A Fist-V (Fire Support Vehicle). It Had A Laser And We Used it To Laze Targets So The Artillery And The Air Force Could Lunch Laser Guided Munitions.

Using My Atari Computer, And A Text Editor I Also Created One Of The First DMD SOP's For The AN/PSG-2 Digital Message Device Pictured Here

Digital Message Device

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DMD

AN/PSG-2 Digital Message Device

The AN/PSG-2 Digital Message Device was a portable data-entry terminal used by artillery forward observers to communicate with artillery batteries to request and control artillery fire missions. DMDs were first fielded as part of the TACFIRE artillery fire control system.

The original DMD allowed the user to conduct fire missions, develop fire plans, and send/receive freeform text messages. An enhanced version, the FIST (Fire Support Team) DMD, allowed a FIST Chief to monitor the transmissions of his forward observers.

I Was In My 13F BNCOC Course In Germany When The Chernobyl Disaster Happened There Was Some Concern That We May Be In The Down Wind Fallout

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the worst nuclear accident in history. On April 26, 1986 at 01:23:40 a.m. reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant located in the former Soviet Union near Pripyat in Ukraine exploded. Further explosions and the resulting fire sent a plume of radioactively contaminated fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area.

In 1988-1989 I Was Assigned To 9th Infantry Division Where I Was Assigned As A Battalion Fire support Sergeant And Helped The Army Test Light TacFire From The Litton Company. It Was A 32bit Computer Using A Motorola Chip Set.

LTACFIRE/LFATDS.  LTACFIRE (light tactical fire) adds computing capabilities to already existing TACFIRE hardware, but keeps the original TACFIRE software.  It replaces TACFIRE’s awkward procedures with a format that reduces the time needed for operations by displaying only the proper responses to computer queries.  All the soldier then has to do is put his finger on the display screen to select the solution he desires to a particular fire control problem.

I Served A Tour In Korea As A Company Fire support Sergeant For 1\4 FA, And Attached To Alpha Company 1\506 Infantry. You Can See Some Of My Pictures Here on the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment (Air Assault) Web Page. 1\4th Fired Out Of Safe 7 Times On A Base Piece FTX That Included Firing 155 Rounds Inside A Rock Army Compound, Into North Korea On My Birth Day At 10:45Pm They Also Fired On Our OP (OP2) Not A Good Day For Me And My Observers, And Lastly They Fired On Freedom Bridge And Put 6 Soldiers In The Hospital. Needless To Say The Commanders Tour Of Duty Was Cut Short.

When Leaving Korea I Had A Class Date For Flight School That Was Canceled Due To The Golf War.

I Returned To Fort Bragg, And Again Went To Combat With The 82nd Airborne Division In The Golf War When Assigned To 1\319th FA, I Later Moved To Divarty Headquarters, And Assigned To The S3\FDC (Divarty Fire Direction Center) Due To My Knowledge Of Light TacFire. I Helped The 82nd Field Light TacFire To The Battalions, And Played A Active Role During Field Training As A 13C (Fire Direction Sergeant). I Also Performed Duties In The S3 During Non Field Training As The Divarty Schools NCO.

I Was Able To Go To Flight School In 1992 Fort Rucker As A Staff Sergeant. To Get The Class Date I Was Required To Take Another Short Tour In Korea, And Was Assigned To 1st Of The 15th Field Artillery And Attached to 5\20 Mech Infantry As A Company And Then Battalion Fire Support Sgt, I Was Also Promoted To SFC Prior To Returning To State Side.

I Was Then Assigned To Fort Carson C.O. Divarty Artillery And Slotted As An Aerial Observer Where I Was In Charge Of 5 Other Aerial Observers. All Six Of Us Were Basically Co-Pilots For A OH-58 A\C Helicopter And Called For Artillery Fire From The Helicopter.

In 1995 I Went To Battle Staff Course

The Battle Staff course is for NCOs assigned to, or projected to be assigned to battalion or higher coordinating staff positions.

The Department Of The Army Later Deactivated Our Division, And I Had Department Of Defense Reassign Me Back To the 82nd Airborne Division.

When I Arrived In Early 1996 I Put In My Retirement Packet And Retired On 2-Dec-1996.

In 1996 I Started Work With A Large Pest Control Company As A Termite Sales Inspector, And Completed Termite Tech School.

In 1997 I Became A Termite Tech With The Understanding They Would Send Me To Pest Control School In December 1997.

After Completing Pest Control School The Company Promoted Me To Termite Service Manager.

I Completed Texas A&M, And Purdue University Correspondence Courses, Service Manager I, Service Manager II, WDIO School, Certified Field Trainer, NCPCO Ant School.

I Currently Hold A North Carolina PCO License For Wood Destroying Incest, And Residential Pest Control, I Also Hold A Ground Applicator License In Ornamental Turf, Public Safety, And Right Of Way.

I Have Worked with Systems Environmental (Mr. Lewis Clock) http://pestspray.ca/ To Improve Some Pest Control, And Termite Control Systems.

I Also Own The Following WebSites:

Moisture Control Related:

CrawlSpaceEncapsulation.Com
EncapsulatedCrawlspace.Com
EncapsulatedCrawlSpaces.Com

Pest Control Related:

AmphibiansAndReptiles.Com
InsectsAndRodents.Com
SpidersBurrow.Com
QualityTermiteControl.Com
QualityTermiteControl.Net
QualityTermiteControl.Org

I Am A Self Taught Visual Basic Programmer And Do It For Fun. I Have Created A Plug-In For J. Rivers Media Center That Will Allow Users To Share Music Data Like, Lyrics, Chart Data, Comments, Bios, Notes And Other Information, And Then Save That Information Into There MP3’s And Other Media Files.

I Am A Beta Tester for J. River (They Make J. Rivers Media Center) A Music and Video Media Jukebox Program. The Owner Is Jim Hillegass And I Call Him My Long Distant Friend. Jim's Father Was "Cliff Hillegass" The Creator Of "Cliff Notes" I Am Proud To Have Known Jim Hillegass In My Lifetime.

I Am Or Have Been A Beta Tester For Other Software Companies Like Real Networks, Music Match, And The "Gene6 FTP Server"

Pictures I Have Taken

APictureSpeaksAThousandWords.com

I Also Own The Following WebSites

My Web Sites

My Dad:

Is "Robert C. Farmer" And Was In The Air Force, He Was in Radio For His First 5 Years In The Air Force, And Was Stationed On The "Texas Tower #4" That Was A Radar Instillation 200 Miles Off The Coast Of The U.S.A. Back In The Early 60's. It Fell Down And Sank Killing All That Remained Onboard. The A&E Channel Created A Special On It And Was For Sale. My Dad Provided Some Information To The Shows Creators.

Later My Dad Got His Foot In On The First Computers Created For The Military. The Computers Were Used To Track Incoming Enemy Air Craft. And Since My Dad Liked To Tinker With Electronics And Computers I think It Kind Of Rubbed Off On Me.

You Can See More Information About My Dad And The Texas Towers On My Web Site "TheTexasTowers.Com"