Over the air and far away

Bill Huntimer’s military service took him from his native South Dakota around the world. And though he’s back in his hometown, over the radio waves he can still go just about anywhere.
Huntimer, a 34-year Legionnaire with Post 65 in Dell Rapids, is a longtime “ham” –
a ham radio user – and original member of The American Legion Amateur Radio Club (TALARC). Founded in 2011, the club gives Legionnaires an opportunity to practice their ham skills while aiding communications during natural disasters. The club has approximately 3,000 members and 15 post clubs nationwide.
Huntimer enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1950 and was sent to Korea, where he participated in four major engagements. Nine years later, he switched to the Navy and went to Vietnam with the Seabees. Altogether, he spent 22½ years in the service before returning to Dell Rapids. “I was never broke or without a friend while I was in the military,” Huntimer says of the “special family” he gained.
That’s where he first got into ham radio, passing a licensing test on Midway Island. His job was tank mechanic, but he always liked electricity, he says. As an active volunteer in TALARC, he runs a “net” every month – a set time when he throws open his receivers (multiple antennae are mounted atop his house) to 20 meters and repeatedly broadcasts his call sign and location, then listens for others to respond with their own. Call signs are issued by the Federal Communications Commission to identify individual users; Huntimer’s is KIOCW, while TALARC’s is K9TAL. He keeps a log of contacts and times, and turns it in to TALARC for posting online. Huntimer has only missed one net since 2011, for an American Legion convention.
In the summer of 2005, Huntimer put the Legion’s disaster-relief mission into action following Hurricane Katrina, “passing traffic” for nearly a week. A responder on the May net, identified as “Nick,” needed to let his family know he was all right. “Everyone in the country volunteered to take that call,” but in the end it was Huntimer who did. Nick called him “an exemplary character ... helping people out when they need it.”
Huntimer has served as post adjutant twice, county commander and department sergeant-at-arms, among other offices. He often uses the nets as opportunities to recruit for the Legion, asking responders if they served in the military.
He marvels at how much communication has changed in his lifetime, and says he’s glad to be part of it today – as a helper, not just a consumer. “I like to do the best I can at any job I do,” he says.