On 17 August 1962, the Honorable Fred Korth, Secretary of the Navy, approved a recommendation made by the Chief of Naval Operations to organize a Navy-Marine Corps MARS Program to be implemented on 1 January 1963. On 30 November 1968, the Department of Defense issued a directive formalizing the compositions, mission, functions, and organization of the Military Affiliate Radio System, and set forth policies concerning Department of Defense support of both MARS and civil Amateur Radio activities. NTS is dedicated to communications during disasters on behalf of ARES, as well as the daily handling of third-party traffic. Traffic is handled according to its precedence. Emergency traffic has to do with the life or death of an individual and is handled first.
Priority traffic has a specific time limit.
Welfare traffic is a request or declaration of the health and welfare of an individual. Routine traffic is all other messages and is handled last. Each night on the Monterey Peninsula, the NTS Net practices the passing of Welfare traffic both into and out of the area. If a wide-area disaster strikes, NTS volunteers would work with ARES to provide a means for civilians to send Outgoing Welfare Traffic from shelters around Monterey County.