3C1YL 1985 Equatorial Guinea

The operator was Martha W. Henson, WN4FVU.
She was with her OM – Carl D. Henson, WB4ZNH.

Martha was born December 3, 1941 and died October 1, 2019.Martha W. Henson was born on December 3rd, 1942 in Tampa's Davis Island Hospital to Warrenton Everett Wayne and Mary Omanella (Guess) Wayne.

Martha attended Woodrow Wilson Elementary School and Henry B. Plant High School in Tampa. Martha was a member of the first class to attend South Florida University near Tampa. After completing two years of college, which was a requirement by her parents to give their permission for Martha to join the US Navy WAVES. She enlisted and went off to boot camp in Bainbridge, MD.

Upon reporting to the Naval Air Station, Memphis, Martha met and married Carl D Henson, a US Marine attending a Navy mechanic's schools there. After leaving the Marine Corps and the Navy, Carl and Martha moved to the Atlanta suburbs where Carl found employment with Delta Airlines and Martha went to work for the Department of Defense at Fort McPherson.

Martha went back to college at Georgia State University. Many of her previous credits wouldn't directly be accepted at GSU, so she maximized the credits by working on two majors at the same time. This resulted in a Bachelor of Science degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree. Somewhere along the line, Martha announced that she wanted to be Lawyer and she got accepted into Emory Law School. Martha worked in the summers and managed to intern in between the three years of Law School.

Martha was accepted as a GS-12 Attorney at DCASR (Defense Contract Administration Southern Region) in 1974. Over the years she worked her way up to GM-15, but due to a Base Realignment, Martha and Carl moved to Battle Creek, MI. Carl had just accept a buy-out retirement from Delta after almost 29 years. A year and a half later they moved to northern Virginia where Martha worked for DLA (Defense Logistics Agency) International where she was the Counsel. Martha retired as the Deputy Counsel for Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA).

Somewhere along the line, in the mid-70s they became interested in Amateur Radio. Martha's call sign was WN4FVU. Martha was the first woman to operate from Aves Island, part of Venezuela. A TV station sent a reporter to video the occasion and it appeared on Television in Caracas. To the best of my knowledge, Martha was first or one of the first women to operate Ham Radio from Eritrea, Annobon Island, and Equatorial Guinea.

Martha was unable to win the fight against Ovarian Cancer, though she fought bravely. Martha exhausted each and every chemo-therapy drug until she was left with Clinical Trials and Experimental drugs. Her philosophy was if she couldn't win the fight for herself, then she would help some other women add ammunition for their fight against this monster. Her personal war on Ovarian Cancer lasted five years and four months, pretty darn good for starting out as Stage 4.

Martha is survived by her loving husband Carl.

QSL courtesy of I4EAT
Info courtesy of W5KNE