Ship Island is located off the coast of Mississippi south of Biloxi. Due to hurricanes Camille and Katrina, Ship Island was actually divided into “West Ship” and “East Ship” Islands. Both are counted as being part of the “Mississippi Group” under the official RSGB IOTA Program with the numerical designation of “NA-082.” However, prior to October 2008, only West Ship Island had ever been activated via amateur radio…and even then for only a total of 12 hours (4 hours in 1992; 3 hours in 1993; and 6 hours in 2001).  This all changed when the callsign “K5S” hit the airwaves and East Ship Island was officially activated on an international scale during the period 16 – 19 October as the newest addition to the NA-082 Mississippi Group.  In addition, the US Islands Program also recognized East and West Ship as separate islands and thus led to a brand new designator of MS009S being assigned to East Ship.  This allowed the MDXA to also officially qualify the island within the national islands program. Four (4) HF stations operated 80 -10M on SSB/CW/RTTY/PSK modes logging over 4,750 QSOs.  Added to that was the callsign “K5Z” which hit the airwaves for a brief period on 18 Oct as entry in the US Islands W/VE QSO Party where yet another 125 QSOs were logged…bringing the grand total in right at 4,900 +/- a few.  The 15 participants would like to thank our commercial sponsors, individual supporters, and all operators who made contact with K5S / K5Z!