Post by easttex on May 27, 2015 12:29:23 GMT -5
Okay, I'll try not to bore you, because I can go on about the subject.
I had heard about the US program since I first joined the navy, and never dreamed I'd get a chance to be a part of it. I was trying to decide between accepting a fourth tour (Germany) or leaving active duty, when I heard about an Antarctic job. I jumped on it, even though it was listed as a Recreation Officer job, and issuing basketballs is not a great career move, but because of my communications background I was given the Radio Officer slot. Best tour I had in the navy.
A little over half of each year was spent in California, with nearly five months "on ice." My first trip down was smack in the middle of an austral summer, so I went alone. What an adventure! On a side note, I had to carry a few body bags down with me. There had been a military plane crash there with two fatalities just before I left, and they needed to replenish the supply.
A highlight of every trip there and out was a stop in New Zealand. Really a beautiful country. Coming off the ice, it was especially savored. You suddenly realized how much you had missed natural smells and things like rain. Not to mention the abundant fresh food. And privacy.
Antarctica is an incredible place. Pristine, once you move away from the various bases. In spite of the vast whiteness of most of it, it is a desert. There are places there where no precipitation has fallen in millions of years. South Pole sits on ice almost two miles thick. McMurdo Station, the main U.S. base, is on an island of volcanic rock, and late in the summer most of the snow is gone in that area, and it is all rock and ash. Across McMurdo Sound are the Trans-Antarctic mountains, with huge glaciers running down into the sound. Every year a Coast Guard ice breaker has to cut a channel through the ice to permit an oiler and a re-supply ship to offload at the ice pier.
You don't see wildlife at the pole, though one hardy bird, the skua, was sighted there. At McMurdo you can see weddell seals, leopard seals, killer whales, minke whales, and skuas. And, of course, penguins. Lots of penguins. Adelies and emperors. By treaty, you can't approach them unless you are part of a specific scientific endeavor, but at this point they have no fear of humans and often approach people out of curiosity.
It's an interesting place sociologically, too. You won't see old people, or sick people, or children. You will see a lot of people way too educated for their jobs. The person serving food or doing janitorial work may well have a master's degree or even better. They do it just for the chance to go.
I got to do many things there I never would have had a chance to do otherwise. Got my only helicopter ride there, my only hovercraft ride (this contraption really brought out the penguins - when we stopped, they came from all directions, waddling, then sliding, then waddling, then sliding, etc.), checked out some of Robert Falcon Scott's survival huts (more or less perfectly preserved from his time there), hiked through ice caves, chilled my cocktail with ancient glacier ice, drank beer with Al Gore, got snockered with a bunch of Russians before that was allowable for a U.S. service member, and on and on.
It was the one tour I had where the navy really lived up to its own billing - it's not just a job, it's an adventure. (Sailors always liked to turn that into "it's not just a job, it's like being indentured.") When I left active duty, I went to work for the civilian Antarctic contractor and stayed there for ten years. There's not much US military there any longer, but I am so glad I was able to take advantage of that.
I had heard about the US program since I first joined the navy, and never dreamed I'd get a chance to be a part of it. I was trying to decide between accepting a fourth tour (Germany) or leaving active duty, when I heard about an Antarctic job. I jumped on it, even though it was listed as a Recreation Officer job, and issuing basketballs is not a great career move, but because of my communications background I was given the Radio Officer slot. Best tour I had in the navy.
A little over half of each year was spent in California, with nearly five months "on ice." My first trip down was smack in the middle of an austral summer, so I went alone. What an adventure! On a side note, I had to carry a few body bags down with me. There had been a military plane crash there with two fatalities just before I left, and they needed to replenish the supply.
A highlight of every trip there and out was a stop in New Zealand. Really a beautiful country. Coming off the ice, it was especially savored. You suddenly realized how much you had missed natural smells and things like rain. Not to mention the abundant fresh food. And privacy.
Antarctica is an incredible place. Pristine, once you move away from the various bases. In spite of the vast whiteness of most of it, it is a desert. There are places there where no precipitation has fallen in millions of years. South Pole sits on ice almost two miles thick. McMurdo Station, the main U.S. base, is on an island of volcanic rock, and late in the summer most of the snow is gone in that area, and it is all rock and ash. Across McMurdo Sound are the Trans-Antarctic mountains, with huge glaciers running down into the sound. Every year a Coast Guard ice breaker has to cut a channel through the ice to permit an oiler and a re-supply ship to offload at the ice pier.
You don't see wildlife at the pole, though one hardy bird, the skua, was sighted there. At McMurdo you can see weddell seals, leopard seals, killer whales, minke whales, and skuas. And, of course, penguins. Lots of penguins. Adelies and emperors. By treaty, you can't approach them unless you are part of a specific scientific endeavor, but at this point they have no fear of humans and often approach people out of curiosity.
It's an interesting place sociologically, too. You won't see old people, or sick people, or children. You will see a lot of people way too educated for their jobs. The person serving food or doing janitorial work may well have a master's degree or even better. They do it just for the chance to go.
I got to do many things there I never would have had a chance to do otherwise. Got my only helicopter ride there, my only hovercraft ride (this contraption really brought out the penguins - when we stopped, they came from all directions, waddling, then sliding, then waddling, then sliding, etc.), checked out some of Robert Falcon Scott's survival huts (more or less perfectly preserved from his time there), hiked through ice caves, chilled my cocktail with ancient glacier ice, drank beer with Al Gore, got snockered with a bunch of Russians before that was allowable for a U.S. service member, and on and on.
It was the one tour I had where the navy really lived up to its own billing - it's not just a job, it's an adventure. (Sailors always liked to turn that into "it's not just a job, it's like being indentured.") When I left active duty, I went to work for the civilian Antarctic contractor and stayed there for ten years. There's not much US military there any longer, but I am so glad I was able to take advantage of that.