Oct 31 evening WOW what an exhausting day.
We handled over 108,000 pounds of cargo today from just one C-17. It was 8 degrees outside and a lot of the cargo was " Do
Not Freeze " so we had to get it secured quickly. My team did a great job and we all agreed we will sleep like babies
tonight. The first Penguin of the season was sighted near McMurdo today. I did not see it but hope to see one soon.
The last Polies left today and McMurdo seems nice and quiet again. The weather forecast is for light winds the next few
days . Did I mention that I hate the wind ? Happy Halloween to all of you. I am off to bed.
Oct 31 Some of the Polies are still here. They were
15 minutes into their flight to the pole when the LC-130 filled with smoke and they had to return to McMurdo. They will try
again later. They are like relatives that just won't leave. By the way the sun no longer sets down here. We are
into 24 hour daylight until Feb. It is so odd to see bright sunshine at 3 AM. My room has a window with an inside shutter
that we close to keep most of the sunlight outside. The sun is intense and with reflections off the snow and ice it is very
easy to get a bad sunburn. We all wear SPF 40 sunscreen heavily.
Oct 30 I had 12 hours of sleep last night and it
was wonderful even on a rock hard bed. It is so nice to have regular days off now. The weather the last few days has still
been too bad for flights to make it to the South Pole. It has been cold and very windy every day with brutal windchills.Yesterday
we built pallets of food to be shipped to the South Pole.One box contained 662 pounds of ice cream cones. It was so
cold in our cargo bay that the coffee in our cups had a skim of ice after an hour. At least inside we were out of the wind.
On Sunday my cargo team was the only team on duty and we had the
first MEDEVAC of the season. One of the cooks fell and had a bad head injury. We had to get oxygen and survival
gear on a LC-130 so she could be flown the 8 hours to New Zealand. The poor woman had only been in McMurdo
a couple days and we did not know her. Because of the privacy act we have no idea how she is doing.
There is also a Polie that made it on the flight to the South Pole
last week and he quit his job after 2 days. The weather has been so bad that there has been no way to get him out until
today. His luggage was somewhere in a 6000 pound pallet of bags here in McMurdo waiting for a flight to the Pole
so we had to dig through it and remove his bags. We cursed him like a dog. I bet he has had a very awkward
last few days at the Pole. Some of the people that show up here are expecting a uptopia. While this is an amazing
place, it is also a place of long hours of hard work. Lots of people have jobs that never lets them go outside. The
poor people that work inside get to see almost nothing of what goes on here during the work day. One great thing about
working cargo is that we are outside all the time and see everything that goes on. We pay for that by fighting
the cold but it is well worth it.
The building I live in has over 300 people and only 5 working clothes
washers. It has been a real pain trying to get my wash done. Yesterday I had the idea of taking my laundry to the dorm
where the upper managers live. This morning I did that and sure enough they have over a dozen washers and dryers
and none of them were in use. I took a book and sat in their nice lounge while I waited for my laundry.
I will share this little secret with my cargo team but no one else. Hard to believe I have been here almost a month.
| Staging cargo for the C-17 arrival |
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| Tony Hunter, Air Field Supervisor & Ann May , Cargo Handler |
| LC-130 in the background |
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| a 7 degree heatwave |
Oct 27 Today is my day off and I have been putting
it to good use. After my laundry was done first thing this morning I have been napping most of the day. This last week
has been long and cold. The weather was too bad for planes to fly in from New Zealand for most of the week. What I have discovered
is that even if the weather is too bad for aircraft it is never too bad for cargo crews to be outside. We spent the
week digging through cargo dumps for cargo that came in on the ship last Jan that needs to be palletized and prepared
for shipment to the South Pole when planes start flying there next week. McMurdo is overrun with Polies right now.
They were supposed to all be at the Pole right now but they are stuck here. They make the lines in the galley
and for the laundry longer and we all want them to get out of here as soon as they can. Yesterday the weather finally cleared
up enough for the C-17 to fly in from NZ. It was 7 degrees when it got here but with no wind it felt very warm
and my cargo team spent the time on the sea ice runway with our jackets open and the windows down in our
vehicles. Do you remember those "fine " boots that Raytheon gave me on Sept 15 back in Denver ?? Well they fell
apart about 8 days ago. Raytheon sent a new pair of Rockys down on yesterdays plane. So far I have worn out a pair of
boots and 2 pair of heavy leather gloves. I am working the 6 am to 6 pm shift. By the time I get a shower and read
a little it is time for me to get to sleep at 9 pm so I can get up at 5 am and start all over again. The hours
are long and the bed rock hard but this is such an amazing place and I get to play with such cool equipment. How
could I not be having fun ? We found out this week that the Today show will be here the first week of November. I hope
they have light cargo . Happy Halloween to all of you.
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| Ann, Eric, Bill, me and Ben |
Oct 21 I am feeling so much better. I am about
90% recovered from the crud. At one time this last week almost half the cargo dept was sick. Yesterday we split up into our
teams and tomorrow we begin our 12 hour shift work. My team will be working days and will have Tuesdays and Sat
off each week. We will spend 3 weeks working in town and then 3 weeks working at the ice runway. I
am so pleased with the people on my team . My assistant team leader is Ann May from Minnesota. The
cargo handlers are Bill Schultz from Wisconsin , Ben Owen from Minnesota and our apprentice is Eric DeAngelo from New
Jersey.
I am so happy to announce that Gus the cat is now safe back at home.
I want to thank all of you so much for your concern. All things are right again in my world.
Oct 18 The last few days have not been good.
I have been sick with the upper respiratory crud that is sweeping through McMurdo. I also received bad news from home that
one of our cats is missing. I hope in the next few days the news gets better.
| One of our cargo loaders |
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| Wizard |
Oct 13 The Flu and Cold season has descended on McMurdo
Station. Right now there are many people here that are sick. Some have the flu and are confined to their rooms. The
people with colds are still wandering around and everyone is worried about getting sick. We all wash our hand 10 times
per day and drink lots of fluids but with such cramped living conditions when someone gets sick it spreads like wild fire.
I have felt fine so far but I am real careful about staying away from the sneezing and coughing people . Our cargo
handlers have been arriving and now I get to start training them. We have one week to get them up to speed before we
go from one plane every day or so to 6 or 7 planes arriving every day. Since we have no planes tomorrow I
get the day off and boy will I enjoy it. I plan on getting extra sleep and just relaxing. Take a look
at another of our cargo trucks. This is Terry and he is King of the Road. He is my favorite vehicle to drive and is
almost unstoppable. The weather was great today and we were able to get the new people trained in our cargo
yard. It was 13 degrees but with no wind it felt like spring. I have discovered that the wind is not my freind. When the wind
blows over 20 MPH it cuts right through my clothes and it is so hard to stay warm. Tomorrow I will have been gone one month.
WOW I have sure learned a lot since then.
| One of our cargo loaders at the sea ice air field |
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| Mt Erebus puffing steam |
Oct 10 Another busy busy day on the ice. I
worked most of the day out at the sea ice runway. Mt Erebus puffed steam most of the day. Mt Erebus
is the southernmost active volcano in the world and is 12,444 ft high. We have a great view of it from the sea ice
air field. We had a C-17 fly in and we were supposed to get out a New Zealand Air Force C-130 but it broke down just
as it was preparing to take off so we had to shuffle cargo and get the Kiwi air crew onto the C-17 so they could fly back
to Christchurch for the repair part .It looks now like we will not get a plane tomorrow. We did get
in about half our cargo handlers so we will use tomorrow for training and orientation for them. Here is a picture of me in
my work clothes out at the air field with the truck I have been driving.He doesn't like me and I don't like him. He
is named Woody for the plastic wood panels on his dash. He might have been a fine truck in about 1980. His
heater is terrible, he is hard to start and has no passenger seat but we have bonded.
Oct 9 What a differance the wind makes. This morning
it was -54 windchill when I went to work. I had all my extreme cold weather clothes on and was still chilly but this afternoon
the wind stopped and I was able to work without a jacket. The temperature was -8 and it felt good. We have
been real busy. Today we had 2 planes arrive and tomorrow morning we have another.The plane today had :Freshies" and
2 pallets of package mail . I hope the box I sent myself after labor day was on board. I will find out tomorrow
when we break down the pallets. Our 30 cargo handlers arrive this week. Right now cargo is being done by
3 handlers and all us supervisors. With all Chiefs and no Indians it is hard to get anything done right. I spent today
operating the 12,000 pound Cat 950 loader and driving a flatbed cargo Delta. It is such fun operating the heavy
equipment. All our vehicles have names. The Delta is named Newt and the loader I used today is Frosty Boy. We also have
Wizard, Thumper, Misty, Hysteria and others. I will get photos tomorrow and get them posted this week.
Oct 7 I have had an amazing 6 days on the ice. The
first work day I was checked out on cargo loaders. We have loaders that handle up to 12,000 pounds. I have been
driving a semi tractor with a flatbed trailer out onto the sea ice runway . I haul 3 cargo pallets up to 10,000
pound each and then take on cargo that comes off the C-17 from New Zealand.. Yesterday the windchill out on
the air field was colder than -50 degrees. I have never been so cold in my life. I wore 2 layers of long underwear , arctic
weight Carhartt overalls, the heaviest Carhartt flannel shirt and an arctic weight Carhartt jacket and the cold
cut right thru. I have a water bottle in my survival bag in the cab of the truck , it had ice in it when I took
a drink and that was with the heater going full blast.The only part of me that was not cold were my feet, thanks to Carhartt
extreme cold weather socks. All of our vehicles have crankcase heaters that keep the oil warm over night.
Once we start them in the morning we never shut them off until our shift is over. As cold as it is and as hard as the work
is I am having a wonderful time. Antarctica has spectacular scenery and as soon as it warms up enough for me to take
my camera out I will post more photos. It looks like this brutal cold weather will be lessening by next weekend.
Right Now it is -18 with a windchill of -45
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| McMurdo from the sea ice runway |
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| No First Class on this flight |
Oct 3 I have been in Antarctica for 24 hours and
am pretty much settled. The 6 hour flight from New Zealand was smooth. I had a side seat on the C-17 so I had plenty of legroom.
Since the plane had no windows it was stunning to step off the plane onto the sea ice runway and see the snow ,
mountains and McMurdo Station in the background. I had studied so many photos of McMurdo that everything looked familiar.
I am living in a 4 person room but right now there are only 3 of us so we have plenty of room. One of my
roomates is from Kansas and is a janitor and the other is a cook from North Carolina First thing this morning I
had a 1 hour walking tour of McMurdo led by the station manager and then it was off to my cargo job. I spent the day
learning to drive huge, ballon tired Deltas and tractor trailer rigs. We had another flight arrive today from
NZ with 114 people and more cargo so we had to meet it on the ice runway and get everything into McMurdo.
The sun was shining, the wind chill was -35 and it was surreal. So far I can tell you that the beds are rock hard
and the pillows are flat and with a windchill of -35 today I shivered quite a bit but I am having a ball. I hope
to post a few photos tomorrow. The internet connection here is very slow so it may take me a while. Tomorrow I start
forklift training and then on Friday we have another plane arrive from NZ. Before then I have lots to learn
about life on the ice and my job.
Oct 2 Happy Birthday Jill Harding !!!!!!
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| My daily work clothes at -18 degrees |
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