Denver, more specifically, the town of Centennial, Colorado, is where the ASC has its headquarters. Upon arrival in Denver to begin my new position, I checked into a long-term hotel not far from the ASC office. It was far enough away that it required a van ride every day. This ride ended up being one of the high points of my Denver stay. Upon reporting to the ASC office, my education in ice commenced. The office was large, occupying two stories. It was filled with people in cubicles and small offices who worked in various parts of the massive program. Most of these people would, for me, remain nameless faces. There were several Antarctic displays in cabinets, a mannequin dressed in extreme cold weather clothing, and photos and paintings of an icy world where I had never been. I was to learn that the word Denver would loom large in current Antarctic terminology and could apply to all manner of things, both positive and negative. The primary duty of the incoming winter site manager, WSM, while at the Denver office, was to assist in the selection of a South Pole winter crew and prepare them for deployment to Antarctica in late October. I arrived at the beginning of June, due to notice I had to give for the Ascension Island project. This was a little later than normal for a WSM to report, and a few crewmembers had completed interviews and selection prior to my arrival. I would work for Bill, who was the South Pole area manager. He worked full-time out of the Denver office and deployed for the South Pole summer. Bill was an icon of the USAP with many years’ experience. He had entered the program in an entry-level position and worked his way up through the years. I liked and admired him immensely and much appreciated his kindness and understanding of people. He was always available to help me through the myriad of questions that I came up with. His assistant, Andrea, was also extremely kind and helpful. I came to appreciate her as the finest administrator I had ever known. She was smart, determined, and tireless. With these two, the South Pole Station was in great hands. But while they were back in the Denver office, it was the WSM that would spend the winter at the station and ensure a successful winter, or not.
My first order of business was to try to understand the massive ASC contract awarded to my new employer by the National Science Foundation, NSF. The contract included operating three major Antarctic stations, those being McMurdo, Palmer, and the South Pole; numerous field camps; and two ships. My research focused on the South Pole only, and I had little interest in the others. In reading the contract and statement of work, I noted that it was set up very similarly to what I had experienced with the military contracts I had worked on. What I found quite different was the relationship with our NSF government customer. While the relationships I had experienced up to that time with military contracts ran the gamut from extremely adversarial to civil, I had never been part of what I would call an extremely collegial partnership. This was a welcome first for me. The relationship the ASC contractor had with the NSF customer when I joined the program was extremely positive and there was great trust between us. I saw the contractor performance ratings that the NSF had given the company and marveled at the high scores the company had achieved. I had never seen such scores in any of my military contracts.
After spending some time in the Denver ASC office, I developed a great respect for the NSF and felt strongly about its mission and value to our nation. As a contract employee working for them, I was to find the collegial and mostly trusting atmosphere far more constructive and effective than the horrendous relationships I had encountered at times as a Defense Department contractor. I always felt a positive relationship made the contractor want to perform better and do more, rather than going into a defensive contractual mode, which I had witnessed so many times with past military projects.
Next, I immersed myself in the South Pole program’s vast assortment of procedures, trying to understand things that were a world away and in a different type of environment than I had ever been in before. My time on rugged Shemya Island, Alaska, helped as, for the most part, vehicles are vehicles, power plants are power plants, and aircraft are aircraft, but I was now learning about a place where fuel could freeze as it reached temperatures colder than minus 86 Fahrenheit. In addition to reading the myriad of procedures during my first few months with the program, I spent much time in discussions with my boss, Bill, learning what had worked and what had not worked during various South Pole winters. There were several winters where mayhem of different sorts had occurred, and after studying that, I thought the root cause was poor selection of crewmembers exacerbated at times by poor leadership. I studied crew photographs that went back years and could put a name to the faces of rogues and some of the WSMs who should not have been there, at least not in that role. There were also years that were quite successful; major indications being the percentage of crew that chose to be photographed in annual crew photos and smiles on people’s faces during photographed events, such as midwinter greetings. By taking on the South Pole assignment, I had accepted the fact that even though I had seen many things working around the world, I had not seen it all. This turned out to be quite true.
A new WSM will learn early on that the term for the South Pole is “Pole,” used by most everyone in the USAP. The fact that the earth actually has two poles is long forgotten as to them, only the South Pole matters. The WSM will also learn that personnel who deploy to Pole are known in the program as “Polies.” The next thing they may or may not figure out is that they have no real authority over their future crewmembers. A South Pole winter crew is comprised of various support workers, who work for several companies, and a science staff, who work for various educational institutions. The major duties of the WSMs are ensuring the health and safety of the winter crew and that the South Pole Station is operational. This means that the power plant is functioning, drinking water is being produced, food is being cooked, vehicles are being maintained, and many other things that are required for the station to be fully operational. While those duties are being accomplished, science data should be collected and transmitted. The WSM will accomplish this by persuasion and not by bully force. WSMs with military backgrounds that know only that form of leadership have a history of failing miserably at Pole. As I was somewhat of a rarity in the program, with my twenty plus years of contracting experience around the world, I had seen that type of leadership fail repeatedly at other locations. I knew that people did not respond well to a hammer, and even in the military, a true leader resorts to that as an exception not as a rule.
Every day my routine at the hotel started with a run, breakfast, and the van ride to the office. While the van ride should have been a somewhat bland experience, it turned into the sublime, with the finding of a true friend Tony, who was the hotel’s morning driver. Our first couple of rides were just that, rides. Through many short rides, I was able to get to know him, and what emerged was a fascinating individual. Tony was a retired newspaperman from Chicago who had been involved in the mining industry. In his semiretirement, he was driving for the hotel and working on a very interesting and timely political book. We immediately hit it off with a shared worldview, and the short rides to the office and back every day became significant events for me. Sometimes upon arrival at the office, I had a hard time exiting the van, as the conversation was so interesting. Tony and our meeting were further examples in my life of how you can meet the most fascinating people and true friends in the most mundane circumstances, if one is open to it.
In addition to Tony, I met several other interesting people while at the Denver office. A real highlight being Mary who was the receptionist and who oversaw the front door. I enjoyed spending a few minutes with her when I happened to be on that side of the building. Many people seem to overlook or find invisible a person serving in such a capacity. I don’t. Mary had been with the program a long time and knew a lot of what was going on. She was strong, opinionated, and I used to joke to the South Pole personnel, that she ran the place. I also had the honor to meet and get to know Elaine, who oversaw corporate communications. That position probably has a formal job description somewhere but Elaine with her vast knowledge and dedication to her duties was far in excess of that. Through Elaine, I was able to meet and contact some of the heroic U.S. Navy veterans that originally built and wintered at the South Pole. She was passionate and tireless in preserving their great memories and she will always have my deepest admiration and respect.
The most important thing the WSM will do while in the Denver office is to coordinate and participate in the face-to-face interviews of prospective South Pole ASC winter crewmembers. The WSM and ASC management do not interview the science personnel who will be wintering as that is done by the candidates’ specific hiring institution. For the most part, that has not been a major issue as those institutions have years of South Pole winter hiring experience and have learned the traits to look for in their people. As the contract used several subcontracts to supply personnel, various company recruiters, via phone interviews, initially screen potential crewmembers. The recruiters would then rank their candidates, and those at the top were given either a primary or alternate work agreement contingent upon passing the face-to-face interview and medical and psychological exam. An interesting feature of working with the USAP is that every on-ice position has a primary and alternate person. For the South Pole winter there is one primary and there may be multiple alternates for each position. This is necessary as the primary person may not be able to deploy and there needs to be someone at the ready to take his or her place. One thing I immediately noted was that no one wanted to be an alternate.
After the recruiters had ranked the candidates, it was time to fly the primary and alternate candidates to Denver for a face-to-face panel interview. The face-to-face interview became a USAP requirement for South Pole winterovers after several less than successful winters where it became obvious that the telephone screening and hiring was not providing the program with the best possible personnel. By this time in my career, I had amassed a substantial amount of experience working on remote sites utilizing telephone interviews for hiring. I had learned the hard way of the potential problems with hiring people you had not actually seen. Out on remote sites, I had experienced several bad hires where the newly arrived employee did not seem to match the person I had interviewed via the phone. Some of the bad hires were not able to perform the job they were hired for, but most had other issues that made them unfit for the remote assignments. A few arrived not technically qualified and had exaggerated their experience, but most of the failures happened with people who were not suitably fit for a remote assignment. This could be due to issues such as excessive alcohol use or inability to work with people. It was very difficult for me to ascertain the true person by just a look at a resume and a phone call. Failures from these bad hires was disruptive and expensive. The USAP had learned the hard way the pitfalls of hiring solely by phone. They had then mandated that even with the added expense, it was necessary for candidates to undergo a more rigorous screening process prior to deployment. Now I was part of that process and looked forward to using my experience to meet and assess the candidates and be part of the final hiring decision. Out on the remote sites where I had worked, when I had a failure that could not be remedied, it was simply a termination of employment and an aircraft ride home to the persons point of hire. At the South Pole, this would be much more difficult in summer, and in winter, impossible. It was in everyone’s best interest to hire the right people.
During my first year, candidates arrived in Denver and stayed at the same hotel I did. On the days of an interview, we all boarded Tony’s van for the ride to the office. As I wanted to observe the candidates in the most natural setting possible, I would not identify myself as the South Pole WSM who would soon be interviewing them and just blended with the group. This gave me some anonymity and led to several amusing incidents. I would listen to banter from the group, some of which gave me an early indication as to the person’s lack of fitness for the role they would soon be interviewing for. On several occasions I watched as people who had spent previous summers at Pole held court with an awestruck group who hung on every word. Some of the things being spouted were ridiculous, and I made mental notes to remember who had said what. I would identify myself to the group as the WSM just as the van pulled into the office parking lot. On several occasions, after identifying myself I heard assorted groans and comments, such as “well it’s all over now.” I knew of stories of previous WSMs that would anonymously sit with groups of candidates the night before interviews at the wine and beer social hour that the hotel provided. During those social events, several prospective crewmembers ended their Antarctic careers.
Upon arrival at the Denver ASC office, the prospective crewmembers received an escort that took them to a large room where they completed company paperwork and received a video presentation on the USAP and the various stations. One by one, their next stop was the interview conference room where they would meet the area manager, their hiring supervisor, the company’s HR person, and the WSM. Each of the interviewers would state their position and their experience on the ice. For my first year I found that excruciating, as I had never been to the South Pole yet would soon be their leader. A question by a candidate to the panel such as “what does minus 100 Fahrenheit feel like” would get nothing but a mute stare from me, and I would awkwardly listen as another panel member would answer. I would, in lieu of ice time, state my many years of experience around the globe, but to me it rang rather hollow.
The interviews commenced with me explaining the process, and I would usually state that the questions that would be asked were not technical in nature as the candidate had already been technically vetted by the recruiter and the hiring manager. I was to learn later that in a few cases, this was not actually true, but for the most part the candidates that were interviewed were technically qualified. There were a couple of icebreaker questions, in which the candidate was asked by the panel to give a brief life history and explain why they wanted to work at the South Pole. These were important questions, and it was obvious if the candidate had done any research on what they were getting into. If they had a desire to see a polar bear, it was just about the end of the interview as polar bears only reside in the far northern hemisphere. This indicated poor or no research. On several occasions, candidates did state that wanting to see polar bears was important to them, and I can only think of one candidate who survived the interview process after making the comment. The other candidates were not disqualified solely by the polar bear comment but had other issues that probably were related to overall lack of understanding of what they were getting into. That candidate that survived the comment was given a rare pass for her faux pax as she had other redeeming qualities. She deployed to the South Pole, only lasted a week, and was sent home. It was obvious upon arrival at the South Pole that the fit was not right. It indicated that maybe the polar bear comment should have been given more weight. At least she got to personally see there were no polar bears at the South Pole.
Another interview question, which may have seemed like an icebreaker question but was quite important, asked about the candidates’ off-duty interests. At the South Pole during the winter there is plenty of off-duty time. Experience has shown that the most successful crewmembers have multitudes of interests, such as exercise, learning a language, doing puzzles, reading, or other things that keep them constructively occupied through the long winter. I was slightly concerned when one of the candidates could not come up with a single off-duty interest and stated that he only liked to work and that was it. As he had previously wintered over, that answer was of no concern to the other panel members. I went along with them, and he was selected. Later I found out that, indeed, he did like to work and was excellent at what he did, and he had another highly successful winter. This was not the norm. The interview continued with a series of questions designed to ascertain the candidates’ level of self-awareness and specific examples of how they had dealt with the types of situations a South Pole winterover might present. The answers ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.
In addition to questions, there were several things the panel needed to ensure were made quite clear to all candidates. Of note is the requirement that everyone on a winter crew will be washing dishes and pots and pans in the galley’s dishpit. This is on a scheduled basis, and most people understand the requirement and readily accept the responsibility. There is also a requirement that all winter personnel will serve on one of the station’s Emergency Response Teams, ERT. I wanted to make it extremely clear during the interview that these were not optional additional duties but actual requirements. This needed to be done as there had been years when a handful of winter crewmembers decided that they were not being paid to do these additional duties. I always made sure candidates understood, and I would write down their responses after I had explained the duties. During the interview, most candidates wanted to deploy to the South Pole so badly that they would say about anything. I wanted to make sure they understood exactly what they were getting into and that they would be held accountable later. Another thing made clear was the need to perform all work in a safe manner. Some of the candidates had come from jobs where safety was not always held as a paramount requirement, and all needed to understand that that was not the case at the South Pole.
After many years of interviewing and the experience of observing the successes and failures of my selected candidates, I still had not developed an ironclad method of determining if I was hiring the right person, particularly for a remote assignment. For a remote assignment, you not only had to ensure you were hiring a person who was technically qualified, you had to determine how well they would handle isolation and fit into the community under austere conditions. It was all about balancing the two. During an interview, I had no great gut feel for any candidates but those on each end of the spectrum: the superstars and the truly unfit. Those were easy to spot, and I was seldom wrong in determining who they were, but the large group in the middle that could go either way was difficult to determine. This was the beauty of the panel. Having a group of experienced people on the panel who had all wintered over and knew the traits they were looking for, really helped me, especially the first year. While we followed a script, a candidate’s response to any question could lead to probing questions where we might explore in more detail something in the candidate’s life that could shed light on their fitness for the program.
Most candidates remember their interviews, and I found over the years at the South Pole, many wanted to discuss the interview process and seemed to enjoy hearing about amusing answers that I had received from others. There were many of those. One question revolved around a mistake that the candidate may have made while at a job and how he or she had responded to it. For most people, that was easy to come up with, but candidates were naturally reticent to bring up a mistake of any real magnitude. If they were unsure on how to answer, I would sometimes bring something up I had done, as an example. One candidate had to think all the way back to 1976, and according to him, the blunder that day was actually someone else’s fault. He was not hired.
During a question about breaking a rule, a candidate brought up his stealing a car at a young age. He was hired. Several candidates exposed violent tendencies by bringing up fights they had been in. These fights escalated to the point of breaking people’s bones. One memorable incident occurred when a candidate stated in response to working with a difficult employee, “I broke her thumb because she kicked me in the balls.” This had occurred at his place of work, and although we continued to talk, the interview was over. Violent tendencies were something we were looking for and took any such answer quite seriously. Another answer of note had to do with how a candidate had dealt with a difficult employee. Asked that question, one fellow slapped the table and nearly shouted, “I know that one! That would be the time so-and-so tried to hit me with a creeper!” A creeper is the small platform on wheels that mechanics use to get underneath vehicles. Trying extremely hard not to laugh, I followed up with a deadpan, “Do you know why so and so tried to hit you with the creeper?” The response was almost instantaneous: “It was the drugs!” With that response and the other erratic behavior we had all noted up to that point, the interview was essentially over.
At the end of an interview, there was a segment during which the candidate could ask any type of questions they might have or provide a final statement, if they had one. Candidates could plead their case at that point, but I have no recollection of a candidate who was already a “no” in the minds of the panel members swaying us with a final statement. Their questions could be interesting and even entertaining. Younger potential crewmembers would ask about cell phone coverage and internet speed and would have a hard time concealing their disappointment when they learned that cell phones do not work, internet speed is slow, and internet is only available a few hours a day. Other common questions covered types of cold weather clothing that worked best and specifics about the station. When candidates left the room, I would usually walk them back to the conference room to give them a last chance to say anything they wanted. I would then return to the interview room where the panel decided their fate with discussion and a vote. In all the interviews I attended, there were very few times I disagreed with the panel. For the most part, with all our different experiences, we were in accord, and I think we did an excellent job of picking the right people.
The panel interview started with a candidate’s arrival in Denver and did not end until the person arrived home. I always sought any kind of feedback about how candidates had behaved from our receptionist’s point of view, hotel staff members who may have dealt with them, and our travel department people who interacted with them. It was important for us to know how the candidate had interacted with other people during the entire process. It was one thing to fool a panel when they wanted something, like a trip to the South Pole, but their more normal day-to-day demeanor with others was what I wanted to know about. One fellow was right on the line with his panel interview. He had a skill we very much needed but was just odd enough that we decided to reconvene and defer the final hiring decision until the next day. I was notified the next day that the fellow had contacted our travel people by phone several times late at night very dissatisfied with his seat on the aircraft on the way home. He then asked if drinks were reimbursable. If he was having a hard time with seating on a commercial flight that was only traveling a relatively short distance, how would he do with very uncomfortable Antarctic flights? The decision was then easy, and we did not hire him. What we sought during the face-to-face panel interview was to get an honest assessment of a person and try to ascertain if they could be an effective member of a South Pole winter crew. We were not just looking for superstars but more so for solid people who could perform the tasks they were hired to do, work well with other crewmembers, and not become problems.
The panel interview was only one hurdle that a candidate had to complete on their way to the South Pole. Next came a very stringent physical examination. The examination was designed to identify potential physical problems that could become major concerns while at the South Pole, especially in the middle of winter with no way out. The process was known as physically qualifying or, as we in the program called it, to “PQ.” We lost many people to this process and due to medical privacy laws, usually did not know why. The PQ process started with a detailed dental examination with X-rays and for many, follow-up treatment. In the winter, there is no dentist at the South Pole. The station’s physician functions in that role, but with little formal dental training or experience. Most people do not realize that a dental problem such as an abscessed tooth can become a deadly event. Years prior, while I was working out on the Alaskan Aleutians, an employee died due to complications with a dental malady.
The medical examination was very thorough and started with blood tests and a standard doctor’s checkup for overall fitness. Following this was a gall bladder ultrasound and depending on the candidate’s age, a chest X-ray and treadmill stress test. Candidates who did not live in the Denver area had to complete the PQ process at their own expense, hopefully with medical insurance they had, but if not, it was out of their own pocket. They would then submit the costs to the ASC and be reimbursed later. It was not an easy process for a candidate to set up all the required testing. Making it more difficult was doing this at medical offices that knew nothing about the USAP and its requirements. Another challenge was that even candidates who had alternate status and might not deploy were required to complete the PQ process. We did our best to make sure that the alternate candidate understood the value of completing the PQ process as that would open doors to becoming a primary. When the candidate thought they had completed all the required testing, they then faxed in the results to the University of Texas Medical Branch. They then waited and hoped they had not missed any of the required tests and that during the examination nothing came up that would disqualify them or require further testing. Any further testing, which was needed if something came up abnormal but was not a hard disqualifier, would be at the candidate’s expense.
During my first year as part of the South Pole PQ process, a psychological examination was required. The candidate took the Minnesota Multiple Personality Index, MMPI, administered by a local Denver psychiatric office. This was usually during their time in Denver, either before or after the face-to-face interview. I had experience with this examination before my start with the USAP due to being involved years prior in the U.S. commercial nuclear power industry. In addition to the MMPI, the USAP required a face-to-face meeting with a psychiatrist who would ask a checklist of pointed questions about behaviors such as drug use, violence, excessive drinking, and other negative traits. I do not understand the value of the MMPI, and while I do see how a question such as “do you love your mother” would indicate something of a person’s makeup, I am not sure how that would help select a South Pole winter crewmember. Some people do not love their mothers and have good reasons for it. I loved my mother and to answer “yes” was easy, but it might not be for others. Several questions were things like “do you like to go to parties,” that seemed to be seeking out loners and introverts. The test may have also been trying to identify people whose party activities may be excessive. In general, I do not like to go to parties but answered that I did. I did not want to appear antisocial. We lost approximately 20 percent of our candidates due to them failing the MMPI. I talked to a psychologist about the value of the MMPI, and he told me that its design was to identify the truly deranged but, unfortunately, it also caught some people who were just somewhat odd. We were able to test that theory after the interview with the erratic candidate who had the misfortune of a near braining by an automotive creeper. Although he had dramatically failed the face-to-face interview and would not be hired, we still had him take the psychological examination the next day. He failed.
The entire PQ process takes time, effort, some upfront money, and a really motivated candidate to complete. At the end of it all, a candidate was either PQ’d, that is, fully physically qualified for a South Pole winter, or NPQ’d, not physically qualified. Waivers were possible, but rarely granted. Candidates who had alternate status but had PQ’d opened the door to several opportunities, such as the ability to immediately fill in for a primary candidate who had failed some part of the process or had a change of mind. There was also the possibility of an offer for a position at one of the other Antarctic stations. Being PQ’d was a major accomplishment and was a good indication of a candidate’s motivation and perseverance as it was not an easy process.