During my three South Pole winters, my crews consisted of forty-two to forty-six people. My first crew was the largest, at forty-six, and contained several crewmembers who were tasked with special maintenance projects. The last two winters there were forty-two members on my crew.
Scientists who work at the large telescopes take eight of the positions and have their own highly skilled machinist who can manufacture very specialized parts, if need be. The term “scientist” is used rather loosely as they vary in education from PhDs to bachelor’s degrees. They also vary in experience, with some being quite involved in the specific project they will be working on, while others are hired from different industries. Their function, for the most part, is that of a caretaker, and they are responsible for doing everything in their power to keep their telescopes observing. This means they are always on call. If an alarm comes in that their project is malfunctioning, they must make a dash at any time and in any kind of weather to ascertain the problem and seek a fix. While I did not personally interview any of these people, as their specific educational institution had done that, I was happy with the selection of nearly all of them. I felt that almost all of them did a great job of performing their scientific duties while mixing with and being part of the crew. The science staff mostly made their own work schedule but were required to participate in all crew duties, such as dishpit, house mouse, and other applicable crew functions. For the most part, they did an admirable job with their project duties, and some even went above and beyond by volunteering in other areas. I well remember seeing one young man who served in a scientific role covered in dirt one day as he assisted the maintenance staff with a difficult flooring installation project. He was under the stations floor in a dirty and somewhat unpleasant, cramped environment. He did not have to be there, but he was.
The WSM is at the top of the organizational chart but in fact, does not have even one direct report as the crewmembers all work for different companies and educational institutions. With that, the WSM must lead by the power of personality and persuasion and present an image that the crew will respect and follow. During winters with WSMs who are weak or have other leadership problems, the Denver office will be more prone to running the station from afar. I very much preferred that that did not happen. It never did.
The facilities department is the backbone of winter operations. These people and their actions keep the station alive. The group is headed by a foreman, and this position can make or break the overall success of a winter, depending on their ability to lead. This is important as the maintenance people during some past winters were the cause of problems with heavy drinking, negative crew interactions, and shoddy work. I had to deal with none of those things because of the high caliber facilities people we selected and Bill J. being the leader of that group. Bill J. was an iconic Antarctic character who had worked on the construction of the South Pole elevated station years ago. He led by example, set a high bar, and was kind and caring with his men. He was tireless, incredibly physically tough, and thought nothing of going outside to find or work on something in the worst conditions. I could count on him for anything at any time. He was the closest thing I had to an executive officer, and the crew highly respected and responded well to him.
There is a facilities engineer, FE, who is responsible for the station’s infrastructure. A primary duty of this position is the understanding and maintaining of proper settings on the complex computer system that monitors station services such as water and power. This system controls things such as the glycol flow, which cools the power plant’s diesel engines. The heated glycol then runs through the main station and, through a system of radiators, distributes heat. The station is kept at a comfortable temperature but can change with extreme cold or warm outside temperatures and needs constant adjustment. The FE needs to have a solid background with electrical, mechanical, and computer controls. The perfect FE will work closely with the facilities staff and have the ability to respond in a civil manner to those who think the station too cold or too warm. This can be difficult to do as people run the gamut from those preferring a colder station to others who prefer it much warmer. I was lucky and had three good FEs, all different, but all 100 percent reliable and engaged. This is an important position that in certain years past had been filled by the wrong person. I was told of an FE from years past who was quite timid, seldom left his room, and smelled of mushrooms. He would not have lasted long on my crew.
There are two maintenance specialists whose primary responsibility is to walk through the station and some outside buildings and note the condition of critical items such as fuel pumps, boilers, and ventilation fans. There are literally hundreds of things to check, and the daily maintenance rounds are several miles in distance and require the specialists to be outside, regardless of the severity of the weather, which could be relatively pleasant by South Pole standards or a frigid gale. In either case, they were out there performing an especially important task. Their backgrounds can vary, but the better ones have experience with multiple mechanical and electrical systems and are experts at diagnostics and repairs. The most important traits are having keen attention to detail and being self-starters who will push themselves to actually complete the rounds rather than just filling out forms. I never had issues with that and marveled at the abilities of the men I had in these positions.
For most winters there is a plumber, although some winters the crew has gone without. The South Pole plumber’s duties are much broader than what one might experience with plumbing at a more normal location. While plumbers usually deal with water and sewer lines, our South Pole plumbers could also assist with the repair and maintenance of fuel or glycol lines in the power plant. There were also other duties, as assigned, if they had completed all plumbing tasks. The station has many sinks, toilets, drinking fountains, grease traps, and other things that are in constant need of attention. Even though all crewmembers are told what not to place in toilets, obstructions are a common occurrence. I remember one that occurred at the start of a winter late on a Saturday night and our plumber trying to clear the block in the line. After multiple attempts, he found and cleared the blocked line and informed me that the blockage was composed primarily of condoms. It was quickly blamed on the summer people.
The facilities department for most winters has a single carpenter. “Carpenter” at the South Pole is a very loose term, and the common perception of a person who works solely with wood does not hold true. A carpenter at the South Pole can be involved in a variety of duties, depending on his or her abilities and motivation. These duties can range from installing flooring to assisting with the repair of an elevator. I had three different carpenters, and only one was the more traditional type who dealt mostly with wood; he was a cabinet maker. He did superb work, some of which will showcase his superior abilities for years to come. My other two carpenters, while not woodworkers, were tremendously skilled, hardworking, flexible, and worked on many projects well outside of their craft.
The winter crews would have at least one electrician, and this was a critical position. The scope of work was quite wide and could run the gamut of things as simple as changing lightbulbs to sophisticated electrical diagnostics on the station’s power generators. Some crews had the misfortune of hiring electricians who were quite narrow with their electrical experience and may only have run conduit with new construction. The position needed to be filled by someone with much wider experience. I was fortunate that on my crews the electricians were closer to electrical engineers in background and flexible enough to deal with the mundane and, at times, the frightening. The frightening was the result of shoddy work that had been performed by less experienced and less motivated electricians during past winters and summers. One winter our electrician spent a sizable amount of time fixing shoddy work done years prior. Some of which had resulted in unsafe conditions with electrical wires still live that should have been deenergized and preventive maintenance that was signed off as complete but was not. Investigation revealed a past electrician that was probably doing most of his work from his desk. He had signed off on equipment checks he had not really done. A glaring example of this was a preventative maintenance job on a heat trace system that he checked off as okay and fully functional. It was discovered by our electrician during his preventative maintenance rounds that the wires were not even electrically connected.
The position of fire systems technician is difficult to fill and some years the crew goes without. We filled the position for two of my three winters and found having a fire systems technician extremely valuable. While I gave my crewmembers a choice of where in the station they wanted to live in the winter, I would unilaterally place the fire systems technician’s room near an especially irritating fire alarm panel. This panel was a constant source of irritation as it would signify trouble with part of the system that was not necessarily serious and could be set off by the most minor issues. With the fire systems technician living next to it, I was assured it would get the required attention and in a timely manner. One of the challenges with this position is that the fire alarm system while needing constant monitoring does have periods where maintenance is not required. This means the crew could end up with the worst type of crewmember, one who is not terribly busy. Not being busy during the winter at the South Pole is not a good thing. Knowing this, during the selection process we looked for people who would have additional technical qualifications and would be willing to assist others. We found them.
The power plant is the heart of the station. It must live for the station to live. For it to live, it must be staffed by professionals who fully understand its operation. These people must also be able to diagnose problems and perform any necessary repairs. This may need to be done rapidly, under extremely pressured and strenuous conditions. There is a power plant lead who coordinates the scheduling of the watch-standing, which is performed by the power plant mechanic and water plant technician. The power plant is staffed twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. Nothing would get attention from the NSF, the Denver office, or the crew like a serious power plant issue. The crews understood that it was those diesel engines that were supplying the station heat that kept us from freezing to death. I was extremely fortunate to have the people I had filling the power plant positions. There were stories from years past where the program had hired less than qualified personnel and suffered the consequences. One story from a past year involved a power outage during which the station lost all power and only the emergency lights were on. During such an event, station personnel literally run to the power plant and associated electrical panels as every minute counts and the longer the station goes without power the more potential for systems freezing and subsequent serious damage. During the event, someone noted the power plant mechanic calmly sitting in the galley and making no attempt to respond. When questioned on why he was doing nothing, he replied, “It’s my day off.” I am happy I never had such a character on any of my crews as my reaction to him sitting there would have been quite unpleasant.
A group that was quite important, but about which I had the least understanding of their duties, was IT and communications. My initial experience with communications was as a young U.S. Marine serving in the communications section. This meant physically carrying what would now be an archaic radio and its very heavy spare batteries on a team that would call in artillery fire. That was a world away from the modern satellite systems at the South Pole. I had communications experience from all the remote projects I had worked at around the world but never fully understood the sophisticated systems and relied heavily on who I hired to run them. At the South Pole this department had four members. There was a systems administrator and a network engineer that maintained the station’s internet and intranet. We also had two satellite communications engineers who were responsible for maintaining satellite communications with the outside world. Huge amounts of valuable scientific data was constantly being transmitted to institutions around the world, but what the crew cared most about was the personnel internet availability. This was at times quite a contentious issue as some crewmembers downloaded more than they were allowed. This slowed everything down for the rest of us. More than once, I was involved with curtailing excessive internet activity. In general, the department did a magnificent job of keeping us connected to the outside world.
Logistics was a group that I had issues with from my first arrival. Not the logistics personnel who worked at the South Pole, but the entire logistics system. At other remote projects where I had worked, we were heavily scrutinized by our military customers as to how we administered that program. The military knew that a poorly run logistical system would not be able to reliably supply needed equipment and materials. In such a system there would be no reliable stock of equipment or materials, and in general, the contractor could not at any given moment determine what was on hand. The government also understood that such a poorly administered logistical system could cost them extra money. In such a system, a contractor might be buying things they really did not need as those things had been previously purchased and were already there but stored improperly and lost from the system. I had seen that but never to the extent of the South Pole operation.
Upon my arrival at the South Pole, I saw what I thought was the worst logistical system I had ever seen. Adding to the problem was lack of covered storage space and many supplies being stored outside on rows of berms on the ice. Logistics seemed a seat-of-the-pants operation, where the sophisticated computer system that was supposed to track inventory from quantities to storage location and assess when to order more was not functioning as it should. The fact is, the most sophisticated computer system is only as good as the data that has been inputted, and that data was way off. What I saw was good people trying to do the best with what they had and going on “treasure hunts” to find things. A glaring example occurred not long after my first arrival, when we were not able to locate the turkeys that would be served for Thanksgiving dinner. The logistics computer system said they were there, but we could not locate them. A message was sent to McMurdo Station to send us turkeys. They looked at the computer and said we already had them. After explaining that we did not, they sent us turkeys. I believe we found the missing turkeys later, probably when we were looking for something else. This was just a minor example. It was a regular occurrence, and I cringed when I saw it. For a South Pole winter, the logistics department consists of four people: a senior materials person, two materials persons, and an inventory data specialist. During my first winter, there were a few rough spots with this group, due to the direction, or lack thereof, that they were receiving from the Denver office. But I saw improvements made every year in summers and winters and had some great people in that department. I did see an improvement to the system over my three winters.
The medical department consists of a physician and a physician’s assistant or a nurse practitioner. The main intent of the rigorous PQ process is to have a healthy crew and keep the medical department from having to deal with major medical emergencies. The best candidates for the medical positions understood that if things went well, they would be virtually unemployed. During a winter free of medical emergencies, they are free to do other things, such as to assist others. Many physicians have long forgotten the art of working a mop or sponge or removing trash, but mine were all quite adept. All the medical personnel I had on my crews assisted with many other tasks, from sweeping floors to helping in the kitchen. I was incredibly impressed when witnessing them performing mundane and sometimes unpleasant tasks to help others. By virtue of their role with the crew, the physician is usually seen as a leader and an important member of the South Pole community. One of the notoriously bad winters started soon after station closing with comments about the physician being crazy. Several miscreant crewmembers exaggerated the claim and wrote blistering messages back to the Denver office on the subject. This was done in order to help gain an audience to support their mildly nefarious agenda of station control. Some of the crewmembers bought into it and a miserable winter for many of that year’s crew was initiated. I am not qualified to say whether that year’s physician was truly crazy but have seen photos that somewhat support the allegations.
The crew’s safety engineer is an important position, and I was fortunate to have the men I had on my three winter crews. Safety is incredibly important in a place with limited medical capabilities and having a safety engineer who is active and involved with all crew activities is especially important. I had a strong background in professional safety and wanted a self-starter who I would not have to micromanage. It would be their program and I would always be there to help, but mostly to support. In hiring for this position, we looked for active people with hands-on experience and the ability to work with people. The safety field is rife with “ticket writers” who much enjoy the minor power they have over operations. There are others in the safety profession who prefer to do their work from their desk and not integrate with the workers or work being performed. I was extremely fortunate that mine were not of this mindset. For three winters we had no serious accidents and took even small first-aid situations very seriously.
The station provides meteorological data mostly to support flight operations. On my first crew, I had two meteorologists. That was changed during my next two winters to a single position with the two winter research associates, RAs, performing some of those duties. The duties of the meteorologists were to launch weather balloons, take atmospheric visual observations, and provide a local forecast. I found the forecasts to be relatively accurate, and for station operations, I was mostly concerned with temperatures, wind speeds and any major storms headed our way. The two research associates were responsible for a number of scientific support duties and were always quite intelligent and resourceful people. One thing that really caught my eye one winter was a metronome-like device I noted in their area of the science lab. It was making very concise and timed motions back and forth. I assumed it was there in support of a scientific project. Upon questioning, I found that the RAs were involved in a company sponsored health initiative that paid them a small amount of money for activities, such as miles walked. Their pedometers were attached to the metronome device, and they were thus able to log the miles from their desks! In this case, there was no real intent to cheat the health system as they were both quite athletic. It was more a case of clever fellows using their minds during a long, dark, cold winter.
The winter crew has three people who work in the vehicle maintenance facility, VMF. There is a heavy equipment operator, HEO, who does not report to that facility but does work very closely with it. The VMF has a shop foreman and a heavy equipment mechanic, HEM. It is important to fill both the positions as there is the need to always have at least two people working together for safety reasons. Filling these positions was difficult in the past, probably because the USAP ASC pay is relatively low compared to what qualified heavy equipment mechanics could make at other projects around the world. Compounding the hiring challenge in the past was the psychological examination required to medically PQ. Statistics showed that the exam had a higher failure rate for the mechanics. Theories abound, but to me, the fact that many mechanics are quite solo in their professional practices and views might have made them more susceptible to appearing antisocial on the psychological examination. I have found many mechanics who feel that only they are competent, and I see how that type of thinking did them no favors during the psychological exams of the past.
During my three winters, I had mechanics of varying degrees of skill, from the “shade tree” self-taught to the professional factory service representative type. The VMF is tasked with fixing the heavy equipment required for winter and performing all servicing and repairs on equipment that will be used for the upcoming summer. It is important that several pieces of heavy equipment are always available as they will be used for critical operations, such as fueling the science buildings and preparing the skiway at the end of winter to land the first flight. The mechanics are not overworked and can easily finish all required tasks by the end of winter when the heavy equipment fleet should be near 100 percent operational and ready to go for the heavy workload of summer. One of the main tasks the VMF needs to be ready for is the removal of many tons of ice crystals that have blown under the station and have made minor mountains to the stations downwind rear. The incoming summer heavy equipment operators arrive on the first flight, hit the ground running, and expect the equipment to be ready.
The HEO is a critical position, and I was fortunate to have the best of the best during my three winters. They were both self-starters who needed little to no direction, and I could count on them 100 percent of the time. One of them would tell funny stories about a previous winter where the WSM had no experience with heavy equipment operations and had tried to provide direction with things like the preparation of the skiway. According to the HEO, this got to the point of the WSM bringing a measuring stick out to the skiway to check the HEO’s work. It is a fact that the WSM has overall responsibility for the skiway and there is a procedure for the skiway and the measurement of any drifting, but this is something the HEO is fully capable of assessing and correcting as needed. In this case, the additional scrutiny and mistrust of his abilities enraged the highly experienced HEO, but we had fun discussing it later. These fellows were highly skilled professionals and to do anything other than just to support them would be foolish.
The galley is truly at the center of any South Pole winter and the proper selection of the staff is of utmost importance. The staff consists of a food service supervisor, FSS, two production cooks, and a steward. To call most of these people anything other than a chef would not give them their just due. These were not fast-food cooks, and most of them had incredible backgrounds and had cooked at upscale restaurants. The food service supervisor was, by virtue of position and responsibility, an important community leader. The FSS needs to be able to keep his staff on track, and if anyone knows anything about the restaurant business, they will understand the challenges in managing restaurant personnel. At many restaurants, long hours and some stress bring drugs, excessive alcohol use, and an unhealthy lifestyle from socialization and lack of sleep. While the galley hiring company and the panel interview try to ensure the best hires, every now and then a person with problems slides through the hiring process. Sometimes the problem is the FSS, but historically, it is more likely to be the cooks, which the FSS then must get through the winter. I was fortunate and only experienced minor issues with galley staff.
Another especially important facet of the FSS’s responsibility is the fielding of complaints from the station’s food critics. Personally, I had little time for complainers, except on a few occasions, and I always wanted the FSSs to know I supported them. There were at times valid complaints that were more suggestions in nature, and a good FSS will work with the community members for those. At other times there were complaints that had little to no validity, and I remember one that stood out that stated “steak was a little cold.” I had never personally experienced that, but what bothered me most was that I knew the complainer lived in a shack in Alaska and probably ate beans out of a can. At one point, there was a ranch-style, triangular dinner bell that was labeled the “whiner bell.” I saw it rung a few times for a complainer, after my first arrival. At some point it fell out of favor with the company that ran the galley and was removed, but I personally found it appropriate.
The steward is the real unsung hero of a South Pole winter crew. The steward works in the dishpit for breakfast and lunch five days a week and does station janitorial duties on Saturdays. The steward is also responsible for the overall operation of the small store, although volunteers will assist. Stewards always start the winter extremely motivated and excited, and then, with the repetition, drudgery, and hard work, they do get worn down. The crew usually sees this and will help by taking turns in the dishpit and cleaning the galley. During my first winter, we unexpectedly lost our steward at the end of summer, just before the station was to close. A quick replacement was found in McMurdo, who had little time to consider what he was doing but made a quick decision to join us. When that aircraft arrived, I saw him as a VIP. I do not think the crew really understood the significance, but if we had no steward for the winter, the crew was going to be spending a lot of time in the dishpit. At the heart of the most successful South Pole winters will be a galley staff that can cook great food, get along well together, and interact in a positive manner with the community. This is not always easy to do.
There was another type of crewmember. One that would never journey to or experience a South Pole winter but was an essential element to its success. That group consisted of the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, spouses, children, and other loved ones in a winterover crewmember’s life. While not physically at the South Pole, one could feel their presence through their associated crewmember. Some of these people had sacrificed, and many of them worried about their loved one spending a winter at the South Pole. My wife, Melissa, who was a veteran of several overseas remote assignments, understood quite well what I was doing. I had been gone before but never for quite as long and always with the ability to return, if need be. Through the years while I was away, she had faced many things, mostly mundane but a few truly serious. During my three winters at the South Pole, alone she would face hurricanes and a pandemic.
The selection of the right crewmembers is of extreme importance in how a South Pole winter will go. The perfect crewmembers would be extremely proficient in the field they were hired for, and they would love doing their jobs. They would also be able to peacefully coexist with all types of other people with extremely diverse backgrounds. They would have no extreme negative traits, like problems with alcohol or drugs. In addition to those things, there was another trait that I always sought and sometimes got from my remote work around the world. They would have other skills. It is not impossible to get a mechanic who also can operate a crane or a carpenter that can weld. When putting the crews together, I was not just looking at what would be the challenges of a normal South Pole winter. I was looking for people that would effectively respond in the event of a major disaster, such as the ice shifting and the station breaking in half. While the chances of such an occurrence were extremely remote, I wanted people who were ready for such things. The South Pole is a very extreme place, and I wanted extreme people.
Once a candidate had successfully passed the face-to-face interview, was fully PQ’d for a South Pole winter, and (during my first year) had passed the psychological examination, they were now crewmembers. The WSM working from the Denver office was responsible for contacting all crewmembers and ensuring they were on track for deployment. During these contacts, questions came up about all types of things, such as what type of facilities existed at the South Pole, what things were available for purchase at the small store, and, most commonly, extreme cold weather clothing selection. The most important thing that occurred during this time was the crewmember’s placement in either fire or wilderness first aid training courses. I would seek any kind of past fire or medical experience that the crewmember’s may have had, and if they had none, ask what interested them. The crewmember was also made aware of the need to participate in a teambuilding session that occurred either before or after the emergency training.
All crewmembers are required to participate in one or the other emergency training classes prior to deployment and are expected to serve on the ERT after arrival at the South Pole. Most people want to attend the one-week fire school conducted at a local Denver fire academy. Crewmembers on the fire team are responsible for responding to any type of station emergency, and in the event of a fire, they would be the team to extinguish it. At the South Pole there is no calling 911, only a response from a small group of dedicated volunteers who have gone through a one-week fire brigade training course. During the interview process, I always asked if the candidate had prior fire experience as personnel who were U.S. Navy veterans or National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, crewmembers who had been on ships usually did. There were also people who had been volunteer firefighters, and this background was quite useful. Early in the process, I was looking for potential team leaders, and anyone with some experience was a strong candidate. A smaller group attended a wilderness first aid course conducted by a private provider. These people would assist the South Pole winter physician, when dealing with a medical emergency.
Fire school started with the group of crewmembers coming together at a nearby hotel and, if they had not yet been to teambuilding, meeting for the first time. It was my first chance to see them in person and note their behavior under stress. Most crewmembers did not know that they were still involved in the crew selection process, which would go through their deployment training and summer at the South Pole. Some of them might not be deploying as contracts could be ended due to negative traits being noted during the training. Others might deploy and be sent home during the South Pole summer season, prior to the start of winter. During the face-to-face interview process, I always kept in mind that most candidates wanted to appear in the best possible light. We had something they wanted, a trip to the South Pole. Many of them would say nearly anything to try to impress the panel. I always kept in mind that during an interview in a nice Denver meeting room, I was seeing the candidates at their best. Those same people might be quite different after months of isolation, darkness, and cold, long after they had taken their hero photographs, proudly standing at the Geographical South Pole. During the fire and medical training, teambuilding, and the deployment itself, at least some of the real person would become visible. It was not always what we hoped to see. On the eve of fire school, I greeted one of our new crewmembers shortly after his arrival at our Denver hotel. He had only been at the hotel a couple of minutes and was already at the bar with several beers and shots in front of him. He was a genuinely nice fellow but did not deploy.
A Denver fire academy conducted the one-week fire brigade training. The USAP had used several different training institutions through the years. During my time, we used the Aurora, Colorado, training facility, and it was first class, with top-notch instructors and excellent fire-training capabilities. The school started with a classroom overview of fire, personal protective equipment, and various methods for extinguishment. Following that, each student was issued fire department bunker gear and given an introduction to the self-contained breathing apparatus, SCBA. I had experience with the SCBA from my years of hazardous materials response out on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. At the fire school, I must admit, I felt its weight more with my age. The academy staff were superb in their approach with our groups and understood well that we were a volunteer fire brigade and not a professional fire department. They gathered information as to the South Pole Station’s layout, firefighting resources, and gear we used, and they tailored their instruction to those things. They pushed us in the training but did not try to push us to any kind of breaking point, as they would have done to a candidate in one of their professional firefighter classes. The academy’s professionalism and our class’s motivation and effort were quite impressive. The wilderness first aid course was shorter, but it gave the students a solid background in advanced first aid so they would be more capable of assisting the station’s physician during an emergency. I was not as concerned by its outcome as our physician could train the same thing while at the South Pole.
For my first year, teambuilding came first, and fire school came afterward. For my second, the order reversed. After experiencing both, I found that attending teambuilding first was the preferred order as it allowed me time to learn all names and something about each crewmember prior to the physical stresses of fire school. It also gave me initial information as to who my potential fire leads could be as I could look for any leadership traits during teambuilding. I could then observe them in a leadership role during the fire school’s hands-on activities. After that was completed, I would have a good idea as to who my fire team leads would be prior to arrival at the South Pole. While preparing for my first winter, the morning that fire school was to start, I conducted a roll call in the lobby at the hotel where we were all staying. We had a missing crewmember. I called his hotel room and received no answer. With concern, I went to his room and had the hotel staff open his door. He was gone! There was a note left as to why he felt he could not be on our crew. He wrote that he liked to be alone and after the many group exercises and interactions he had experienced during our teambuilding session, he felt he would not fit in. I wish I could have talked to the fellow prior to his fleeing as I could have told him he would have plenty of alone time at the South Pole.
After completion of the fire school classroom training and the issue of bunker gear, the crew experienced fire—real fire! One of the first exercises was breaking into small groups and entering a concrete building that was set up as a fire chamber. Inside, a very controlled burn was taking place. The heat rose to the point that it was much hotter than any oven, as we sat silently in semidarkness watching the flickering flames and smoke emitting from a pile of wooden pallets burning in the center of the room. It did not take long to start feeling the heat through the bunker gear. We learned quickly that even flexing the sleeves on the coat could cause a hot spot on your arm. We also noted that it was much hotter the higher you were and staying low was a good thing for both heat and visibility. While crouching on the floor in the concrete fire chamber as it got hotter and hotter, I really had to concentrate and fight the urge to panic or, at least, the strong desire to exit that room. After we cooked to the satisfaction of our fire training instructor, we departed the room and building to our great relief. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, we were back in the chamber as the training staff had been able to raise the temperature a bit more and wanted us exposed to that.
After our thorough broiling in the fire chamber, while checking time, I noted that the crystal in my Rolex diver’s watch was now opaque. With further investigation, I saw a small section of the rubber O-ring, which should not have been visible, exposed on the back of the watch. Somehow, the seal had been broken and steam from my perspiration had entered the watch. It was a costly repair, which I was not able to do for over a year due to our immediate deployment south. The next year, I made an announcement to my crewmembers to remove all jewelry prior to entering the fire chamber, and I did the same.
The crew practiced making entrance to a building with smoke and flames while searching and then rescuing any occupants. This could be training dummies or other crewmembers staged as victims. It was very realistic training, and after a couple of days of that, we were becoming proficient. After our few days of training, we all developed an immense respect for the fire academy staff and firefighters in general. With the conclusion of fire school, our group would become the only firefighting force at the South Pole Station during the long winter. It was a sobering thought.
Teambuilding was three days at the Estes Park YMCA doing various exercises with an experienced trainer knowledgeable in the development of positive group dynamics. Shawn was that and much more. While initially skeptical of the teambuilding process due to preconceived notions of silly group hugs and trust falls, after meeting Shawn and experiencing the first day of his program, I became an advocate. Shawn’s teambuilding experience did not come from kids’ summer camps. He had developed and completed serious projects seeking to find common ground and cooperation between incredibly disparate groups. A major project he had completed that few would consider tackling was between Israelis and Palestinians. Shawn was no lightweight! Teambuilding starts with a beautiful group drive from Denver to the Estes Park YMCA facility, nestled among snow-covered peaks and covered in pine forest. It really is a fantastic drive with beautiful scenery and elk herds that make that area their home. During the drive, I was able to gather interesting information from crewmembers who wanted to drive up with me. One was so talkative that I made sure she rode the return trip in another vehicle to give her new crewmates the chance to experience her many thoughts on everything and anything.
Teambuilding commences with exercises designed to get the group to get to know each other and then effectively interact. One quote that I genuinely believe in came from Will Rogers, who said, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” I believe that is true with all but the most damaged individuals. The key is to spend the time and effort to really get to know someone. Once you understand the true person, you can make allowances for their behavior and understand why they act the way they do. Actions or words that one might perceive as offensive may not really be, when consideration given as to what made the person the way they are. Getting to know someone better is usually a good thing, and the teambuilding was a real crash course in that. Upon arrival, the crew checked into rooms in a large lodge and had time to get out and explore the beautiful mountain area. Formal classes then started and consisted of many exercises, both indoors and outdoors. These exercises encourage and teach people who have never met to appreciate, trust, and work together to achieve goals. The crew is being closely scrutinized during the program, and on several occasions, I saw several things that caused me concern. One was an interesting event that occurred when I had a crewmember inform me that two of my crewmembers were not getting along. After looking into it, I found that one crewmember strongly disliked another. The disliked crewmember probably did not even know that. The crewmember then told me that a small group of them had tried to intervene and at dinner one night made suggestions to her about trying to talk to the subject of her dislike. Her answer was “I am so done with so-and-so!” This is the type of thing that teambuilding tries to prevent, as in a long South Pole winter, it is much better to be able to work toward ironing out differences than just being “done” with someone. On the other hand, the fact that the crewmembers tried to intervene and then, when unsuccessful, came to me, are things that teambuilding promotes. One of the great things that teambuilding promotes with several exercises is for people to try to work out differences among themselves, which will entail understanding other viewpoints. It takes people to be willing to do so, and some people have a hard time with that. At teambuilding and fire school, many lifelong bonds of friendship are sealed as people start to bond and really get to know each other on the eve of a major event in their lives—deployment to the South Pole.
At the conclusion of required training, the winterover crew divides into those deploying immediately to the South Pole and the experience of a summer and a winter. They will begin arriving around the first of November. The other group deploys later, solely for winter, and will arrive in late January or early February. Goodbyes are said between these two groups, with the expectation of meeting up again at the start of winter. For the most part, this turns out to be true, but there are also rare cases where winterovers do not survive the summer and are sent home. I experienced that my first summer, and it did not happen the next.
It is a long flight from the West Coast of the United States to Auckland, New Zealand. I remember on my first flight hearing a conversation between one of my crewmembers who had never traveled internationally and his new seatmates. The discussion was mostly concerned with him and the amazing experience he was to have at the South Pole. This went on for some time, and it sounded like lifelong friends had been made, but as most experienced travelers know, that would probably be the last contact between them. During my first deployment, I sat in silence and pondered what was to come. I was in new territory now, heading into a world I did not know with a group of people I barely knew, to spend a year as their leader.
After arrival in Auckland there is a transfer to the domestic terminal and a flight to Christchurch, where the USAP operates the Christchurch Deployment Center, CDC. Upon arrival in Christchurch, a USAP representative meets the group and provides transportation to the various hotels the program uses. It is a highly organized process and far better than most of the military projects I had worked on, where we were more on our own. The USAP realizes that some of the crewmembers are not necessarily experienced world travelers (although many are) and try to make the experience as easy as possible. After finally reaching their hotel rooms, crewmembers are usually exhausted from the long trip and have at least a couple of days to rest and get into the new time zone. Sometimes, due to weather or aircraft problems, crewmembers spend days and even weeks in Christchurch. Veteran crewmembers rarely complain of this, but those new to the program are anxious to get to Antarctica and the start of their adventure.
Christchurch is a beautiful city located on New Zealand’s South Island. It has a population of around 380,000 people but to me feels smaller than that. The city suffered a devastating earthquake in 2011 and a decade later, the effects can still be seen. The city has a wonderful botanical garden that contains the Canterbury Museum, with its epic historical Antarctic displays. Out near the airport is the International Antarctic Center, which has incredible displays and at times even exhibits beautiful live sled dogs. The nearby harbor at Lyttleton was the last major jumping-off point for several early Antarctic expeditions. I much enjoyed my time in Christchurch, especially after completing a South Pole winter. During the stays after being at the South Pole for a year, I would enjoy the class and hospitality of the Heritage Hotel, which was built in 1913. The hotel exudes charm and elegance from another time. Being in Christchurch after experiencing relative deprivation for a year and being able to walk in warmth and buy and eat whatever I wanted was a sublime feeling. Going through Christchurch on the way to Antarctica at the start of a year was a good time, but I was always keen to continue the journey south and did not enjoy delays.
The day after arrival, the crewmembers receive transportation from their hotel to the USAP CDC where they receive a briefing on the program, get flu shots updated, and are issued extreme cold weather, ECW, clothing. The USAP issues everything that a crewmember will need to protect themselves from the harsh Antarctic environment except for thermal underwear and socks. The classic “Big Red” parka issued with the USAP patch and nametag attached is warm enough for the coldest days at the South Pole, where temperatures can exceed minus 100°F. I only wore the Big Red for the flights, as it was a requirement, and at the South Pole, I had my own military ECW, which was lighter and more flexible. Later, I would acquire two anoraks with histories.
The ECW issue is a bit mystifying for the new USAP members as there are some clothing choices to make, and what one needs is very dependent on their station, either McMurdo or the South Pole. In addition, it matters if the person is going down for a summer or a winter. Summers are relatively mild, but winters are not. Fortunately, there are usually veterans who will help with advice and there can be minor changes once the person has arrived on station. For my first year, my initial issued boots were not warm enough for the South Pole winter walking I was doing. Fortunately, I found a better boot option in the station’s supply system.
Once a crewmember has received their ECW, it is stored in orange bags at the CDC in the changing room. If things are on schedule, the next day they arrive at the CDC early, weigh their bags, attend a final safety/environmental briefing, and board the aircraft to Antarctica. The new people are easy to spot, with their enthusiasm and unfamiliarity with the process. The old hands are usually more sedate as they have “been there done that,” for some, many times. Flying times vary from Christchurch to McMurdo Station, depending on if one is on a C-17 jet or a C-130 with propellers. I have been on both and much prefer the speed, legroom, and toilet that a C-17 offers. For many new to the program, this was their first time on a military aircraft and quite the novel experience. For me, it was something I had done many times as a contractor and had even parachuted out of C-130s while in the military. The professionalism and attention to detail of military flight crews always greatly impressed me. I knew we were entrusting our lives to them and those beautiful U.S. aircraft, as we flew over treacherous Southern Ocean waters. Prior to takeoff the military crew chief conducts an abbreviated emergency briefing as one would get on a commercial aircraft. While it sounds reassuring to know where the life jackets and rafts are located, the harsh fact is that a crash in those savage waters would not be survivable.
Upon arrival at McMurdo, the passengers are loaded into several types of vehicles, depending on their number. If there are only a few, a van will be used. For a fully loaded aircraft, the iconic large red terra bus, which seats many people and is very slow, will be used. The drive to McMurdo Station is scenic, with views of the nearby mountains, frozen sea, and ice, a lot of ice! Most of the newly arrived are somewhat overwhelmed by the experience, and for some, it is the fulfillment of a lifetime dream. Cameras snap constant photos of anything and everything. I always sat in silence and experienced no joy. I was on my way to the South Pole, and this was simply a minor diversion.
There are many people who love McMurdo, but initially I was not one of them. For my first two trips through, I felt the best thing that could happen to me at McMurdo was a quick transit in either direction. McMurdo gets described most as resembling some type of Antarctic mining town in physical appearance. I fully agree with that, but once one enters the 155 Building, where the galley and other central McMurdo operations reside, another aspect of its character emerges. This character is based on at least some people in the workforce that exist solely for the next social activity. At these social activities, they can display the expected Antarctic antics perpetuated as people try to outdo each other with fake irreverence. I personally love the idea of real irreverence, which was something that started institutions such as Mardi Gras. At McMurdo, an attention seeking, drunken, male vehicle mechanic wearing a tutu at a social event is nothing unusual. I know this does not apply to all McMurdo residents, and I have met many who did not fit into that mold, did a great job, and appreciated McMurdo for its other features, not the silliness. I do not know how they can coexist with some of the ridiculous antics. For me, early on, the exit from McMurdo in either direction was always the best part. Later I developed a better understanding and appreciation for the place and all the great things that are done there, which softened my view.
The flight from McMurdo to the South Pole is an amazing event. Being the WSM and needing to get to the station as soon as possible for season opening, I always flew on a DC-3, known as a Basler. These aircraft make several trips to the station prior to the military LC-130s. The LC-130 is a military C-130 but has skis for landing on icy Antarctic skiways. The Basler’s are beautiful and truly vintage aircraft with their airframes dating from the 1940s. These aircraft have been updated with the latest electronics but are still simple, tried-and-true. They can land on about anything and are polar workhorses. The Basler’s route is limited in altitude and thus there can be a fantastic view of the Beardmore Glacier that Earnest Shackleton discovered, followed by Captain Scott a couple of year later. At the top of the glacier, the aircraft continues the last few hundred miles on the polar plateau and the new arrivals may start to feel the lack of oxygen as they have gone from sea level to over nine thousand feet. Oxygen masks get used by some, but for whatever reason, I never needed one. After several hundred miles of nearly level flying, the aircraft arrives at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. This station—a ship of sorts that rides atop the moving ice—was to be my home for almost three years.