A Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday. Before you wish me happy birthday let me make it known that I really don't like to celebrate my birthday. Reasons being are for a time when I feel like disclosing them. The point is, I really despise celebrating my birthday. I went out of my way to ensure that no one found out when my birthday was. A friend of mine [my ex-girlfriend] down here knows my birthday pretty well because it was the day we first met last season. She swore up and down that she would not let me go my birthday without everyone knowing and she was pretty right. I had done a good job until she told one person within the fire department. Consequently, the entire department found out from that person and, to my surprise, I didn't find this out till about 2 days before hand. At first, I was pretty upset with my friend. Really upset to be honest. I seriously felt like I had been betrayed. Near the end of the day, I traded those feelings in for those of honor because of the friends I made within the department.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

I walked into our training room to find my name sprawled across the whiteout board. At first I was slightly annoyed but this soon gave way when I was told they were cooking me a cake in the evening. I really didn't want them too but my friends Justin and Kelly made me an upside down pineapple cake with strawberries and whip cream on top. What was even more spectacular than the cake was the nachos with cheese and salsa made from fresh vegetables from our greenhouse! Although this may not sound that spectacular to those of you who have never lived or worked in Antarctica this is a pretty big deal considering we get fresh food once ever few months. Salsa, one of my favorites, is something you don't see among those "freshies" we Antarcticans have come to call such food. The day felt really good in the end when I realized how great of friends these people were. The next day brought more birthday cheer because we were now celebrating my birthday back in the states (because of our time difference (18 hours ahead of EST) it was 1 Feb in McMurdo and 31 Jan back home. This time since we were off-duty, we actually went to the bar to have a few drinks. I've said it before, one of the primary reasons I work down here is the friendships you forge irregardless of how far you live from the people you work with. The friends I've made over the past 5 months are the best presents I can ever receive.

My Birthday Eve and Navchaps

It's Friday, 30 January. Tomorrow I turn 24 years old. As my friend, Justin puts it, sometime tomorrow I'll be making my 24th revolution around the sun. Kinda interesting when you think about it that way. To be honest, I'm not looking forward to my birthday. I don't really want to talk about it but I just don't like celebrating my birthday. Today is also the arrival day for the US Navy Cargo Handling and Port [NAVCHAP] Battalion #1 out of Williamsburg, VA. The Navchaps are a feared group of sailors whose sole job every summer down here is to unload the container vessel that comes down and provides the town 80% of it's resources and to load the vessel back up with crap that is to be thrown away, sold or "retroed", or just "dissapeared". Horror stories have been floating around for years about Navchaps breaking into rooms and stealing things from poor, unsuspecting McMurdoans weeks before they redeploy back into the real world. Rumors go around that these men and women are the fuck-ups of the Navy: cast outs on their last leg before court-martial or dishonorable discharge. A lot of them are harden human beings. Several have gang tattoos. Having a healthy distrust in rumors and social stereotyping, as well as being severely drunk, I decided to buddy up and talk to several of them. Not a single one of them came off as seasoned Antarctic veterans had described in their wanton stories of horror and despair. A lot of them were interested in where I was from and what I did down here. One of the officers' father had worked down here as a firefighter back in the 70's! Some how, probably from one of the other firefighters I was with, they found out that my birthday was 24 hours in the coming and decided to take me back to the part of building 155 they'd be occupying throughout the duration of vessel offload. I continued to drink and party with them till midrats [midnight rations] time. After meeting several new and interesting people as well as filling my stomach, I stumbled the 500 yds back to my room to sleep and get ready for work...

Royal Society Range and Vessel Operations

The one thing I love about McMurdo Station it the look out to the west over the Royal Society Range in the evening.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Because of our proximity to the [South] pole the sun down here does more of a traverse of the sky versus a more conventional rising and setting as seen closer to equatorial regions of the Earth. Hence, our 24 hour sunlight and our picture show out to the west. I'll attempt to put up some better pictures. Every day shortly before I go to bed, I take a look out to the west. No matter how many times I look through the season the Royal Society never looks the same. The glaciers trickling down their mountains, the snow-covered peaks thrusting through the clouds, the alpen glow that lasts for more than 7 hours, it's like a page out of some auto-biographical Reinhold Messner story. No matter how stressful my day is though, there isn't a place in McMurdo or Williams Field where I can't get away from my world and look 70 miles across the Ross Sea to those beautiful mountains over yonder. In me they invoke intrigue and inner tranquility. They invoke an urge to climb to see McMurdo from their view point. With their glaciers shining bright, basking in the midnight sun, it's as if God himself is shining down upon the Royal Societies beckoning those who gaze upon his creations of beauty and ruggedness. Well, that calling is definitely strong...

The refueling tanker is gone and for a week or so there is a little peace. The Oden left to break up the channel more in preparation for the American Tern inbound with several hundred cargo containers full of stuff to let us survive life down here till next February and container vessel. After vessel off load, it's smooth sailing till I redeploy.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Note the Royal Society Range in the background!

The Refueling Vessel Arrives!

The USNS Lawrence H. Gianella has arrived at McMurdo to supply us with a year's worth of fuel. To be honest it's quite impressive how fuel down here works. Everything down here runs off of two types of fuel: JP-8 and MOGAS aka Motor Gasoline. JP-8 is one of the standard jet fuels used to day by aircraft worldwide. JP-8, like in the US military, down here is used in anything that has a diesel engine which, for McMurdo, is about 85% of the vehicles. MOGAS is used in a few vehicles such as light pick up trucks or 4-stroke small engines and the such. JP-8 is also used as the fuel for all of aircraft down here. McMurdo Station has the ability to store millions of gallons of JP-8 and MOGAS as you can see here on the left hand side of the picture (look for the grey and silver fuel tanks along the road that goes through the pass):

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

All of that fuel comes in from a fuel tanker once a year. Hence, the purpose of the Gianella being in town:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Amazingly, the tanker offload only takes 40 hours of continuous operation (40 hours to offload several million gallons of fuel!). The Oden hangs around the entire time waiting to break ice as it needs to. More pics to come!

Reality and Hose Testing

Regardless of how "relative" one can characterize the temperature down here, every once in a while, mother nature reminds you of the stark, bitter reality that you are, in fact, in Antarctica. It's obvious that the temps are on the decline as we move into fall and, eventually, winter. Today my legs got pretty cold for being outside only for a few hours. Insignificant to you, yes. To me, I know it's pretty damn cold out when my legs are getting cold. As of right now, the temps are probably in the high teens (nothing compared to the states right now) yet after a few weeks of summer and "warm" temps, the teens feel like that initial slap fall gives you to remind you of the inevitable cold of winter.

Today we worked on the annual chore and pain-in-the-ass that is hose testing. Every fire department that adheres to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)is required to pressure test all of the hose they posses in their department. Luckily, we only have a couple miles of hose here to test. Ashburn, on the other hand, has several miles of hose to test which usually takes a month or so to complete. I can tell you all now that there is no bigger bane to a firefighter's existence than testing hose. Thank God this shit is almost over.

I now work towards packing up some stuff to send back home and to send to Christchurch to await for my arrival. I recently booked a flight from Christchurch to Sydney, Australia for less than $130 which I'm pretty stoked about. I've never been to Australia. Even though I'm only looking to spend a week there, it still should be a lot of fun....

Inaguration Day

I'm pretty upset that I won't be able to make the inauguration next week. I can't even imagine how packed the city is going to be. The chaos of traffic, parking, hotels, millions of people, etc, and I want to be there for it! All of the fire departments in the metropolitan area are preparing, too, should something bad happen on a mass casualty scale. I know it's morbid but it's something in this day and age that we all need to think about. Loudoun County is going as far as to have all of the companies announce their staffing for each shifts, put extra Mass Casualty Incident equipment on their units, and a few other tasks to prepare. Again, being in my nature as a firefighter, I wish I were there for that. More importantly, I want to be there for that moment when Barack addresses not only our country but our world (which is a concept foreign to our country that what we do impacts a majority of the human population on this planet...but that's for another post all together). I want to be able to tell my daughter that I was there for that moment. I want to be able to say I was a part of that particular moment in history. Oh well, at least I get to watch it.

One month...

I have something like 30 days left before I redeploy from McMurdo Station. At this point, I'm definitely counting down the days till I can get out of here. Last year was the same way at this time of year. I was ready to get the hell out of Antarctica but at the same time I couldn't wait to apply for next season which I was able to do while still down here last year. Unfortunately, I won't be able to come back down next season because of school. I definitely plan on returning in the future though. It's hard to explain unless you've spent an [enjoyable] season down here. It attaches to you. No matter how far away you get. I'll be 9,000 miles away from this place when I get back home and I'll still feel it beckoning me.

In order to salvage my "vacation", a word very foreign to me, I've decided to try to make it to one of the Pacific Islands, maybe the Cook Islands even. It's pretty far fetched but I'm definitely going to look into it when I get into Christchurch. Whether I do it or not, I'll just be glad to get away from McMurdo for a while. I really can't wait to get back home to see my family either. Oh well, one month...

The Future and Working in Antarctica

This time of the Austral Summer season everyone is thinking about the future. Despite our benefits we are, in fact, temporary seasonal employees (well, most of us). I've had to drastically change my travel plans in order to save money for work out west. As of now, I have my heart set on Zion, again, Grand Canyon doing Search and Rescue, or Alaska. I'm looking at the first two a lot more because it allows me to travel and visit friends and, more importantly, my daughter. I haven't heard anything yet as far as job offers in those areas (I've received one from the United States Forest Service as an Engine Operator in Wyoming) so I haven't made any concrete plans yet.

I'm constantly thinking about school in the Fall. For some reason, I've been second guessing my decisions a lot. I know this is something I want to do but will I really have the time in life to balance this and all the other things I want to do in life. I dunno. I'm going to go through it but I'm afraid I may my Nursing license lapse in favor for other jobs. We'll see.

For my shift at least, tension within the fire department is a little high. The Antarctic Fire Department is unique in the fact that it is managed by a coporate entity (Raytheon) versus a governmental entity (i.e. a County Board of Directors or a City Mayor's Office). For all of us, this is hard to adjust to. Corporate Goals versus Government goals are quite different. Without going into detail, a lot of things we try to get done in the way(s) we only know how are met with resistance with the upper echelon of the department and Raytheon. Because of that, the stress felt where the upper management meets the lower management is felt all the way down the chain to the lowest firefighter. On the positive side of all of that, that stress felt by all as brought us closer together....a lot closer than I/we were with anyone last year. I can say that I have yet to spend an evening alone this season because of what a tight knit group we have become as a fire department and not just separate A and B shifts.

I tell a lot of people I come down here for the people I meet more than the job I work. The fire department is fun but in the end it sometimes turns out to be another job with job-like hassles. This year and last, I've made some really good friends...hopefully friends for life. I've made friends from all over the country as well as other countries. In the end, we can say that we all share a common bond of surviving working in Antarctica which a vast majority of the world cannot.

New Year's Day

Being able to say I celebrated New Year's in Antarctica is pretty damn cool. I spent the night (and morning) with hundreds of drunk scientist and support workers (me being one of them) on the coldest, windiest, driest continent in the world. There is a building here on base known as hut 10 (each building here on base along with a name(s) has a designated number which is used quited often to identify it...hut 10, for some reason unknown to me, does not have a name so it's just referred by it's number) that is used as a party place which you can rent out no more than 1 day/night a month if you wanted to.







The firehouse managed to snag Hut 10, a 1-story rambler...the only residential looking building on base, for both Christmas and New Year's eve. After going to midrats (midnight rations...the night shift "lunch") I headed over there to finish partying up the night with all of the off-duty firefighters and as well as almost the entire 109th New York Air National Guard Airwing. I left at about 3 knowing we had shift change at 1100 the next day. A very fun night indeed.

With the holidays behind me, I'm in a better mood. It's the time of year where everyone's talking about inbound vessels, redeployment back into civilization, and summer jobs (Borealis Summer). Today is spent recuperating from the night before. The entire shift is in one state or another of being hungover. It's probably even safe to say that the entire town is feeling the same way too. As a matter of fact, the town, before I left to head out to Williams Field was dead...almost deserted. Everyone, I assume, was probably recuperating as well. Oh well. Happy New Year's.