Saturday, November 12, 2016

The good and bad and good again.

Current weather conditions McMurdo: 18F, Mostly Cloudy, and light winds
                                            South Pole: -35F Partly Cloudy, and light winds

So I am going to start with the bad actually.  And this happened about 3 weeks ago now, but I haven't had much time to write as of late.  We had a fatal snowmobile accident about 30 miles outside of McMurdo.  Dr. Gordon Hamilton from the University of Maine was operating a snowmobile in an area called the Shear Zone on the Ross Ice Shelf and when he plunged into a 100' deep crevasse.   Neither Paula or I knew the Dr, but it is tough for the program to have such a tragic accident and so close by.

On to brighter subjects.  We had a visitor this week.  Secretary of State John Kerry came to visit us here in McMurdo.  Which is a really big deal for the USAP.  He is the highest ranking US official ever to visit Antarctica.  And he was treated to the same realities that all of us our.  The visit was scheduled from Thursday to Saturday and of course weather canceled his flight south on Thursday.  So when he got to Pegasus on Friday, they transported him to Willy Field to jump onto a LC-130 for his trip to Pole.  The group got all settled in, the props were fired up and then the flight was canceled to Pole for weather.  So instead he was whisked around the Dry Valleys to see all of the cool stuff by helicopter.

This was a major undertaking for the community and the program.  I had next to nothing to do with the visit compared to many other people and departments, but I did get to play along in the hoopla.  Who would of know 30 years ago that when I started this firefighting career that I would be meet with a special agent for the Diplomatic Security Services as a fire officer.  Which was basically talking about the structure that the Secretary would be staying in and discussing the risks of fire and our response.

The other cool project that I was assigned was to determine how many people can occupy the Galley where the Secretary would be making remarks to the community.  From there it became how would we setup theater seating in the Galley to maximize the the available space for people, and then it became our job to break down the Galley and setup the seating as well maintain the exit paths and control the entrance point.  And did I mention that we were allotted 15 minutes to break down from dinner meal time to full theater seating.  My job was to coordinate the setup using volunteers from town, determine on the fly the occupancy of the room and monitor the exit paths.  We had a great turnout of volunteers and we cleared an entire 4500 square foot room of tables and chairs and setup a seating arrangement in 22 minutes.  It was amazing.  The group knocked it out of the park.

Then the Secretary came and spoke to the town and was very interesting and showed his interest in the environment and thanked everyone for there work in the science community.  I assumed that he would talk for 15 minutes or so and move on, but he talked to everyone for about 40 minutes and then took questions.  A very cool event!  And I am glad that it is over.  Here are some photos of the event.







Anyone recognize one of the door guards.


So if you have made it this far you get to hear the really good.  At least the really good for me!  Note that I included the current conditions for Pole up above.  If the flights all go well at 18:00 on Monday I am headed to the South Pole for 3 days for work.  It has taken 10 years, but it looks like I might finally make it to Pole.  And not just for a 15 minute visit.  I am going down as the Fire Prevention Officer to investigate and make recommendations on locations for Hot Work on Station.  Hot work is any type of welding, grinding, soldering, etc.  There has been quiet a bit of debate from different groups on the place and procedure.  I have the ability to look at the issue with the perspective of the fire department and from the view of a weldor.  It should be interesting.

Hopefully the next time I write I will have South Pole photos to share.

Take care and I will chat again soon.
R.J.

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