Home At World's End

After 2 days of travelling, I have made it to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. This has been my home away from home since I graduated, and have been looking forward to this for the longest time!

The first pic shows the center of town, which in the middle of the summer months, November to January, is the happy home of 1000 scientists, engineers, and us NY Air National Guard guys, hopping from glacier to glacier in our ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules aircraft.

Ahh, you gotta love the 5 star accomodations down on the Ice, featuring a twin bed (my first twin bed since basic training), a wall locker, and a 13 inch TV that gets the base's local weather channel, transportation schedule channel, and a terrible movie channel. I have a US Army issue wool blanket tacked over the window, because the sun never sets down here in the summer months, and it's rather hard to sleep with that bright sun blazing through at 3:30 in the morning.

And finally, my work station, aka: Hut 25. Here us engine guys wait out storms and check our email when we're not out on the frozen icepack that is the Pegasus Runway, making sure our beloved Hercs are ready to fly anywhere on this continent.

The NY Air National Guard has been an awesome assignment. Only here was I able to trek to the Fjords of Greenland and to the bottom of the planet, where so very few people have ever been. Life is good.