Antarctica, Austral Summer 2019 - 2020 (Part 8 - Planes, VIPs, and Getting Sick)

My next day off was on Wednesday December 4th and as luck would have it, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. There wasn’t a cloud to be seen and it was a balmy 40°. After doing my laundry and my typical day-off chores, I took a shuttle down to Williams Field once more in the hopes of getting a tour of the LC-130s.

Recently, due to our mutual interest in aircraft, I had become friends with Molly, one of the Air Guardsmen that oversees the maintenance of some of the LC-130s. Molly gave me an open invitation that if I made it out to “Willy Field” she would be happy to give me a tour of one of the planes if she was around.

As someone who has been flying since I was less than two months old, I have always been fascinated by planes. The fact that we, through our intellect, have been able to achieve flight despite not being physically capable to do so still fills me with a sense of awe and wonder. These cargo planes, the only ones of their kind, are modified with large retractable skis, allowing them to land in places most planes cannot.

The fleet of LC-130s working in Antarctica is getting up there in years. Although she’s 36 years old, the plane I was touring today nicknamed “Drift Buster,” was far from being the oldest plane in New York’s 109th Airlift squadron. Despite their age, these impressive and resilient machines serve as the workhorses of the US Antarctic Program, shuttling people to field camps, outposts, glaciers, and to the Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. Their less-intricate turboprop engines are actually more resistant to freezing temperatures than modern, more complex jet engines. This makes them perfect for this kind of operation.

---

The next day I woke up with a tickle in the back of my throat. I feared the worst. In the past, whenever I felt like I was getting a cold or something I would just work through it and my immune system would take care of the rest. I also couldn’t afford to take the day off since I finally had a distinguished visitors event to run.

The menu consisted of seared duck breast with cherry-balsamic reduction, mushroom arincinis with roasted red pepper aioli, filo cups filled with smoked salmon mousse, bite sized quiches, a large charcuterie and cheese board, a fruit tray with a creamy Grand Marnier dip, and a couple of trays of desserts assembled by our pastry team. It was certainly a great way to break my semi-monotonous routine and actually be able to have a little freedom with what I get to cook.

---

On Friday morning, my throat was even worse. I pressed on in the hopes that I would get better on my own but by that night I wasn’t able to eat or drink anything as it was too painful to swallow so I made my way to medical first thing Saturday morning. Fortunately the test for strep came back negative so the medic concluded that I was just suffering from one of the various “cruds” running rampant through the station. The medic gave me a note to miss work through Monday since they didn’t want me working around everyone’s food in that state.

Being sick at McMurdo can easily make you stir crazy. Being such a confined space, you really can’t go anywhere without running into people you know and if you missed work for being sick it’s not exactly a good look to be seen out and about town so you’re all but confined to your room where you can do little more than sleep or watch TV. I spent most of my sick day in the lounge catching up on my writing.