Beck’s Blog 2-Living in McMurdo

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Michael Beck
  • 349th Civil Engineer Squadron
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  McMurdo Station was established in the 1950s. Built on volcanic rock at an elevation of 112 ft., McMurdo Station sits to the south of the Antarctic mainland on Ross Island, originally built to accommodate the Navy and the United States interests of that era. The main mission was to act as a support platform for the various classified and unclassified activities the military was involved with at the time, heck it once even housed a nuclear reactor from a submarine to provide the base power.

Now it has been completely turned over to the National Science Foundation, supporting a wide variety of scientific experiments, ranging from the migration habits of penguins to the amazing auroras that may fill the skies, to drilling ice cores that carbon date back some 300,000 years. Even with the addition of the renewable energy wind mills that speckle the distant hills, and the ever present recycle bins for breaking down all your discards to their most basic form, the station's architecture retains a military aura that fresh paint simply can't mask. Billeting on station is the classic dorm style two bedroom, one bath configuration that we're all too familiar with.

With the departure of the last rotator, a New Zealand Airbus, the winter here officially started March 5th. We won't see another aircraft here until "Wind-Fly" in August, hopefully an Air Force C-17 out of Joint Base McChord. The C-17s are able to transport so much more in the way of mail and supplies than the civilian aircraft from New Zealand. The summer months here are between September and March, giving the station community a much different appearance. The population can inflate to accommodate upwards of 1,200 people in the summer.

This winter, McMurdo's population is a whopping 151, consisting of various infrastructure personnel, 109 men and 42 women. The reduced winter population allows us "winter overs" to enjoy many amenities the summer crews can only imagine, such as single rooms, adequate hot water, Wi Fi service, no waiting for a washer or dryer, no lines for the phone, and the food. With the end of air transport came the end of our constant supply of "freshies." "Freshies" is a term affectionately used in Antarctica to describe the fresh fruits and vegetables that would arrive with every cargo plane. Now our "freshies" are supplied from our local greenhouse. A cobbled together self-help project, the greenhouse was built from discards and salvaged material with the ingenuity and resolve of scientists and engineers. The greenhouse has been so successful in increasing moral and vegetable production, this year it is getting the necessary funding from the NSF to support full-time staff. The production is so plentiful that we can expect fresh salad and tomatoes at least once a week, two if we all eat responsibly!