Burton Island (AGB 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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llll-I'-'- top of one of them is almost unnoticed. He is uHerman the German,'7 the SeaBee boss of the gas or ulightn shop where they repair anything that isn't Diesel. The center of affection is a glit- tering red HFire Bossn on tracks. Since McMurdo with '70 build- ings and 850 people is partially unprotected while it is down Cout of commissionj, they are trying to get it out of there as fast as possible. The Fire Boss carries 4,000 pounds of Ansul, a dry chemical' T any liquid would freeze. Each track rests on four great tires which are there only to keep it in place and provide some cushion- ing. They are Hsandbaggingw or just going along for the ride. In front is the smallest V-8 engine made by Ford, and it is hard to see how it can move the 30-inch tracks. joe Harner, a me- chanic, says the secret is in the gearing. At the rear, a man is in- side its very vitals, with one foot hanging down and one eye visible through a small hole in the housing. HHerman descends from the truck, and turns out to be CM1 john Koehler, a mild man to be responsible for so much heavy equipment. He gets his odd name from occasionally putting on goggles, sliding his hat back on his head, and saying, This is the way we did it in Field Marshal von Rommel's Panzers! Contentment radiates through the shop, probably because the men know what they're doing. They would never admit it. uSome- times I threaten to put on a robe and carry a staff, and go around and try to heal some of these things, says Koehler. uSome people call me The Healer. Through a passageway is the machine shop, where MR1 Cordon Boyd is threading some large bolts for the SeaBees. His calendar says he still has 299 days to go. Although he is winter- ing-over at McMurdo, he seems happy to have a steady deck un- der his feetg he came off a destroyer in the Pacific. He has a help- er or two, but he is often alone during his twelve-hour day. If a spare part is lacking, it would have to be sent ten thousand miles, so- he improvises repairs that keep machines running all over McMurdo as well as at stations far out on the Continent. c'My bench has never been clear in fifty-eight days, he says cheerfully. A chain of consequences reaches out from this shop. The fate of a field party, or a whole scientific program, may rest on Boyd 's judgment. On a clipboard behind him are diagrams of the same Fire Boss that is in the gas shop. He makes the rough drawings him- self, he can't trust other people's measurements. An automatic hacksaw cuts the heads off the bolts, then Boyd threads them, turning the huge handles 'cby main strengthfi When he finishes, he flicks the switch on the lathe and begins turning a valve-insert guide rod for the pony engine of a D-4 Caterpillar bulldozer. The c'pony is a small gas engine that turns over the Diesel. Under a piece of glass on his desk, which in every other shop on the ice holds a picture ofa girl from Playboy, is a quote from Emerson, 4'Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to right and a perfect contentment. N I2 f U! 4 l I I 5 ' 'Z I i 5 E I t s - 5 Q

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Below: The Royal Society Range, seen from Hut Point. lt was named for the Royal Geographical Society in grati- tude for its assistance to early English expeditions. At the foot of these mountains are some dry valleys which are left ice-free by receding glaciers. Most of the ice in this area of McMurdo Sound breaks out by January. At right is Marble Point, where the Navy at one time ex- perimented with a permanent runway carved out of solid rock so that wheeled aircraft would not have to land on the unpredictable bay ice.

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l'Uncle Herman, alias 'lthe German, officially known as CMI John L. Koehler, boss of the gas shop at McMur- do. With a small group ofSeaBees, he uses all sorts of ingenious tricks, including prayer, to keep all the so-called light machines - anything that is not Diesel - in work- ing order. Below is MRI Gordon Boyd, head land sometimes onlyl man in the machine shop, which is adiacent to Koehler's emporium. Boyd, from Wakefield, Massachusetts, has been in the Navy eleven years and wintered-over this season at McMurdo.