Burton Island (AGB 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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Welcome to Antarctica can be ironic, when new arrivals land on a bitter day with blowing snow. This pleasant scene may change in five minutes. At the South Pole there is rarely much wind, even in winter, but cold katabatic winds flow almost uniformly down to the coasts from the center of the Continent. When they become gusty, they produce strange local 'lblizzards, with no falling snow. The sky may even be blue overhead. Far right: The Strip, with Ross Island in background, look- ing approximately north. At extreme left lnot visible herel is New Zealand's Scott Base and behind it McMurdo Station, or the Hill, as it is called to distinguish it from the Strip. Out of sight to the right is Cape Crozier, with several of the most important rookeries of both the Emperor and the Adelie penguin. For several seasons the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory has been work- ing on a snow-compacted runway that would allow an LC- l30F to land on wheels ata maximum weight of l35,000 pounds. lf successful, it would be safe from the vagaries of fluctuating ice conditions. follows the ruts made by the heavy D-8 tractors. When he reach- es the Cast-West avenue on the edge of the Strip, he tacks upwind toward a uWannigan or van full of electronics equipment. Once the door is closed, he is exhausted. It is about the size of a long bedroom. On a bench is a TACAN Qnavigational aidj receiver and a simulated set of instru- ments, exactly as they appear in the aircraft. TACAN is what the pilot sees, whereas GCA CGround Control Approachj shows the plane itself to a man on the ground who talks it down. This is test and training equipment. The main part is made up of a bank of i'drawers like cigar boxes, each one crammed with circuitry. There is a malfunction somewhere. Gary Watkins, a radioman, traces the trouble to one of the drawers and pulls it out, thus avoiding having to tear the whole thing down. Someone pities the poor crews on the weather ships. It is about time for service exams and, since they are being held all over the world on the same day, those on picket duty who aspire to a higher rating are enjoying a 40-degree roll, seasickness, headaches, and so on. It isn't fair. Everybody else is sitting in a comfortable room. Why canit he take it when he gets ashore? Andersen explains that it is to prevent the possibility of the exams being compromised. john Hesse is working the single sideband fshort wavej. On this little radio he can talk around the world. He doesnit seem impressed. HAdmiral Byrd could do it thirty years agof, The avionics chief is Glenn Hunt, who wintered-over at McMurdo in 1962. The Strip of course was not in operation, but he was not idle. That winter, he and Claude i'BuddyH English, who is now in helos, built the entire electronics set-up for Air Development Squadron Six QVX-6D on the Hill. The equipment fills the room, which shakes from the force of the storm. Andersen says that, as an AT1QAviation Electronics Technician, first classj, he is required to know it all: radar and electronics as well as his ordinary Navy duties. HThe first school I went 'to was forty-two weeks. As people do in a snug pl2LCC, they begin talking about how miserable it is outside. Red,' Aux- ford has been working, until today, on a Goon with a hOt magneto. This is the venerable DC-3 of civil aviation. As the P1aUC,S mechanic and ucaptainf' he is expected to fix it on the deck, with the wind up his pants even in good weather. SiI1CC nobody does only one job, Dick Simmons, the plane's radioman, gives him a hand. Whenever he is at the Strip, i'Red also has 8 Hg0PhC1 ' to help him, Cunningham, who is training to become a mechanic. I6 ii?

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A D-8 tractor clearing snow from the skiway at McMurdo. Looking south, with White Island and the Royal Society Range in background. One ofthe reasons a storm is so dreaded in the Antarctic is that it may take two or three days, working around the clock, before aircraft can use the runways again. Far right: A helicopter, in this case a horse from one of the icebreakers, above the helo pad, or landing area, at McMurdo. The station is at right, at the foot of Observation Hill. When the icebreakers first arrive and begin breaking the 20-odd-mile channel, they are out of sight to the northwest, but their choppers make frequent flights ashore carrying cargo and passengers. K, k,., , ,. .,,,,,.,., ...,., ,. ,,,g,.c-. .-. of- ' Y he . , by I, t x in Sr' l 1' 'tk 7 ' t its ., . . ' , M, - ff! y, Z. ,M .. . V . A , f. i V w.,,,,..,,, ., . sir M, l -1 ' ' 4-Wl4'aY1GfZZ:WQ WW, ff' ff.M,f.W....h.,,,,m ' ffawm, K ' vw., ,W . .wwf fwfmw- 5, :i ffg A - Z, '.f?W,ffww.,,g an fw.w,., , sg B ft-'ww ,V X In 1-M: ,wzzaw MW' K, 'Nw-4 :mm They are talking about the difference between the Navy and the Air Force, a subject they never tire of. 'iThe Air Force crews don 't fly and repair their own planes - both. The Navy does. We fix 'em and fly 'em.'7 When a young AT shudders at the thought of climbing up on a wing and tinkering with an engine, without a hangar, without even a canvas dodger, 2,200 mileS from the nearest real shop, John Hesse says, HThe best way to eliminate problems on the ice is not to come down heref' In the Chiefs' Lounge is a round table with a green baize cloth, and the traditional green-shaded lamp hanging above it- From the whiteness outside, with tractors prowling up and down, one comes into an atmosphere thick with smoke and with a ,baL'0iS that is heard nowhere else. The words are cryptic, but mostly they refer falthough obliquelyj to the business at hand: getting the stuff on the planes and getting the planes off the ground. Occa- sionally a man comes in out ofthe storm and says something tO one of the chiefs at the table. He gets an immediate, brief GHSWCT- They know what is going on in every corner of their departr11C11iS, and experience tells them how to deal with any problem. james Elsworth Zimmer is a ferocious-looking man in hiS domain: loadmaster and cargo chief on the Strip. This is his third season. In 1964 he was aboard one of the two Hercs that left Quonset on a hot day in June, picked up a surgical team in Washington, and flew to Christchurch. john Hart, who is 1n charge of planes and crews on the Strip, was aboard the other. Hart's plane evacuated an injured man from McMurdo in mid- winter darkness, while Zimmer's stood by for possible search and rescue. Burning fuel drums were used to light the runway: and It I 8 r