Burton Island (AGB 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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, . , - ---1-7-Y-----h.Q...-e. .. -.s...'-Y-,-.,:.:,:vgpg---I-r----Asf-1---M1-T,-:QT-L?-T-'J-'TfTLTL'LriiLTlf5.:::,z.TfT.r::fff1Tf'v T 17- -'- --TJ ' T'T'7'T'- C A ' A C C A ' ---flags I 1 i Z E is I 1 I l gi E E 1, il ,t 1 li ' HNukie-Pu,', as it is called from its Navy letters N NPU, is the only place on the ice where there are more chiefs than Indians -thirteen Chief Petty Officers in a total of twenty-three enlisted men. When the plant is running, Lt Boennighausen wears red shoelaces. In the McMurdo office of Lt Carl Ripa, Officer in Charge of Detachment W, Mobile Construction Battalion Six QMCB-6j, the SeaBee detachment, was a diagram showing the 'ccritical pathn on which materials must travel to meet construction dates. Lt Ripa knows how many hours or days each job ought to take, and he fits this in with the weather and the arrival of ships, to make sure that it proceeds in the right order. The day when a man nailed up his own bunk with left-over crating materials is gone. Now that Deep Freeze is recognized to be a continuing operation, the trend is toward larger buildings, to conserve heat, to avoid fires and freezeups, and for economy of maintenance. A new building, to be financed in 1969, will berth 250 men and feed 500. To prepare the site, the SeaBees had to bring in 4,300 cubic yards of fill this season. The only way it could be obtained was by sending a couple of D-8 bulldozers up to scrape the rock off a hill which has a slope of 60 degrees. '4From the cab, you think youire looking straight doWn,', said 92

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Summer Support Wraps Up Occasionally someone asks whether Hthe tail is wagging the dogn - whether the support force will overwhelm the scientific program. On the contrary, according to a senior officer who in- spected the nuclear power plant at McMurdo, tithe tendency is to cut down.'7 The nuclear plant itself is an attempt to reduce the consumption of oil, which is the biggest single item that must be transported to Antarctica. When the plant is operating, it saves about 1,500 gallons a day. Since it went critical in March, 1962, the reactor has not been in operation as steadily as was originally expected. This is be- cause ofthe unusual safety precautions that have to be taken so far from home. 'Containment is the big thing, says Lt Tom Boennighausen, Officer in Charge of the plant. L'We7re super-safe - we can't get our rods off the bottomfi The Antarctic Treaty, furthermore, prohibits the disposal of radioactive wastes of any kind on the Continent. One of the main benefits of nuclear power at McMurdo is the production of steam for the salt water distillation plant that went into part-time operation at the end of this season. It takes about ten gallons of sea water to make a gallon of fresh water, but this is far better than relying on snow, which begins to disap- pear from the hillsides in December. 91

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v v -4 Y Y, ---- A--.- ,. ...-.-..-..-,.-i-i..,..--, , m . ' -f- i Hr..-.....t. L. ' '-'-+- A Lt Ripa. ulim going up the hill tonight, after supper, to run one of themfi He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1960 and is a member of the Civil Engineer Corpsg he is so dedicated that he qualified to drive every piece of heavy equipment in his detach- ment. Outside the new Sick Bay that was being finished inside, he pointed to a transformer platform, which had been assembled on the spot, and said the man responsible for it was his chief electri- cian, john Hansen. 'cThat's as good as the work done by any big utility company at homef' The average age ofthe 99 enlisted men in MCB-6 was 19 to 20 years. Seven of them graded the site for the personnel building in 23 days, bringing 1,800 cubic yards of rock down from the hill, with one bucket loader, two D-Ss, and three dump trucks. I get 70 percent utilization on anytruck they give me, said Lt Ripa. SeaBees with jackhammers were digging a trench for the lines that would carry water from the new desalination plant. Because of the extreme cold, it is not possible to lay the pipe below the freezing level. However, the pipe can be electrically heated by covering it with a special wrapping containing two thin, flat, copper wires which keeps the water from freezing. Other men, under Ens Steve Warwick, constructed a VLF substation 14 miles from Byrd, using three modular vans inside a 100-foot tunnel covered with steel arches to keep off drifting snow. Below: Constructionman Henry Moore, ofthe SeaBees, cuts scrap iron at McMurdo. The skeleton of this phased- out building will be used for repairs to other structures. As many buildings as possible are prefabricated before being shipped to the Antarctic, but, even so, the work of assembling them is considerable. A sign near here reads: URBAN RENEWAL PROGRAM. Building for a better, more comfortable McMurdo Station. USN MCB-6. Detachment Whiskey. At left: Cargo is unloadedfromthe hold of one of the supply ships. ,--..-.-.---F.-.-,-.-.-........,......e.r.r.:.1::1x'1. .-..i.1 ., -- ---v-H - f.-.-.,.-.-.-.- - - - -...-.-i- - -.- A.,-.-i..-.-.--.- .-......... .....- . ., ,,.,,Ai-.f.-.Y...-. ..,-.e...-....-.s,,.,.-..H.-W.-.-.-.f.-.,.-vY.-.-.V.-.-.... g,T.T.-.T-Tv-we--s-W.-.-.-,--+.......-,. ...-.-..,........-...........-.L.1.1.L...,.,. .eve-A i . P