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Memories of Antarctica

For anyone who has been, whether as part of a national programme or a tourist.
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Contributions - add your own contribution

bulletMet some of the Hardest working , Fun loving , Incredible people on the Face of the planet...it was an Honor to have gone to the Bottom of the World....''stay Warm...Stay Strong''
Eddie Sepeda - McMurdo
bulletThis was a special place and time in my life. It allowed me the time to renew myself - I loved the time there, especially during win-fly. I was fortunate to get to the South Pole once as well. I would love to go back and visit one day.

Perhaps the greatest thing about being there was meeting my future wife - we have been together ever since - Jeannie Beckman
Glen Jenewein - McMurdo Station
bulletTruly loved my time there. So many great memories. Pulling equipment out of cravasses, building a new Ice Pier, the people, and one of the best was exploring Ice Caves in Erebus Tongue Glacier, SAR, to find one that was safe and set up safety lines for summer tours. Awesome!!
Bob Horneij (UT1) - 1990 W/O, McMurdo Station
bulletWant to go back. I miss the peace and the many good memories.
Gene Lostroh - Mac. Town, '87-88,'88-89 W/O
bulletFuelling Huts and help to supply and maintain the water storage for drinking and showers at Williams field. I providing live entertainment with professional musicians from Davisville RI, home base of the Sea Bee's pop music group called the Frigid Penguins. POP group Formed at McMurdo Station for the memorable Las Vegas night in the Hilo Hanger, what a night to remember.
Steven Murray - 1971 Winfly Summer support - Williams Field
bulletSo many memories! I'll never forget winfly 85, the old Erebus club and Acey Deucy, opening Byrd Sfc Camp 87, and nearly getting popped on a piss test after South Pole opened in 89.
Jennifer Stanberry - McMurdo, NBY, UPB, NZ-Ch  85-90
bulletSo many good memories from The Ice, but most memorable was a helo trip to a large iceberg at the ice edge to tend to some divers...during a break, we hiked to a smaller iceberg nearby, and scaled to the top where we found a fine place to strip down and soak up some sun!!! It felt great!
Ed Matheson - 1989-92 Summer - McMurdo and remote camps
bulletBuilding Ice pier in -120 windchill in the middle of winter and mid winter air drop.
Robert Wiles - McMurdo  1989/1990 Winter over
bulletOne of my happiest memories is joining the Lake Vanda Swim Club, during the '76-'77 summer support season. It was a very "cool" experience.
Jack Bazydlo - McMurdo 1975-1978
bulletAfter all these years the best time of my life was the five winters on the ice. Tried to return but my health wont allow it. Miss it very much.
Gene Starks - McMurdo: w/o 86, 87, 88, 90, 91
bulletClimbing up the USARP Flag pole in a blizzard to borrow their flag. Summer 1966 at McMurdo.
Jim Butler - McMurdo, Byrd and Palmer, 1966/67 & 1967/68
bulletWas On the Ice during the Cuban Crisis, October,1962. A very scary time for us, especially since many had recently seen the film, "On the Beach." Regardless, an experience of a lifetime. Better yet, "It was nice on the Ice, but it was Peachy in Chi Chi!"
Bob "Willy" Williams, PN3 (Summer, 1962/63)
bullet96-97 w/o last U.S. Navy to Winter-over at McMurdo. I was the last CPO to be selected and initiated on the ice. Operation Deep Freeze 96-97, the last w/o, was by far the best duty station in the Navy. Please keep in touch, Newby, Patti, Johnny
Craig A. Mclain - "MAC" - Of the Famous Mac and Newby Show HMC (SW/FMF)
bulletI was one of 3 helicopter pilots assigned to the USCGC Northwind. Did Ice Recon, cargo and people hauling. We flew Sir Raymond Priestly (English Geologist) out to Cape Royds to see Shackleton's hut. We were able to go inside, but there was a sense of reverence we didn't touch anything, and just wrote our names dates and outfit on a piece of paper and stuck it on a nail on the wall. I took over a 100 photos of the trip.
 - John C. Burritt, LT USNR - 1958 - 1959 - Deep Freeze IV
bulletLoved it, would like to go back to where life was simpler.
 -
Bob Lawyer,  McMurdo & Pole
bulletBeing there the first time,,, You seem to dislike it at the time,,, But once you are gone, You seem to realize how good it was, Adventurious, The good of people and a simple way of living...I should be back this year, but do to work, I had to bypass....But it really gets into your blood,, I miss a lot of you
 - Mark Cardis, McMurdo, 2007 2008
bulletWatching and photographing a Fur Seal giving birth to twins at Schlieper Bay.
 -
Bob Bell, South Georgia, 1979
bulletReplacing the Union flag with the Saltire on Saint Andrew's day and feeding the base haggis neeps and tatties (Sunday cook) on Burns night. Not too impressed! We also had a Scottish night on board the Brannie. The classic fids tartan shirts were made into kilts. You can imagine the different sporrans that were on show!
 - Dave Burke, Faraday 1981-1984
bulletWalking away from the base on a clear morning, towards Mt. Erebus. Took 2 cans of sprite, a couple of candy bars and a camera. Took a great self portrait with Erebus in the background, about 3 miles from the base. No sound. No civilization to be seen for miles. Still, quiet. A certain "zen" feeling was attached to that moment.
 - Rodney "TJ" Petrin Jr.  1981 - 1986   McMurdo Station
bulletMidwinter 1970. Wordie hut holiday from main base. After clearing snow from inside door, having a brew and thinking back to all the other guys years before who were probably doing the same! wonderful experience.
 - Mike Hinchliffe, Argentine Islands / Signy
bulletWinter 1972, doing a 3-day trip around Signy - arriving at Cummings, via Foca and Jebsen late in the afternoon, in the mank. The hut then was no more than a dry-stone wall with a metal roof. The door was only a board, and everything inside was buried in snow. We dug out the sleeping bags and primus and had a brew of nutty-bar, dried onions and peas and then tried to sleep. It was -29F and we lay there in the snow, in the dark, with the hoods of the green Everest sleeping bags drawn so tight that only one nostril was exposed for air. I've never felt so bloody cold as that night in a snow drift with the wind blowing through the dry-stone wall. Getting out for a pee and looking at the amphitheatre of black cliffs and snow all around, lit up by the moon, the masses of bergs out in the bay, the utter lifeless winter silence, and feeling that terrific sense of good 'ents', knowing that this is one of those memories that will last for ever.
- Tim Hooker, Signy
bulletLowering the Union Flag on the point next to the tide gauge, watching the Ukrainians raise their yellow and blue flag then taking the Tepco across to Wordie and raising the Union Flag. Flying out in a Lynx to Endurance with Base F/Argentine Islands/Faraday - disappearing into the clouds - all very moving.

Then a year later proposing to Lorna at Patriot Hills.
 - Duncan Haigh, 1994-95, Faraday

bulletWalking into the Chiefs office in homeport 1993 to find out I was the last Seabee assigned to the last full crew going to The Ice. Was a disappointment for all Seabees after all those years of service on that rock.
 - Roger Stevens, 1981-85 & 1993  McMurdo Station
bullet'Summer Jolly' on Barff Peninsula - a weeks freedom from the radio comms! During the night (At the old Barff Hut) you could hear the rumble of house-sized pieces of ice breaking off the snout of the Nordenskjold Glacier at the head of East Cumberland Bay! Several minutes later - the wave generated by the ice washed up on the beach.  So many other wonderful memories of South G - I miss it so much!
 - Jon Barker, 1972-74  South G (Base M)
bulletNew Years Eve 1987/88 with Dr Ker Boyce at 30,000 feet in an LC-130 flying over the the Polar Plateau, listening to Light My Fire (the long version by the Doors) patched through the aircraft's intercom system, on our way back to Willy Field from the South Pole.
 - Ed Holton
bullet1974/77. As an EDH on the Bransfield, I still look back with humble pride and such a glow in my heart with all the memories of the time we had, and friends I made among the crew and the FIDS. Such as the day we where along side Haley bay, or near by. It was early morning when the Ice shelf gave way and slammed into the side of the ship buckling the port side. We spend about 2 days clearing away the Ice from the deck. We steamed out with 20-30 degree list to port There is more to this story. Very close call!!
 - David Lawson Crew, EDH (Bransfield)
bullet1973. Driving the doo through winter Christmas cakes at Mirounga at midnight to sample the poddies in Lake 2. Sitting in the tent over the hole cut in the ice, pumping up water and listening to the hiss of the Tilley lamp - alone at midnight in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the Antarctic, on a frozen lake, under the black silhouette of Robin, and the stars gently illuminating Coronation Island. And all was completely silent, frozen in time, and so bloody cold, and so utterly utterly wonderful. Thanks for letting me do that sample, Chris.
- Tim Hooker
bullet4th. Dec 1967 Deception Island. Violent tremors suddenly cease. Outside seeing column of ash rise above Chilean Base PAC. Sulphur in the air.
 - Robin Chambers
bulletOf being in a place that was so new to people, together with knowing that there was "NO BACKDOOR" Life was real and wonderful.
 - John Sutherland
bulletTaking the Jesters sledging on smooth sea ice out to Neptune's Bellows on Deception Island on a rare brilliant white sunny day, and peaking out onto the ice-strewn Bransfield Strait, August, 1964.
- Michael Warr
bulletStanding on the monkey island of the Bransfield at midnight, the ship was pushing through the ice, and in the distance the ice shelf, vast and ancient, I've never seen anything before or since that made me feel so humble, a place to be protected and nurtured, not exploited.
 - Danny Muldoon
bulletThe roaring silence, deafening, a dark WINFLY evening, at Hut Point watching the southern lights dance over the Royal Society Mountain Range. My own breathing seemed like violation of the pure silence of that astonishing, wonder filled place.
- Deena Petersen
bulletChristmas day 1977 at South Georgia. I scored an Hat-trick as we (Bransfield) beat the base 3-2 ! They hadn't lost in 18 matches!! those were the days
- Tony Wegner
bulletThe first iceberg I saw and the last iceberg I saw. Like going through some kind of doorway that you know exists, but you don't know where it is until you're there on the way down and until long after you've passed through on the way back.
- Paul Ward
bullet

The rumble of avalanches, the whales blowing in Penola straights, the grinding of the ice. That was Faraday, what memories.
- Dick Hide.

bulletThe sound of 130+ sledge dogs all howling at the same time on their spans on the North East Glacier behind Stonington Island base.
- Drummy Small
bulletStanding atop Mt. Liotard, Adelaide Island. 2nd June 1970, Sun just visible as a pillar, pastel shades all around, and CRAMPS in both legs at the same time!
- Robin Chambers
bulletChristmas 1984, doing night watch at Signy base and watching a young female elephant seal playing in the shallow water between the end of the jetty and an old iron tank left in the shallows, a relic of the old whaling station. Peaceful and quiet, everyone else in bed, a rare clear and calm night, the whole scene lit by the pinkish light from the sun, drifting just above the horizon, at 2am in the morning.
- Ian Johnson

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