Momma, Momma, I’m Coming Home

The day you are scheduled to leave is a pretty hectic day. I was scheduled to fly out on a C-17 on November 11th, but I did not know the time until the C-17 left Christchurch, New Zealand to head to McMurdo. I had expected a ride to the airfield around 2:30pm, but we didn't end up boarding until 7pm that night. It was a long process, but I did get out. Got to my hotel at 2:30am on the same day I'm flying back to Houston. 

Here's some steps on what it looks like to leave McMurdo. First you have to pack, clean out your room, and put all your linens/towels in a bag for laundry to pick up.

Here's my room. Yes, that's aluminum foil on the window to help keep the sunlight out. Those windows did not have good insulation and dirt and wind would whip through the edges. 

Here's my last view of McMurdo as I'm transported to the airfield at 3:30pm. 

Here's the passenger terminal when you arrive at the airfield. There's no bathroom inside, but there is an outhouse down the way a bit. It's pretty hard to use the restroom when you are all bundled up in your Emergency Cold Weather gear (ECW) which you are required to wear on the plane. 

We had to turn in our bags the night before in a movement called "bag drag". Our bags were palletized and put on this transport to go to the airplane. We only had about 16 passengers going northbound, so not a lot of luggage. Most of the passengers were from the New Zealand Antarctic Program. Only a few of us were from McMurdo.

I was feeling pretty sad about leaving. I have made so many wonderful friends. As I sat waiting to leave, I was thinking about my friend Lester. I did not think I'd get to see him again, but fate brought him to the airfield for some work, and we got to say goodbye. It really lifted my spirits to see a good friend one last time before departure. 

The weather was getting bad, and the visibility was questionable, but the C-17 did land!

You can see all the vehicles ready to offload the C-17 cargo.

The plane landed at 5pm and began cargo offload. We weren't allowed onboard until about 7pm. I did get to meet two work colleagues that just arrived to McMurdo before I boarded, so that was nice to meet them and do a quick gloved high five!

My co-worker Jerry and I are finally getting to board. It's a long day. I'm glad Jerry was with me because it was not totally clear on all the processes for being on the plane, landing in Christchurch, and getting to where we needed to go. When you do land, you have to take all your ECW gear to the Clothing Distribution Center for return, so that adds even more time to the end of your journey.

Once inside, we got to pick whatever seat we wanted since there were so few of us.

No cargo was brought back from McMurdo,, so the cargo bay was pretty sparse.

Air Force guys giving us the inflight briefing:

Found a good seat. I'm amazed I'm on a flight the day I was scheduled! It's very rare. Jerry tried to curse us by reminding me that he's never been out of McMurdo on time in all the years he's been doing this....!

Jerry got us into the cockpit for some great views.

You can tell I'm pretty elated. That Hawaii ANG C130 squadron I was selected for turned into a C-17 squadron, so I was going to fly this one too. Happy I got to see the cockpit finally.

I actually know the pilot, Colonel Ford. He and I work directly with each other about the Support Forces Antarctica (all the military aircraft and Air Force personnel that comes to Antarctica). 

There's not a lot of windows in a C-17, but I was able to capture one photo after we took off. 

And I made it back to Christchurch and my hotel at 2:30 am. Currently getting ready to head back to the airport for my long journey back to Houston. First to Auckland and then a direct flight on Air New Zealand to Houston. See you soon!