Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Visit to Scott Base


Tuesday evening, the three medical members of the Air National Guard, our flight nurse and I were invited to Scott Base by Muppet, their paramedic. He will be leaving for New Zealand after a year on the ice so he wanted to have us over for a visit.

Our visit began by a brief wait at Derelict Junction for Muppet to arrive. He picked us up in a Toyota diesel 4 wheel drive SUV.

When we arrived at the base we could see the pressure ridges in the glacier. These form from the compression of glacial ice by movement of the glacier over time.
There are a couple of firefighters from Virginia here this season. One of them, Matt, has a mutual friend with my daughter. This is picture of Matt, nicknamed "Turtle", and me, taken in the hospital. A friend of Turtle's has a broken leg and will be medically evacuated. Turtle was here at the hospital visiting him.

On another note, I recently got the opportunity to go out to Pegasus Field and replace flags and runway markers. Pegasus is the only airfield of its type in the world. It is a glacier on top of which is compacted snow. There are plenty of compacted snow runways and roads, but this is the only one that is compacted upon a glacier. Upon this runway land C-17 jet transports, LC-130 Cargo transports and other large military cargo transport planes. The runway is 10,000' long and the airfield can support night vision goggle landings. It has modern navigational aids such as microwave landing assistance and other devices.

6 comments:

eyedoc said...

Great pics Don! It looks like it's warming up!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dr. Shuwarger!!!!!!! This message is from Ms.Shuwarger's class. Thank you so much for the bookmarks! I got one that said "Penguin Power". It is so cute! Bye!
B.B.

Anonymous said...

What's up Dr. Shuwarger????
This is Justin Freeman from Mrs. Shuwarger's 5th grade class.
I was just going to say thanks for the Antarctica bookmarks. i got the penguin one! They are really awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
Once again this is Justin Freeman or J.F.

Anonymous said...

Dear Dr. Shuwarger,
The class is gathered together and we're discussing your blog. Thanks again for thinking of us and sending us the awesome book marks.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dr. Shuwarger Thank you for the bookmarks!!! This message is from somebody that goofs off in Mrs. Shuwarger's 5th grade class. Hint H.R.
I also like cows i hope you are having fun. the class is sending you something

Anonymous said...

Hi ! it's DOD I just caught up with your blog and was sorry that you got so many of your fingers frost-bitten. According to the picture you had of them it looked like all four of your fingers on your left had were frost- bitten. Happy peeling. Mom is doing just fine after her TIA and tomorrow is one week since it happened. We miss you, but know you are having a fantastic adventure. Bye for now.