What would the criteria be to volunteer for Antarctica? Would branch be able to help out with that?

2018-01-12T16:32:38-05:00

Could I get PCS orders for Antarctica, if I was complete open to going anywhere else the army need me? I.E Korea?

Response by SPC Margaret Higgins made Jan 12 at 2018 4:36 PM

2018-01-12T16:36:55-05:00

SGT Private RallyPoint Member: Specialist, I really wish that I knew the answer to your question. I do pray fervently that you get what you desire.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 12 at 2018 4:40 PM

2018-01-12T16:40:41-05:00

Even if it’s a definite NO, I still wanna know. I think it would be cool for 1 month or how ever long it is. Overall I want it for the Antarctica service medal. To be honest.

Response by Cpl John Barker made Jan 12 at 2018 4:43 PM

2018-01-12T16:43:50-05:00

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 12 at 2018 4:56 PM

2018-01-12T16:56:32-05:00

https://www.rallypoint.com/locations/mcmurdo-station-antarctica/current

Servicemembers at McMurdo Station, Antarctica | RallyPoint

Connect with military members and veterans around McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Share advice and learn from others with your experience.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 12 at 2018 4:57 PM

2018-01-12T16:57:38-05:00

https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/getting-assigned-to-antarctica

Getting assigned to Antarctica? | RallyPoint

Would you want a tour in Antarctica? Are there slots for SMs of your MOS/CMF in the country? Do you know anyone who has been there - in or outside the military?

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 12 at 2018 5:01 PM

2018-01-12T17:01:18-05:00

MCMURDO STATION, Antarctica — U.S. research stations in Antarctica have much in common with the forward operating bases that servicemembers fight out of in places like Afghanistan.

Much like the large hubs such as Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, McMurdo Station serves at the main operating base in Antarctica. Just as Afghanistan is dotted with much smaller forward operating bases, Antarctica has its own remote outposts.

If it weren’t for the penguin colony and the snow-covered volcano next door, you’d probably never know the difference.

McMurdo Station, on Ross Island, is home to 1,100 people during the peak of the austral summer and fewer than 200 during the perpetual darkness of winter. The Antarctic Program was set up to establish a presence in Antarctica through robust and wide-ranging research.

The largest group of inhabitants here, known as “townies,” is the support staff employed by defense contractor Raytheon. Townies, who make as little as $8 an hour and stay on the ice from October to February, cook, wash dishes, clean, plow snow and drive vehicles at the base. They live in four-person bunk rooms and come from a wide range of backgrounds.

Military personnel, who live in two-person barracks rooms, make up only about 10 percent of the population at McMurdo, yet they play a vital role in the Antarctic Research program, flying and maintaining the aircraft that bring personnel, supplies and equipment to the base and ferrying them to camps all over the continent.

The rock stars of this icy inhabitant are the scientists doing the research.

All civilian personnel dress like they are on an expedition to climb Mount Everest, but it’s rumored that the most eminent scientists have the puffiest jackets.

One big difference between McMurdo and the combat bases is the presence of alcohol. There are two civilian bars — Gallagher’s and Southern Exposure — and one military bar, The Crevasse. Personnel are sometimes invited to the nearby Scott Base to drink with their New Zealand neighbors.

McMurdo includes an ATM, library, indoor basketball court, gymnasium and an activities schedule that includes everything from scientific lectures to Zumba classes and an annual Marathon across the ice.

Mount Erebus, an active volcano, looms over McMurdo Station, Antarctica, on a fine day in January.

Personnel can rent cross-country skis from an outdoor recreation office and explore the ice shelf near the base on marked trails. They can go on guided walks through ice gullies created where the ice grinds against the shore on Ross Island, hike to the top of nearby volcanic peaks or watch penguins and seals at play.

Although tourism isn’t the main attraction, personnel can visit the century-old huts built by early Antarctic explorers on Ross Island. The cold weather means food left inside the huts has been preserved far beyond its sell-by date.

In mid-January, Senior Airman Brianna Tator, 22, of Latham, N.Y., a member of the 109th, visited a hut built by British explorer Robert F. Scott near McMurdo. Inside, she found tins of Fry’s cocoa, Bird baking powder, Victoria Plums, Kippered Herring and Huntley and Palmers Digestive Biscuits. Old tools, fur mittens and pants and gloves made of what looked to be seal skin sat next to a fireplace. Several crates were stamped: “Special dog biscuits supplied by Spratt’s Patent Ltd. Navy Army Expedition.”

Not far from the old hut there’s a chapel where McMurdo chaplain, Air National Guard Lt. Col. Stan Giles, 56, of Knoxville, Tenn., preaches to a few dozen regular worshipers. Giles said he deployed to Iraq, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan before volunteering to go to Antarctica.

Downrange, he often counseled young soldiers who were having marital problems. In Antarctica, Giles said, most of the scientists are agnostic, although people sometimes need comfort when a loved one passes away back home.

“All creation is a gift from God,” said Giles, who can look out his chapel window across McMurdo Sound, teeming with seals and penguins, at a magnificent mountain range. “I find it amazing how the whole of creation is intertwined.”

Raytheon logistics supervisor Sean Tarpy served in Afghanistan and Iraq as a Marine from 2001 to 2006 before coming to the ice.

He admitted there’s less stress in Antarctica than in a combat zone because there’s no enemy like the Taliban outside the base trying to kill you.

“I’m doing the same stuff I was doing in the military but working with civilians,” he said. “There are so many different personalities, lifestyles and viewpoints here, from military to tree huggers.”

Most of the support staff who come to Antarctica are there for adventure and travel, according to Eric Kendall, 53, of Raleigh, N.C.

“We are all dependent on each other here,” he said. “Everybody has to do their job to get the science done.”

Col. Conrad Caldwell, 46, part of the Oklahoma National Guard, who is working as the 109th’s flight surgeon in Antarctica this season, said he dealt with injuries caused by bombs and bullets in Iraq in 2008.

Caldwell helped medevac seven badly burned fishermen rescued in the Southern Ocean in January, but he said most of the cases he deals with in Antarctica are minor. In one instance, a researcher was injured when a seal rolled over on her while she was taking a blood sample, he said.

Chief Master Sgt. Bill Nolin, 45, of Queensbury, N.Y., a loadmaster with the 109th Airlift Wing, said military personnel were more than half the population in McMurdo when he started going there to help augment Navy efforts in 1990. Gradually, civilians have replaced servicemembers in many jobs, he said.

“We have a good relationship with the other organizations,” Nolin said of the interface between military and civilians in Antarctica. “A lot of these civilians are here year after year. We see a lot of the same faces over and over again.”

https://www.stripes.com/news/antarctica-posts-like-afghan-fobs-but-without-enemy-attacks-1.167809

Antarctica posts like Afghan FOBs but without enemy attacks

MCMURDO STATION, Antarctica — U.S. research stations in Antarctica have much in common with the forward operating bases that servicemembers fight out of in places like Afghanistan.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 12 at 2018 5:05 PM

2018-01-12T17:05:18-05:00

http://science.dodlive.mil/operation-deep-freeze/

OPERATION DEEP FREEZE

OPERATION DEEP FREEZE US Military Support of Science in Antarctica By Lt. Col. Edward Vaughan Today Today, Operation DEEP FREEZE (ODF) is a joint service, on-going Defense Support to Civilian […]

Response by MAJ Alvin B. made Jan 12 at 2018 5:25 PM

2018-01-12T17:25:59-05:00

If memory serves there are Army and USAF units that support the mission. The Army unit was the the Trans Gp at Ft Lee. Aside from that, you might get a TDY gig as a researcher or research support. The National Science Foundation runs the US facilities in Antarctica.

Response by SSG(P) Brian Kliesen made Jan 13 at 2018 12:32 AM

2018-01-13T00:32:28-05:00

I worked in Antarctica for seven seasons, 35 months, on the 'ice' working out of McMurdo. I proudly wear the Antarctic Service Medal that I earned as a civilian on my military uniform. Unless you are assigned to Operation Deep Freeze, are in the US Coast Guard or fly C-17's with the Air Force or C-130's with the 109th Air National Guard, it is hard to go down in a military capacity. As a civilian you could work for one of the civilian contractors there, or go down as a researcher affiliated with a university or project. The ASM is one of the few medals that is awarded to civilians. I hope I will one day be given the opportunity to work in the Arctic so that I can earn the Arctic Service medal and be 'bi-polar', but the odds of that are very slim.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Jan 14 at 2018 10:09 PM

2018-01-14T22:09:03-05:00

First question needs to be "Are there any billets?" I spent three deployments and a 4th run for a recovery operation. The article MSgt Private RallyPoint Member posted has some erroneous gouge. NSF contracted away the bulk of the Navy mission so that means no MIL for those functions. That means working for Leidos or one of their subcontractors as a civilian. With only C-130s and some old Hueys left, the air hauling operation was transferred to the ANG. That made sense as there would continue to be a significant air support mission in Greenland and the same outfit could do the C-17 work as well. So first you ask the Body Shop about billets. Second step is to see if there are any IA (Individual Augmentee) slots for stuff that comes and goes. I seriously doubt the first, and the second is almost as unlikely. Since it still is nominally a PACOM mission, there will be some billets associated with coordinating, money handling, operations planning, etc. However, I'd figure only a small group of ANG types actually deploy and stay for the season. Everyone else better be transient, including the CG coordinator. Big reason for that is it costs so much per person to feed, house, etc., you better have the need to be there every day. Boondogglers not welcome.

BTW, the notion that a MIL should be picked up to do work which civilians perform won't gain traction. That screams the Service is overmanned and needs to be cut. Also the medal is incidental. That's the feeling everyone I've known has been. The experience is so unique, the regular swabbies won't be able to relate. I got asked about my ASM ribbon a number of times but I could tell, they don't get it, but they want it too. Great, go for it. Don't recall anyone ever contacting me and saying they did it too after they talked to me. There is a provision that the ASM is also awarded for duration of assignment, i.e. the continuous on site requirement was deep sixed way back when because the AF pilots and crew couldn't get it because they just flew in and out. People whose job it is to come and go on a regular basis get the medal too.