Group Photos

Helloooo All,

I know it has been a few weeks, almost a month, since my last update but I have been busy. Well to tell you the truth I haven’t been busy but I have been to busy to finish writing the 5 posts that I have started. I get typing and then something comes up and I don’t finish, or I rush and it doesn’t accurately portray what I am trying to describe. So I have decided to go over them and revise what I have to make a good solid few posts. Plus my friend Phil McCully mentioned me in his blog so I have to kick my arse into high gear to get this updated.

So since this is more of a teaser than an update I will be showing and telling about my fellow McMurdoians. We have been taking pictures all over town for the yearbook, Mother’s day and our individual department photos. So this is more of a get to know my fellow Americans, and some Kiwi, than anything else. I do have to give credit where it is due, since the photos are not saved on the common drive anymore, and I do not have access to my laptop currently. I am going to be borrowing pictures that are already posted by my fellow McMurdoians. So please visit the page of a fellow McMurdoian Marika at http://ilostabetdotgov.wordpress.com/ which is truly a wonderful blog or my friends on facebook under the “Ice Cube” friend group.

My Fellow Firefighters
So here is a good picture of the different shifts. On the left you have A-Shift of which I am a proud member of. On the right you have B-Shift which they are all proud members of. And then in the front you have the Station Captain, John Cassidy, on the left and our wonderful and talented dispatcher Bethany Barfield on the right. For B-Shift starting at the bottom is their Lieutenant Mark Bucher, FF Corey Adler, FF Grant Hanson, FF & D/O Rob Weidman and last but certainly not least FF & D/O Megan Branson. Now Megan and Rob are both my personal photographers so you may already recognize them. Now onto A-Shift again starting at the bottom is Lieutenant Shayne Dombrowski, FF & D/O Virginia Price, FF & D/O Scott Beu, FF Peter McHargue and last but of course not least, not in my mind anyways, FF & D/O Corey Walsh who I do have to say is a stunningly good looking person.

F.E.M.C.-Facilities Engineering Mechanical and Construction
These groups of people are the ones that take care of and maintain everything on station except for vehicles and computers, which means they are the biggest group on station by far during this winter. They are plumbers, electricians, carpenters, engineers, boiler mechanics, and UT (universal technicians) that I get to call at 1, 2, 3 or 4 am when I am covering dispatch when a variety of alarms go off. They are the ones that brave the -50 degree weather to make sure the local watering hole (Gallagher’s) is still nice and toasty when the low temperature alarm goes off, like it just did.

Galley
I would think that just by the name it would explain it. But for those who do not know, there are the people who cook our delicious food and maintain the entire cutlery that goes along with it. They have by far one of the least appreciated jobs on station. In fact they are so under staffed that every weekend 4-6 community members have to “volunteer” in the dish pit to clean dishes and pots so 1 member of the Galley staff can have the day off.

Janos
The Janos are the housing staff that clean up the public spaces in McMurdo. Many are former Galley staff that liked it so much that they came back. They are also the people that do the laundry that is left over from the summer and make the bed packs so when the summer people come back they have clean sheets to sleep on. They also have one of the least appreciated jobs on station.

Carp Shop
These are the guys that are carpenters on station. They, like most others jobs this winter, are always under staffed and overbook on projects. They also assemble two of the best bands on station.

B.F.C.-Berg Field Center a.k.a. Building Full of Chicks
They are the individuals that are tasked with cleaning, maintaining and preparing all the field camp equipment for the summer researchers. They are also charge with maintaining the hiking trails in and around McMurdo both summer and winter.

Heat Trace
They have one of the worst jobs, I think, on station. All the piping that runs from building to building is wrapped with heat conduction to keep it all warm. Well they are in the process of rewiring all of it. So they are outside 90% of the day. A good solid thanks to all you heat tracers.

**Note** Heavy Shop Picture doesn't feel like loading today so I will work on it.

The Heavy ShopThese guys and gals are the ones that fix our equipment. Big and small, light and heavy, snow covered or sea water soaked they take care of it all. They work on everything from pickups to Caterpillar D-9 earth moving, or rather snow moving, dozers. I know that we, the fire department, have tasked them with fixing our Engines multiple times this winter and with probably more to come. They are also the group that graciously gives up there work center once a month for a horseshoe tournament

Now I know that I am missing some departments like supply, Human Resources, Finance, the Store, Safety and IT but I could not, even remotely, find a picture of them. This last picture is of the fire department again. We took it outside, obviously, but since we needed a head shot type picture we went with the first one.

More updates to come this week, I promise!

Stay Frosty
-C