This is the eighth and final part of our series featuring servicemembers working on OPERATION: DEEP FREEZE, the Defense Department’s support of National Science Foundation research in Antarctica. Special thanks to Air Force Lt. Col. Ed Vaughan, Joint Task Force Support Forces Antarctica, for co-producing this effort.
LC-130 at Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica. Photo: courtesy Lt Col Mark Doll, USAF.
MSgt John H. Rayome is the Operations Coordinator at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
Q: What is your job, and from what unit are you deployed?
A: I work at McMurdo in the main operations center, supporting all the scheduling, flight planning, weather forecasting, and maintenance coordination for the LC-130 flying operation. The mission is going 24/7 on most days. I’ve been in the Air Guard since 1996, but in the Air Force since 1981. I grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, so the weather at McMurdo Station is pretty familiar!
Q: How does the extreme environment impact your job?
A: Since I work in the office, the biggest weather factors I personally face are walking back and forth from the dorms to the office. However, when bad weather hits our operation, our office is required to “think on our feet” and react by diverting crews to adjust their delivery targets or (hopefully not) cancel missions.
Q: What is your favorite part about being in Antarctica?
A: I’ve always said to my wife that my favorite part of being in Antarctica is actually doing the job here. The worst part of being in Antarctica is actually GETTING here! Five days of travel is not the best way to spend your “leisure” time!
Q: What are some of the unique challenges of living and working in Antarctica that most people wouldn’t think about?
A: I liken McMurdo Station to the crossing a mining town and a college! There is free-spirited atmosphere of college crossed with the grittiness of living in a mining town where everything is dirty, and there’s a constant covering of dust! The obvious family separation and 24-hour sunlight is also a bit tedious!
Q: Any advice for those east coast U.S. people currently experiencing the “Snowpocalypse”?
A: Deal with it with equal parts of humor and logic. You’re not going to control the weather (if you could, you’d make more money than you do now), so complaining about it when you could be laughing about it is a waste of time.
