by Lynne Cox
We entered the aircraft and flew to NEEM, about a three-hour flight from Kangerlussuaq. We landed on the Greenland ice cap at NEEM and climbed down metal stairs and into a snow cave. Jørgen Peder “J. P.” Steffensen, a scientist who has been conducting ice-core studies for the past twenty-nine years, met us in the snow cave where the research team was drilling ice cores and carefully extracting them from the ice cap. The ice cores were frozen time capsules. and they were exquisite frosty white crystal cylinders.
Colonel Gary James on a LC-130 training mission taking off from the Greenland ice cap passing the old DEW line.
J.P. introduced us to the group of scientists who were cutting cores into various shapes and sizes. This group was collaborating with fourteen other scientists from around the world. They were studying changes through time in the earth and the earth’s atmosphere. J.P. noted that the earth’s climate was always changing, but what was more significant was the rate at which climate changed.
Just before we climbed out of the ice cave, a tall, strong-looking, rosy-cheeked scientist came over to me and said that she was from Switzerland and was a long-distance swimmer, and there in the snow cave, within the Greenland ice cap, we talked about our shared experiences of swimming across Lake Geneva and other favorite Swiss lakes. Our time, though, was too short, and soon we were back in the LC-130.
During our return flight to Scotia, New York, I asked Lieutenant Colonel James Powell, the navigator, if he would demonstrate the way he used the aviator’s sextant.
Lieutenant Colonel Powell carefully lifted the sextant out of a heavy black case, stepped on a pullout stair, attached the sextant to a window in the ceiling of the aircraft, and focused it on the sun. We were flying south over Canada, over the St. Lawrence Seaway and a carpet of puffy clouds.
Lieutenant Colonel Powell let me stand on his chair and look up through the eyepiece. In the center of the image was a beautiful bright orange ball, smaller than my fingernail, and I thought, This is like the navigational instrument that Amundsen and Byrd used to find their way to the South Pole, and this was what the LC-130 navigators were using to find their way far beyond that and home. There was something so beautiful in the way the sextant connected the great explorers to the sun and the universe, and linked the history of polar exploration and brought that exploration into the future.
Lieutenant Colonel Powell turned his attention to the radar screen and how to interpret what he saw. The screen no longer looked like a photo of an alien to me, as it had first time I saw a radar image; now I could see the wide St. Lawrence Seaway and where it forked, a dot that was a ship sailing across the water. A small island, close to the city of Quebec, glowed brighter than all the other images, and Mark explained a building on it was made mostly of metal.
“Do you think it’s beautiful?” I asked Mark.
“Yes, very beautiful,” he said, and smiled.
“So do I.” There was something so wonderful in seeing and understanding the world in a new way.
When we landed at Schenectady, the ground surrounding the base was vibrantly green and lush. The wide-branched maple, oak, and birch were in full leaf, with knee-high grasses and Queen Anne’s lace shimmering in the sunlight after a sudden summer shower.
It surprised the senses to fly from the stark silence of the Greenland ice cap to a place where the air was filled with birds singing loudly overhead and bees and dragonflies buzzing by.
Glancing back at the LC-130 parked on the tarmac, I smiled. Amundsen would have loved flying with the 109th, too, and he had been right: aircraft were a much better way to travel over and explore the polar regions than dogsled.
When I arrived home in California, I thought I would write about the 109th and complete this book, but one of my friends in the gym, Margee Ralston, asked me if I wanted to go outrigger canoeing, along with Ted, her husband, and their outrigger crew. After workout, during breakfast, they listened to my stories about flying with the 109th and about their Greenland and Antarctic missions and how incredible it had been to watch them train. Ted asked if they flew C-17s to Antarctica, too. Ted and Margee had told me the United States Air Force flew them out of Tacoma, but I hadn’t had the chance to fly on one. Ted smiled, and one of their outrigger friends said that they had to get me into a C-17. She explained that they worked for Boeing, and they wanted to know if it would interest me to see how the aircraft was built.
Former air force colonel James Schaffer met us at the Long Beach, California, Boeing offices and explained how the C-17 was used in Antarctica. It was built to fly long distances with the capability to refuel in flight and was able to carry heavy cargo into Antarctica. He guided us on the tour to see how sheet metal was transformed into wings, fins, and a tail and how the C-17’s structures were reinforced and constructed. Outside on the black tarmac we were invited to climb into the enormous cargo area of a new C-17, and Tech Sergeants Tracy Gray and Robert Tenorio explained how efficiently and accurately paratroopers and cargo deploy from the aircraft and how everything is done with precision timing and computers. Tommy Schueler, a former instructor pilot and evaluator pilot for the air force and now a Boeing test pilot, gave us a tour of the cockpit and let me sit in one of the seats. I was awed by the number of buttons and computer displays and the multiple systems that had been developed to fly the C-17.
When the tour was complete, Tracy checked with Lieutenant Colonel Keith Guillotte at March Air Reserve Base, and he invited me to join him and Lieutenant Colonel Tim Harris in the Boeing C-17 flight simulator there. They let me sit beside Tim in the mock cockpit, and fly the C-17. Mostly I watched Tim, who was an instructor pilot and an open-water swimmer. He programmed the flight course from Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base to Tacoma, Washington, and during our flight Lieutenant Colonel Harris asked the flight simulator operator if he could simulate snow and zero visibility like what they might experience in Antarctica, and I asked if he could simulate loss of one engine, and then the loss of a second. Lieutenant Colonel Harris adjusted to the changes; his focus was complete and intense. In the background Lieutenant Colonel Guillotte commented on how amazing Tim was doing. He said that most young pilots would be bouncing around in the air, but Tim kept the C-17’s flight smooth and level. A few weeks later, after contacting their colleagues in the Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Guillotte and the secretary of the air force invited me to fly with them and see how they achieved their C-17 missions, and we’re now working on unrestricted clearance so I can go.
As time has passed I’ve been asked by Jeremy Piasecki, a chief warrant officer in the United States Marine Corps whose unit is Marine Corps Forces in Stuttgart, Germany, and the head coach of the Afghanistan National Water Polo team, to help him bring the team to the United States to compete here and on the international level. Jeremy believes that building an Afghanistan water polo team will be a way to unite people in Afghanistan and build cultural bridges between the nations of the world. Jeremy is teaching Afghan soldiers how to swim and play water polo at the Pol-e-charki and Helmand bases, and I’ve been working to get him support from the State Department and Department of Defense to help him and the Afghanistan National Water Polo team realize their dream.
While writing and reflecting upon the significance of the one hundredth anniversary of Amundsen’s and Scott’s attainment of the South Pole, I’ve been creating a South Pole celebration. I have written the White House to request Vice President Biden lead a group of American explorers in December 2011 to the South Pole to join the official representatives from Norway, Britain, and New Zealand that will be arriving at the U.S. South Pole Station to celebrate the historic anniversary of Amundsen’s and Scott’s achievements. By honoring Amundsen and Scott, we also remember Charles Wilkes, the American navy lieutenant who discovered that Antarctica was a continent and set the stage for all Antarctic exploration.
It is autumn now in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere. I imagine the preparations that are being made by modern-d
ay explorers. They will be departing for Antarctica in time to celebrate the centennial of Amundsen’s and Scott’s success. What a legacy these modern explorers will follow and what a legacy they will create. What new worlds will they open on the continent, and what will they discover in the heavens?
Soon Brigadier General Tony German will be talking with Colonel Paul Sheppard, the commander for Operation Deep Freeze, and with Colonel Tim LeBarge, the wing commander on the challenging task for the 109th Air Wing on their upcoming Antarctic mission. Soon they will be flying south with the sun.
SOURCES
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———. My Life as an Explorer. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1928.
———. The Northwest Passage: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship Gjoa, 1903–1907. 2 vols. Elibron Classics, 2006.
———. The South Pole. McClean, VA: IndyPublish.com, n.d.
Amundsen, Roald, Archives. Manuscripts Collection, National Library of Norway, Oslo.
Amundsen, Roald, Collection. Picture Collection, National Library of Norway, Oslo.
Bomann-Larsen, Tor. Roald Amundsen. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing, 2006.
Bryce, Robert M. Cook and Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997.
Byrd, Richard E. Little America. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1930.
Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctica, 1910–1913. New York: Dial Press, 1923.
Cook, Frederick Allen, Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Curtsinger, Bill. Extreme Nature: Images from the World’s Edge. Italy: White Star Vercelli, September 27, 2005, www:whitestarpublications.IT.
de Gerlache, Adrien. Voyage of the Belgica: Fifteen Months in the Antarctic. Norwich, UK: Erskine Press, 1998.
Delgado, James P. Across the Top of the World: The Quest for the Northwest Passage. Vancouver, Canada: Douglas McIntyre, 2009.
Fram Museum. Fridtjof Nansen, Scientist and Humanitarian. Oslo: Fram Museum, 2008.
Lewis-Jones, Huw. Face to Face: Polar Portraits. Cambridge, UK: Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, 2008.
McGonigal, David, and Lynn Woodworth. Antarctic and the Arctic: The Complete Encyclopedia. Willowdale, Canada: Firefly Books, 2001.
Nansen, Fridtjof. Farthest North. New York: Modern Library, 1999.
———. The First Crossing of Greenland. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, 2001.
Nansen, Fridtjof, Archives. Manuscripts Collection, National Library of Norway, Oslo.
Nansen, Fridtjof, Collection. Picture Collection, National Library of Norway, Oslo.
New York Times archives, NYtimes.com.
Peat, Neville. Antarctic Partners: 50 Years of New Zealand and United States Cooperation in Antarctica, 1957–2007. Wellington: New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2007.
Scott, R. F. Tragedy and Triumph: The Journals of Captain R. F. Scott’s Last Polar Expedition. New York: Konecky and Konecky, 1993.
INDEX
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Afghanistan National Water Polo team
African Americans, 23.1, 23.2
Air Force, U.S., 9.1, 20.1, 22.1, 23.1, atw.1
Antarctica operations of, 9.1, 9.2, 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, 20.4, 21.1, 21.2, 23.1, 23.2, 23.3, 24.1, 24.2, atw.1, atw.2
Arctic operations of, 21.1, 24.1
Cox’s Greenland trips and, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3
Cox’s planned Antarctica trip and, 20.1, 23.1, 23.2
Greenland operations of, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 11.1, 24.1, 24.2, atw.1, atw.2, atw.3, atw.4
Alaska, 2.1, 24.1
Amundsen’s Northwest Passage expedition and, 10.1, 14.1, 14.2
Amundsen’s polar flights and, 17.1, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4
Cox’s Prudhoe Bay swim and, 14.1, 21.1
Alvi, Jakob
Ameralik Fjord
Amundsen, Roald, 1.1, 6.1, 12.1, 14.1, 16.1, 19.1, 24.1, 24.2, atw.1
Antarctica and, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 12.1, 15.1, 16.1, 17.1, 18.1, 19.1, 21.1, 24.1
Arctic Ocean research of
awards and honors of, 16.1, 17.1, 19.1
Belgica expedition and, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 12.1, 14.1, 14.2, 15.1, 18.1
Byrd’s polar flights, expeditions and, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4, 19.5, 19.6, 21.1
Byrd’s relationship with, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 24.1
Cook’s relationship with
Cox’s Ilulissat trip and, 10.1, 10.2
Cox’s planned Antarctica trip and, 20.1, 23.1
death of, 19.1, 19.2
de Gerlache’s contract and
education of, 4.1, 5.1
fascinated with polar exploration
finances of, 7.1, 14.1, 15.1, 16.1, 19.1, 19.2
illnesses and injuries of, 16.1, 17.1
King William Island stay of, 13.1, 13.2, 14.1
legacy of, 20.1, 20.2, 24.1, 24.2
Nansen’s Greenland exploration and, 3.1, 4.1
Nansen’s relationship with, 7.1, 15.1, 16.1, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 23.1, 24.1
Nobile’s rescue and, 19.1, 19.2
Northeast Passage expedition of, 16.1, 17.1, 19.1
North Pole expedition planned by, 14.1, 15.1, 16.1
North Pole studies of, 7.1, 13.1, 13.2
Northwest Passage expedition of, 4.1, 6.1, 7.1, 9.1, 10.1, 11.1, 12.1, 12.2, 13.1, 13.2, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 16.1, 21.1, atw.1
polar flights of, 17.1, 17.2, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4, 23.1
provisions, equipment, and supplies of, 5.1, 7.1, 10.1, 11.1, 16.1, atw.1
Rasmussen’s relationship with
Shackleton’s South Pole expeditions and, 15.1, 16.1, 16.2
South Pole expedition of, prf.1, 13.1, 15.1, 16.1, 16.2, 16.3, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4, 20.1, 21.1, 23.1, 24.1, atw.1, atw.2, atw.3, atw.4
training of, prf.1, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1
Uranienborg home of, 19.1
Andrée, Salomon
Andrew, George T., 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
Angara River
Antarctica, 13.1, 19.1, 21.1, 23.1, 24.1, atw.1
Air Force operations in, 9.1, 9.2, 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, 20.4, 21.1, 21.2, 23.1, 23.2, 23.3, 24.1, 24.2, atw.1, atw.2
Amundsen and, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 12.1, 15.1, 16.1, 17.1, 18.1, 19.1, 21.1, 24.1
Belgica expedition and, 6.1, 12.1, 18.1
Byrd’s South Pole expedition and, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3
C-17 operations in
Cox’s briefing on, 20.1, 21.1
Cox’s swim off, 8.1, 8.2, 9.1, 10.1, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 12.1
Cox’s trip and planned trip to, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 20.1, 23.1, 23.2
navigation in, 21.1, 21.2, 24.1
runways in, 9.1, 20.1, 24.1, 24.2, 24.3, 24.4
Scott’s South Pole expeditions and, 16.1, 16.2, 20.1, 21.1
Shackleton’s South Pole expeditions and, 15.1, 16.1, 20.1, 21.1
weather systems of
Antarctica’s Gamburtsev Province (AGAP)
Air Force mission in, 24.1, 24.2
off-loading cargo in
Antarctic Treaty
, 20.1, 20.2, atw.1
Apollo 11
Archer, Colin
Arctic, Arctic Ocean, 3.1, 4.1, 7.1, 8.1, 8.2, 10.1, 11.1, 12.1, 12.2, 13.1, 13.2, 15.1, 16.1, 20.1, 21.1, 23.1
Air Force operations in, 21.1, 24.1
Amundsen’s Northeast Passage expedition and, 16.1, 17.1, 17.2
Amundsen’s Northwest Passage expedition and, 11.1, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3
Amundsen’s polar flights and, 17.1, 17.2, 18.1, 19.1, 19.2, 23.1
Amundsen’s research on
Amundsen’s training and
climate change and, 9.1, 23.1
Cox’s Baffin Island swim and, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3
Cox’s Baffin Island trip and
De Long’s North Pole expedition and, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
Jeannette and, 2.1, 2.2, 4.1
Nansen and, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 19.1
navigation in, 21.1, 24.1
transpolar drift and, 4.1, 4.2
Arctic Cordillera
Arctowski, Henryk, 6.1, 6.2
Armstrong, Mark, atw.1, atw.2, atw.3
Arnakallak, Jared
AT-6s, 23.1, 23.2
Atikleura
Atlantic Ocean, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 6.1, 9.1, 10.1, 15.1
Amundsen’s Northwest Passage expedition and, 7.1, 10.1
Byrd’s flight across, 9.1, 19.1, 23.1
Cox’s flight across
Lindbergh’s flight across, 9.1, 9.2, 19.1
and search for Northeast Passage
Axel Heiberg Glacier, 16.1, 19.1, 19.2
Baffin, William
Baffin Island
Cox’s swim off, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 12.6
Cox’s trip to, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4
mining in
narwhales of
physical appearance of, 12.1, 12.2