5 December, 1996

December 5th, 1996

Last day in the Field

It was gorgeous today at Willie Field. Perfectly still and calm. We got up at 6:00 again and took our first measurements at around 8:00. I was able to get the van keys earlier than usual as I saw the care taker walking into the motor pool early. We got great data just like on Tuesday afternoon. This makes 120 new pictures to processes tonight. We then pulled down all the flags we had taken out with us.

On the way back into town we stopped twice to pick up some insulation that had fallen off of a truck. Right now the construction crews are actually destructing a site out at Willie Field. They use to maintain a village out on the field for the workers, complete with store and dinning hall. Recently they have decided to move them into McMurdo and let them commute to work. This means carefully removing each modular building to McMurdo to be retro graded with the trash to the states. The buildings are like trailer homes, designed to be moved as each year they have to be dug out. McMurdo itself doesn't get dug out as we are in a wind swept area that does not accumulate snow. We changed back out of our ECW and checked in our survival bag at the BFC.

After lunch we continued with our lab work. We cut all but two of remaining ice cores and I looked at the filters most of the afternoon. Suruj and Dr. Braaten took their equipment down to the helo pad at 4:00 today. The missing poles were reconstructed here in McMurdo on the second try (the first time they were made to large). We went to dinner early so that Dr. Braaten and Suruj could eat before they packed. They are leaving tonight at 7:00 on a helo. They will fly to Maryln and work all night returning to McMurdo at 11:00 am tomorrow. The bad weather this week has put the schedule behind so they opted to work overnight as opposed to staying here another week.

After dinner I started work on the pictures we took. It takes a long time to transfer them to computer disks and it is 1:00 now. I will be turning in soon.