Personal Note

So I'm going to take a personal liberty here and share with you all something special.

Today was 11/15 down here on the ice. This date might not mean much to many of you, but to me it shares an interesting turning point in my life. Five years ago, I can tell you exactly what I was doing. I was back at Franklin Pierce, hanging out in Cheshire (my dorm at the time) putting off doing homework when I received a call from my friend Tracey. Tracey had just married my best friend Travis recently, a year before hand I believe. Travis was deployed soon after the marriage to Iraq with the Marines, I hadn't seen him in almost as long as Tracey. I kept in touch with Tracey, briefly after the wedding, but the tone in her voice was different from any other time we had talked. She told me that Travis was killed in Action during a raid in Fallujah. If you at all care to read about the story of the battle of Fallujah, I recommend the book No True Glory by Bing West. Travis has a small part in one of the chapters. I'm not going to recount what I did next, or how the rest of that semester went, it is not really prudent to this post. But, I did take the news wicked hard. Travis and I had been friends since 1st grade and I was the best man at his wedding. I was lucky to have a good support system both up at school and back home, it helped me out. Travis was one of the reasons why I got into the fire service, he and I planed on hopefully working on the same Department when I finished College and he finished the Marines. Unfortunately, we were never able to make good on that promise. So I decided then, in honor of his memory, I would continue to become a firefighter.

It has been 5 years, which is a relatively long time. But at the same time, I can't believe that much time has passed. I typically visit Travis's memorial in Bedford Mass, at least once a year since then. It has been tough and I've been thinking how I could do something special for his family. Last year, when I was down here in Antarctica...I had the idea of flying a flag in memory of him down at the South Pole. I wasn't able to organize it, so when I was offered the job to come back down I jumped at the chance. I didn't know I was going to be working at the South Pole, but I knew that I would at least know someone who could help me with this project. When I was offered to go down to Pole for the season, I knew that I would be down for this date. This is one of the main reasons why I chose to take a full time gig down at Pole. So today, I flew 3 flags in honor of Travis. Each flag is going to be folded and a certificate is going to be made. I'm mailing the 3 flags, to Travis's mother, his Father and his widow. It is something special that I hope they will treasure and enjoy.

On a side note:
The weather was rough down here today, 20 mph winds almost all day. You may notice that one of the bamboo flag poles that I used split. Banging the flagpoles into the snow was pretty hard. I split one of the flag poles, and cut up my hand a little bit. Bamboo can cut cotton liners wicked easy. But no worries. The flags have survived the rough winds, which is what I really wanted.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this moment with you guys. It isn't the usual Antarctic shenanigans you all look forward to read. I'll get back to that soon. It has been busy down here with all the flights, I'll try to write more. Take care everyone.

PS: Here is an article about Travis: http://iraq.pigstye.net/article.php/20041119084304927