My Extremely Important Job

First I want to make it clear that I really like my job, but my glib personality induces me to sometimes poke fun of my job. I suspect that if our software were not from the early 2000’s, I could easily be replaced by a robot. But like any good little government worker, I don't question the process, I just do it.

I work in the Antarctic Transportation Operations (ATO) department….specifically in Air Services. There are 3 of us gals running this unit. We coordinate all passenger movement throughout Antarctica 24/7. Whenever scientists and contractors have to fly to a field camp, a research site, the South Pole, New Zealand, Australia, etc, they have to go through us. We work with the cargo handlers, the load planners, and the vehicle operators for a full turnkey solution to the life-cycle of a flight.

Our department coordinates “on-continent” and “off-continent” missions for the following aircrafts: Boeing C-17 Globemaster, LC-130 Hercules, Basler BT-67, DHC-6 Twin Otter, and various New Zealand helicopter models.

On a good day, I get to boss around our load planer, Doug, whenever we have a weight total discrepancy. Occasionally I get to hang out with the cargo handlers and play forklift basketball in the cargo bay. On slow days I get to go out to the airfields and “help” the airfield guys move cargo from the air crafts. (But I usually just stand around taking pictures and looking self-important).

My average day starts off in an office connected to our cargo bay. After 20,000 clicks around the windows of our ancient software, I start juggling the different stages of the many flights happening that day. I check in passengers to their flights, and I weigh their bags. I create manifests. I click around here and there. I send emails to listservs all over the world not knowing who is receiving them. I click around some more. I have access to view every single landing field in the world (which is not nearly as exciting as it sounds). 

I scribble on dry-erase boards. I send out flights changes and updates to hundreds of people I don’t know. My name is everywhere. I click here. I click there. I control channel 7 (flight info channel). I update all the flight monitors around McMurdo Station.

At the end of the day, I could really mess things up on this continent….

(Of course I don’t have anybody’s life in my hands, and I am not changing the course of history by discovering plant life on a rock). But in my own small, low-power position I can cause chaotic mayhem for several hours in Antarctica.

I have the power to turn this continent into JFK Airport during a blizzard on Christmas Eve. I can send someone to the South Pole when they are actually trying to get to New Zealand. I can lose their bags. I can misplace their boxes of scientific research samples. I can make people wait around on the sea ice for hours expecting their pick-up mission to show up. I control the weather. I am not to be trifled with…

(The power might be going to my head)

With all the hats I wear, one would think that I am busier than a one-arm wallpaper hanger in a windstorm. But clearly I have time to write this silly blog so I am either a genius at my job or my job is redundant enough that I can pawn off some of my work to other departments. This is a U.S. government job after all.

(At this point I need to make a disclaimer lest this blog be censored by the National Science Foundation. My facetious writing style sometimes gets the better of me. This is a wonderful organization, and we all work very hard and efficiently with the resources provided for us by the United States Antarctic Program).

I am thrilled to have this job, and I am honored to contribute to science in my own insignificant way. Let’s fly!