Winter Over (VI)

Richard W. Frank

Winter Over (VI)

A Cloud over Mactown

From: FRANK, RICHARD

Sent: Monday, May 05, 1997 1:32 AM

To:___

Subject: A Cloud over Mactown

Many things have come to pass in the last several weeks here in Antarctica that have kept us all under extreme strain and has kept me from keeping in touch with friends and family. Please forgive this silence.

To explain: on May 1st the head of Recreation Chuck Gallagher (one of my bosses) passed away after a long week of effort on the part of our medical staff to keep him alive. The hardest thing to come to terms with

is the suddenness with which this all occurred. It appears that he had a virus that led to fluid building up around his heart and in his lungs. The severity of his illness became apparent on Monday, and a Medivac was started. To make a long and painful story short, the plane was due between Thursday and Saturday, and he died on Wednesday. We had a memorial for Chuck on Saturday in Condition One weather. It was the first time I had an occasion to go to the station chapel. There was a party afterwards in order to celebrate his life in the newly renamed bar- Gallagher's. It all seems so unreal.

Chuck was a real character. A 6'5" fifty-year-old man with a shaved head, ZZ-top beard, and was covered with tattoos. He was gruff and hard to get to know and like. He was honest and fair in the three months that we worked together. We will all miss Chuck. The Air Force is still planning on flying down in a C141 on Wednesday to take his body away and replenish the medications used to try and save him. The TV station ABC and the show “48 Hours” tried to fly down with them, but our manager wisely said no.

I just wanted to send a quick note to friends and family about what happened, in case you hear or read about it. Please keep this between yourselves. I am doing fine, and we are doing our best to move on with

the winter even as people work overtime to get Pegasus, the ice runway, ready for the C141. It is a dangerous mission for them. There are only several hours of twilight in which to have a little light. The weather

has been horrible, but today has been relatively quiet with little wind.

I wish you all the best.

Rich

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