JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. – While most people were prepping for the holidays this past season with hot drinks and a warm fireplace, New Jersey National Guard Airman Master Sgt. Justin Rogers was returning home from an iced adventure in Antarctica.
“I like to travel, and this was a way to do my job and see new things,” said Rogers, an occupational safety specialist of the 108th Wing, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.
It was Rogers’ readiness that allowed him to take advantage of this opportunity.
“You get to work with the National Science Foundation,” said Rogers. “There is zero military mission out there.” But the NSF does receive airlift support from the 109th Airlift Wing at Stratton Air National Guard Base in New York.
“I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to [backfill] the 109th as their safety manager at McMurdo Station,” Rogers said.
Since 1959, the signing of the Antarctica Treaty recognized Antarctica as a land of peace, not to become “a scene or object of international discord.” It also allowed a small group of volunteers to assist the NSF in carrying out its purpose for six months, the most opportune time for aircraft to land. As a result, only a select few are chosen.
“I applied three years in a row, but was chosen this year, my fourth year,” Rogers said. “Either they sensed I really wanted to go and saw that I was qualified, or they just finally picked me, but either way, I was happy to assist.”
Through persistence, Rogers spent 42 days in what is considered the third rotation for eligible members looking to volunteer.
Air Force Specialty Codes, such as safety, services, information technology/communications, and aircraft maintenance personnel, are assembled to help members conduct research there. Rogers’ job of risk management included monitoring incoming flights and offloading each LC-130 Skibird and C-17 Globemaster.
With a campus that sat on frozen volcanic rock, the station, similar to a base, was set up to resemble a small town, said Rogers. It included several buildings within walking distance of each other and one with a bar-like atmosphere for recreation.
The sun shined 24-hours a day, which was an adjustment, said Rogers, on top of the fact that Antarctica was a day and six hours ahead of his hometown in New Jersey.
“I would watch Sunday night football on a Tuesday at 2 a.m.,” said Rogers.
He also explored the unknown territory, visiting the geographic South Pole, a preserved exhibit of Antarctica’s first settler, and regularly witnessing wild sea lions sunbathing.
Rogers wants others to know that if they are interested in an opportunity such as this, they must first be fit to fight.
While in Antarctica, Rogers met an astrophysicist working in the NSF’s galley/kitchen “cleaning my dishes! She just wanted to experience Antarctica. So, there is definitely a way.”