antarctica:

Short Version:
I am spending this winter in Antarctica. See you in February.

Long Version:
As you may or may not know, for the last 5 years (almost 6) I have worked for Raytheon, a defense contractor. About 3.5 years ago I left beautiful Colorado to move closer to my family in NC and advance my career within Raytheon in the Northern VA/DC area. The contract I was brought out here to work on required an upgrade to my clearance. After a mere 1,247 days of what I have to believe was steady and constant deliberation (sarcasm), a stranger within the government was forced to make a decision based on nothing more than words on paper. Unfortunately, that person decided that I am not suitable to work where I had been working for 3 years. That stranger’s decision set off a string of events that eventually revoked my transferred clearance, suspended my existing clearance (through no action of my own), and seriously jeopardized my career with Raytheon and government contracting in general.

I desperately wish I had a justification or an explanation, for you as well as me, but I simply do not. The government owes me a “Statement of Reason” but I have been warned to prepare myself for a vague reason. I cannot think of anything I’ve done (recently or in the past) that could have caused this and I know that mistakes were made along they way and so I plan on appealing this decision when I am able. However, the damage is already done, my world has been turned upside down.

Since I am not able to work on the contract I am out here for, I am not very important in the eyes of Raytheon’s big wigs. Thankfully my program manager (and friend) pushed back the oppressive hand of greater Raytheon and found some temporary (unclassified) work for me, but I am on borrowed time. As such, I have been frantically searching for gainful employment since September 8, which I now refer to as “Black Tuesday”. [As a quick aside: the real Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929) was the day the NYSE crashed, marking the beginning of the Great Depression…pretty fitting. But I digress.] My boss and friends here have been scrambling to help figure something out for me locally, but so far nothing solid has arisen. I am forever grateful to everyone and, unfortunately, will need their help again in the near future…

As hard as it has been, I have tried to keep my wits about me and seen this as an opportunity to explore ALL my options instead of the tragedy it really is. I think understandably, I have often been unable to see any light at the end of any tunnel or even accept the fact that I was IN a tunnel. But here I am. This particular tunnel in which I currently find myself is a long and twisted one that goes all the way through the South Pole! I have recently accepted an offer for a 4 month contract job in Antarctica! It promises to be quite an adventure and I am really looking forward to it, but I am not out of the dark yet because when I return in February I will be in the same, if not worse, position I am in now: looking for a job.

In the meantime, I am embarking on a once in a lifetime expedition. While the job will be related to my career and will really round out my resume nicely, I choose to file this under “life experience” rather than “career move”. On the outside this may look like I am running away from my current, less-than-favorable situation and perhaps that’s part of it, but it is really an opportunity to experience something few others have. I know most everyone else would not think so, but I think it is going to be AWESOME! The perfect timing doesn’t hurt matters and, assuming you know me, you will agree that being cold and isolated is right up my alley. (I generally hate people and being hot…). I am also lucky enough to have a girlfriend that is very understanding, supportive, and awesome in general so I decided to go for it.

As a disclaimer, I accepted the offer on the contingency that I pass a Physical Qualification. As of yet I don’t know what that means, but I can’t think of anything that would DISqualify me. On the same hand, I couldn’t think of anything that would keep me from getting the clearance upgrade that has been ripped away from me…so I am still only reluctantly excited. If all goes through, here are a few of the details I know:

• I will depart on/around October 30th, 2009 (depending on available flights to ANTARCTICA)
• I will fly to Denver, Los Angeles, New Zealand, and finally on to McMurdo Station, Antarctica
• I will return on/around February 19th, 2010 (again depending on logistics)
• It will be the austral summer while I’m there which means temperatures at McMurdo Station may reach as high as 10°C (50°F).

I don’t really know a lot of details at this point, but there is plenty of information available at the USAP webpage. Here is a link to a wiki page also: wikipedia. I just haven’t had the opportunity to read it all yet, but I will.

This is all new to me (I mean the blogging, but the job search and the Antarctica part also apply), but I am going to give it my best. I don’t know how regularly I will be able to be in contact over the next couple of months so I am going to attempt to update this page regularly. As a side note, I plan on shaving my head and face completely bald 1 week before I leave and not cut either again until I get back. I don’t have a great deal of facial hair and my head hair is quickly retreating and thinning, but it should still be a fun(ny) experiment. I will keep you posted with that as well.

So that’s about all I can think of right now. I feel like people that I haven’t done such a great job keeping in touch with previously may read this and if they do, sorry I haven’t done better keeping in touch. I know, I suck at it. Sorry. I am hopeful that while I’m gone my clearance issue/situation can be cleared up, but I am not optimistic. Either way I’ll be looking for a job when I return and hope that anyone reading this will keep me in mind if they hear of something. (<-shameless plea) Thanks and “talk” to you soon.