The Polar Trip

There were three aircraft lined up ready to fly to the pole.  I was on the second flight.  Each plane left within about 15 minutes of the other.  These were the first planes to land at the pole after an 8 month winter.  The third plane, while only 15 minutes behind us did not get to land at the pole because it was too cold.  -67 degrees is the cutoff temperature.  Instead of landing they flew overhead for a while and then returned to McMurdo (This is known as a boomerang converting a cramped 3 and a half hour flight into a 7 hour or longer flight).  We did not get to see this third group until five days later.  Their trip consisted of two boomerangs, and five days of standby.  Too bad the National Guard doesn't offer frequent flyer miles.