Interview of John A. Randall by Dian O. Belanger

• Main Author: Randall, John A., 1935-2005
• Other Authors: Belanger, Dian Olson, 1941-
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program 2009
• Subjects: United States. Navy > Interviews; Mechanics > Interviews; Nuclear power plant operators > Interviews; Operation Deep Freeze; Arctic regions > Discovery and exploration > Interviews; Polar regions > Discovery and exploration > Interviews; Antarctica > Discovery and exploration > Interviews; Randall; John A.; 1935-2005 > Interviews; Antarctic; Arctic; Ice Runway; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1811/36747

The Antarctic Deep Freeze oral history project was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and supported by the Antarctic Deep Freeze Association. The original paper copies and unaltered tapes have been deposited in the library of the National Science Foundation. John Randall was a twenty-year-old construction mechanic, third class, when he volunteered for MCB (Special) in Deep Freeze I. During the winter at McMurdo he worked long hours to help maintain the overworked equipment for plowing an ice runway, only to have storms fill it up again. A member of the advance party of the Pole construction crew, he learned a great deal paying attention to polar survival training and the know-how of more senior Seabees. He repaired a weasel when it fell improperly on airdrop, leveled snow surfaces for building, retrieved dropped materials. Like others, he considered the first Deep Freeze personnel an "extraordinary collective talent." After intensive training in both nuclear engineering and power-plant operations, Randall returned to McMurdo in 1964-65, and again in 1967-68, to help run the nuclear power plant. He believed in the potential of nuclear power, but this plant was too small to be economical and was later dismantled. National Science Foundation Antarctic Deep Freeze Association