Harmony firefighter returns from 2-month Antarctic adventure
HARMONY — Harmony Fire District volunteer firefighter Robbie Gregor is dead-set on visiting all seven continents of the world before he turns 30. At the age of 25, he’s already visited five, and this past month, he knocked the most difficult off his list — Antarctica.
“This has been a life goal of mine, and I figured the only opportunity to get there is through firefighting,” Gregor said.
On Friday, Dec. 15, Gregor returned from a 62-day assignment to Antarctica, where he was in charge of fire, rescue and EMS service for the two airfields on the continent’s Ross Ice Shelf.
Gregor got his opportunity to go to Antarctica through the government contractor Amentum, which handles the fire and emergency services for the National Science Foundation’s operations on the continent.
In addition to serving as a volunteer firefighter in Harmony, Gregor also serves as a career firefighter for the 171st Air Refueling Wing of the Air National Guard. Two years ago, he was on deployment in Kuwait when he first became aware of the opportunity to go to Antarctica as a firefighter.
“I met a private contractor in Kuwait who said that this was an opportunity available to me,” Gregor said. “They put me in contact with somebody that set me up with a company to work down in Antarctica.”
Gregor credits his peers at both the Air National Guard and the Harmony Fire District for lending him their full support, even sending him care packages.
“Both teams were very instrumental in helping me get down there,” Gregor said. “I came back to my command staff on the military side and they sanctioned it. They were super supportive, which is another great thing about the National Guard. They allow you to do things like this.”
According to Gregor, any volunteer firefighter at the Harmony Fire District could theoretically embark on this mission to Antarctica if they so desired, as the fire district provides its firefighters with the training necessary to serve.
“Anyone here is qualified because of the training they go through,” Gregor said. “They do the complete series. Fire 1, Fire 2, and they get their EMT, and they are qualified to go down to Antarctica.”
Gregor departed for Antarctica on Oct. 14. His journey took an estimated 25 hours, going from Pittsburgh to Houston to Auckland to Christchurch, the last of which he described as “the gateway to Antarctica.” There, he received his equipment and last-minute training before boarding an LC-130 aircraft, which touched down at Phoenix Airfield on the Ross Ice Shelf.
Gregor’s main responsibility was to coordinate airport rescue and firefighting services for the two airfields on the Ross Ice Shelf — Phoenix Airfield and Williams Field, along with fire and rescue service for the hundreds of researchers working on behalf of the National Science Foundation.
“Basically you’re on standby in the event of a plane crash,” Gregor said. “We provide fire protection for two airfields ... and then we provide fire and EMS protection for the town.”
While there were no major firefighting incidents during Gregor’s two-month stay at the bottom of the Earth, there were two occasions where he was called out to search for people who were lost in the vast snowy expanse.
“Whenever really bad snowstorms come in really fast, our job is to find them and bring them back,” Gregor said. “You can't see your hand in front of your face when the storms come in, so it's very quick to get disoriented.”
Aside from that, Gregor said he responded to “probably three dozen” emergencies during his stay, which he said was “... a lot, considering there's only a thousand people.”
While most of the personnel on Antarctica work six days a week, Gregor worked a “two days on, two days off” schedule. Gregor said he was not short of activities during his days off, including hiking trails, observing exotic animals, hitting up the coffee shop or library, and even watching a science lecture.
“The amount of research, the amount of programs that we had was just insane,” Gregor said. “The people you're surrounded by are very, very intelligent.”
The return trip two months later was even longer, as Gregor took the opportunity to spend an extra week sightseeing in New Zealand before heading back to the United States. This also served to knock another continent off the list for Gregor to visit before the age of 30.
“I spent a week in New Zealand just driving around and exploring the city,” Gregor said. “I have a lot of commitments back here, so I couldn’t spend too much time away.”
Now that Gregor has recently visited both Antarctica and Oceania (Australia and surrounding island nations, including New Zealand), he has only two continents left to check off his list — South America and Africa.
“I should be doing Africa next year, and then hopefully South America within the next year,” Gregor said.
