Interview of Elmer M. Cranton by Brian Shoemaker
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Date
2024-07-31
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Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program
Abstract
Dr. Cranton spent one year in Antarctica, but it was a very interesting and unusual role. He joined the Navy in 1960 as an enlisted man and was trained as an electronic technician. While in technician school he took a college equivalency test that qualified him to attend flight school, earn his pilot certification and become an officer – a position that qualified him to command a combat unit (known as a Line Officer). After completing a tour in the fleet flying Anti-Submarine Warfare Patrols, he resigned from the service to attend medical school. He joined the Naval Reserve while in school and flew jet fighters. When he finished medical School (Harvard) he reentered the Naval Service as a Medical Officer, a non- combatant position under the Geneva Convention. Shortly afterward, he volunteered for and was accepted for duty in Antarctica. He was assigned to be the Medical Officer at McMurdo Station and to spend the winter of 1967 there. He recounts the summer at McMurdo – it was routine. He was able to travel to Vostok, Hallett, and South Pole Stations. In early 1967 the Medical Officer and Commander of Byrd Station were removed because they could not get along. Both were replaced by Dr. Cranton – he became the Commanding Officer of Byrd Station (a Line Officer position) and Medical Officer (a non-combat position). He spent the winter in this dual capacity. He describes the conditions at Byrd Station – science projects, work maintaining the snow removal from the station entrance, auroras exploring the former Byrd Station that was snowed over and caving in from the weight of the snow. He recounts life in the station during the winter, the sunrise and the effect on him and the men there. Of particular note he describes the phenomena of how stations drift over on the Antarctic Plateau. Any structure built on the ice cap accumulates blowing snow from the blowing wind. The snow builds up behind anything that sticks up above the surface whether it is a narrow pole or a big building. This process continues until the snow level reaches the top of the obstruction. When Dr Cranton and his staff traveled out several miles and looked back at the station they could see the effect of the process – there was a low flat hill of drift that interrupted what otherwise would be a flat plain. Thus very high structures were covered even though there was little snowfall.
At the end of the winter, Dr. Cranton broke his ankle while unloading the relieving aircraft. He stayed on several more days to finish up his work, but eventually had to be medically evacuated to Christchurch New Zealand and thence to Tripler Hospital, Hawaii to have open reduction to repair the ankle. He never returned to Antarctica.
Dr. Cranton left the Navy in 1969 and built a private medical practice in Virginia and thence another practice in Yelm, Washington where he now resides.