Hi, are you Megan?

Who would have thought that a girl from a small town in Vermont would meet one person from the next road over and the father of a high school classmate.  Well, it happened!

In early January Heidi Smith walked up to me as I was working at the deli line and said, “Hi Megan, do you remember me?” It took me a moment to realize that the girl that I did ballet with for years in my youth was standing in front of me in Antarctica. Heidi and I attended school together and often got rides to ballet practice together. Her mother was a biology teacher at our high school, though never my teacher. Heidi was there for her third year in a row collecting samples for research. She comes down for about 3 weeks and then takes the samples back to Montana to analyze. I don’t think I’ve seen Heidi in 8 years!

A few weeks ago a man in uniform walked up to me as I was working the breakfast line and asked me if I was Megan. It turns out he is Kade Etter’s father. Kade and I attended Essex High School from 2000-2004 together. I think we had a few classes together but we were never really close friends. She has been following me silently on Facebook and possibly here on my blog and found out that her dad was going to McMurdo Station for a few days. So she told him to find me, which he did through the aid of my co-workers. At the time I met Mr. Etter I didn’t think much of the fact that he was in uniform. We have a lot of guys that come through McMurdo in uniform as we arrive and depart on US Air Force planes. So a day or two go by and several co-workers tell me a man in uniform is looking for me. So I find him and it turns out he was headed back home that day. I said my goodbyes and we chatted briefly. A few days later I’m on the phone with my parents and I ask my dad(retired Air Force) what 2 black stars mean on the AF uniform. For those of you like me who don’t know the ranks, that’s a two star General! So I met Major General Etter who happened to be at McMurdo as one of our distinguished visitors. After a little Google search we figured out that he is the Deputy Director of the Air National Guard.

Then, just to twist the story a little more…

Major General Etter’s wife was in some way my brother’s supervisor at the Vermont Air Guard base. Ready for it to get even more weird! My brother and sister in law are going to Washington DC next month and are getting a tour of the Pentagon through the Etters!