Brooks Hill students wished this Fairport Raider flag a "bon voyage" before it headed off on a wild adventure across the globe! Mr. Todd Frank, guardian at Brooks Hill Elementary School and a Master Sergeant with the Air National Guard, brought the flag on a mission to Antarctica this winter as part of his deployment. Before he left, MSgt. Frank spoke to Brooks Hill students about Antarctica and brought the Raider flag around to classrooms to pick up some Fairport luck!

Frank’s responsibilities in his multiple-week mission to Antarctica included bringing fuel and supplies to The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station from the US base at McMurdo Station, a trip of around 850 miles. That doesn’t seem like a large distance, but remember: the South Pole Station is more than 9,000 miles from Fairport! 

Said Frank, “[I]t’s the most remote place you can go…and we’re completing a mission that really no other squadron in the Air Force is able to complete. There’s a Canadian unit, and a New Zealand unit that fly smaller planes, but it’s not to the scale that we are doing now. It’s not a tourist destination!”

Frank’s Air Force team also provided emergency services to scientists and researchers living full-time on the Antarctic continent. The closest hospital is in New Zealand, so anyone injured or sick on the continent must  be evacuated out by air, a journey that is affected by the extreme weather conditions. 

After his return to the hallways of Brooks Hill, Frank reflected that his favorite part of the Antarctic missions is visiting the South Pole Station, and that this trip was a special one.

“I believe that Fairport is the only District in the world to have their flag flown at the south pole, alongside all the flags of all the nations on the continent. It was an honor and a privilege for me to be able to represent Brooks Hill and the Fairport School District by bringing the school flag to Antarctica…Go Raider Nation!”