Robert Johnson's home reflects his Navy career, from the "chief's quarters" sign to the classic spoked ship wheels that decorate it.

But what stands out for the 90-year-old Jacksonville man's 1937-57 naval career was his three voyages to the cold white south of Antarctica. He was the youngest member of Adm. Richard Byrd's 1939 expedition before serving for Byrd's fourth trip in 1946 and then a 1948 icebreaker tour.

"Everything we did in that ice down there was exciting because it was never the same thing twice, trying to explore and going in and out of these inlets," Johnson said. "I can remember five times [in his first expedition] when I didn't know if I was going to get out of the ice."

Check out more photos of Jacksonville's South Pole traveler

Men who explored the Antarctic in the days before boot warmers and waterproof Gore-Tex parkas were "hugely courageous," said Rebecca Martin, who heads up National Geographic's Expedition Council. Her father worked for Byrd on his final 1955-56 expedition and said he only chose the hardiest and smartest teammates.

"Anyone who heads into the unknown takes incredible courage. And to survive it takes an awful lot of stamina, and you need the know-how and skills," Martin said from Washington. "... Being invited back, the leader considers you to be a rock on his team."

The son of a chief warrant officer in San Diego, Johnson was a Sea Scout training on a classic sailing vessel at age 15. He joined the Navy two years later on a battleship.

Byrd had done 1928 and 1933 South Pole expeditions and was preparing for a third using the USS Bear, a converted 19th-century seal hunter with diesel and sails. When Byrd's staff learned Johnson had sailing experience, he was signed on.

He said they set out for the Ross Ice Shelf around Antarctica, with the wooden ship's thick hull facing icebergs and storms.

"You just took it in stride," Johnson said.

He said Byrd was a good person who "wouldn't ask his men to do anything he wouldn't do."

In 1941, Johnson did World War II convoy duty, worked at Pearl Harbor and had a job as an instructor. The next assignment was Byrd's 1946-47 Operation Highjump to map the Antarctic coastline and "all kinds of secret stuff." He survived his tractor falling through the ice and a seven-mile walk back to base at Little America. He even parachuted over the frozen continent.

"That was the quietest place I've ever been in my life after that plane left," Johnson said. "... And you hit like a ton of bricks."

The 1948 Antarctic mission was on an icebreaker, a steel-hulled ship designed to break through ice, with a side trip to the Arctic.

Now memories of Byrd and his South Pole tours fill a "chief's quarters" in his home, set up by Mildred, his wife of five years. It includes Polar Pete, a stuffed Adelie penguin who stands center stage in clear display case, a "shipmate" who didn't make it.

"I think he has had a career and a life that is just extraordinary that he loved," Mildred Johnson said. "I don't want to say I would have loved to have done it because I couldn't have stayed that cold. But for someone who did, I applaud them."

Johnson skippered a tug and tanker in Japan from 1949 to 1952, went to Arkansas as a recruiter, then Mayport Naval Station as chief bosun's mate. He retired after his first wife, Ruth, told him "me or the sea," working for the Postal Service until 1990.

After 66 years of marriage, Ruth Johnson died of cancer in 2003. Robert Johnson met Mildred at a cancer survivors group. She said she doesn't mind Polar Pete - "He just sits there."

dan.scanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549