No more hibernation for Operation Deep Freeze - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

No more hibernation for Operation Deep Freeze

The 2009-10 season of Operation Deep Freeze, the military’s support of the U.S. Antarctic Program and the National Science Foundation, kicked off Sept. 26 with the first of more than 60 airlift missions, according to Pacific Air Forces.

The Air Force will airlift personnel and supplies from the U.S. to New Zealand, then on to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and smaller research stations on the coldest continent.

The mission involves active-duty and Reserve C-17s from McChord Air Force Base, Was.h, and ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules aircraft from Stratton Air National Guard Base, N.Y.

“We’re ramping up for the beginning of the Antarctic exploration season,” Lt. Col. J.W. Smith, assistant operations officer for the 313th Airlift Squadron at McChord, said in a statement. “We’ll be bringing McMurdo out of winter hibernation.”

Antarctica is in the Southern Hemisphere and has opposite seasons from the continental U.S., so it is currently spring there.

This season marks the 10th year C-17s have supported the mission. The aircraft use an ice runway near McMurdo, the main hub for research in Antarctica.

Deep Freeze is considered by many to be the military’s most difficult peacetime mission because of the harsh Antarctic environment. The mission, which the military has conducted since 1955, involves active-duty, Guard and Reserve personnel from the Air Force, Navy, Army and Coast Guard.

In addition to Air Force airlifts, sealift support consists of a Coast Guard icebreaker, a Military Sealift Command tanker, a Military Sealift Command-chartered dry cargo ship, the container ship MV American Tern and the Navy’s Cargo Handling Battalion One from Williamsburg, Va.

To kick off this season, 37 airmen left McChord on Sept. 24 in a C-17 loaded with more than 90,000 pounds of cargo destined for Antarctica via Christchurch, New Zealand. The first few flights into McMurdo carry support personnel, and later flights will provide equipment and supplies to sustain scientific research.

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