 Christchurch, New Zealand, advanced headquarters for Operation Deep Freeze, the United States Scientific Research Program in Antarctica. In a friendly and cooperative atmosphere, a team of Matt's global airlift experts gives the air-minded New Zealanders a close look at some of their airlift planes. The Matt's Deep Freeze Task Unit was assembled here to provide strategic airlift for the U.S. Navy, which is responsible for supporting all U.S. scientific activities in the Antarctic. The Task Unit was comprised of the 63rd Troop Carrier Wing and elements from Air Rescue Service, Air Communication Service, Air Weather Service and Air Photographic and Charting Service. Deep Freeze Support is an example of Matt's training with a purpose, of doing a necessary job while maintaining readiness to go anywhere on the globe any time. Major maintenance for the operation was accomplished at Christchurch, where a supply of parts and engines was maintained. Before the deployment, maintenance personnel, crew chiefs and crews, were divided into two flights of 27 men and assigned 10 aircraft each. This concept of maintenance developed unit pride and team competition and resulted in a high utilization and low abort rate. During this operation, these crews accomplished 287 post-flight and through-flight inspections. Also, 28 personnel operated the periodic inspection dock, where 16 periodics were accomplished during the operation based on a 200-hour inspection concept due to the long-range missions and accelerated flying requirements. Keeping the C-124 globe masters in top shape for the flights to the Antarctic involved hard work and long hours by men ready to handle any repair job. The first flights to the Navy's air facility at McMurdo involved priority cargo for the support of overall operations at the base camp during late 1960. There would also be flights carrying Matt's maintenance and aerial port squadron equipment needed to have everything ready when the drops to the scientific stations were to begin on 15 October. Weather conditions in Antarctica generally begin to improve during the first weeks of October. Plans called for deep-freeze missions to begin around the 10th of October and be completed by December 1st. Three aircraft and five crews would be maintained at McMurdo for the drops. Two turnaround flights each day would keep the aircraft and crews shuttling back and forth to Christ Church. Air crews would spend only five days on the ice and then would return to the task unit headquarters where aircraft would be maintained and inspected. Brigadier General Andrew B. Cannon, the commander of the 63rd Troop Carrier Wing made a visit to the Matt's task unit to personally inspect the progress of the mission. With Lieutenant Colonel Foy B. Frost, the task unit commander, he'll fly this globe master to McMurdo. The Pelican insignia is an appropriate symbol for the men of the 9th Troop Carrier Squadron who flew the deep-freeze airlift missions. Many of the 9th crews are veterans of cold weather flying over remote parts of the globe. They've taken part in airlift support during construction of the Dulline and numerous Arctic resupply missions. This is also the second consecutive year that the 9th squadron has been assigned this deep-freeze mission. 14 air crews were assigned to the task force totalling nearly 100 personnel. These crews would be operating their aircraft at the Matt's average utilization rate of five hours per day per aircraft. Sheen Coast of New Zealand, the last green to be seen for quite a while, falls away as the long flight to Antarctica begins. Until arrival at McMurdo, 2,100 miles distant, there is little to see but open water, pack ice, and a few forbidding Antarctic mountains. General Cannon, a veteran of some 22,000 flying hours in all parts of the world, pilots the huge glob master over the pack ice. Mount Erebus, a familiar landmark to all who fly the route to the pole, appears in the pale early morning sunshine of the 24-hour daylight. It's the only active volcano in this part of the world and signals the end of the 12-hour flight. This ice strip at McMurdo is the same used the previous year and could never be considered to be in good condition. The Navy snow compaction team did an excellent job of preserving the ice strip and it remained in usable condition throughout the entire operation. Other than demanding skillful landing techniques, there's little danger in landing on the ice. It's about 23 feet thick this time of year and relatively smooth. As General Cannon's glob master rolls to a stop at the Navy's Williams Air Facility, the commander of Navy Task Force 43, Rear Admiral David M. Tyree, offers a warm welcome to frigid Antarctica. Now the big job begins. Offloading of equipment and supplies on the ice at McMurdo was accomplished by the most highly skilled personnel of this type in the Air Force. Temperatures here at McMurdo rarely get above zero this time of year. Handling outsized cargo like this under normal conditions is not an easy job, but long experience and realistic training make the job routine for these mats men. The helicopter is part of the priority cargo needed by the Navy Task Unit here at McMurdo and serves a valuable function traversing the distance between the port area and the air facility. It also serves as a rescue vehicle. And the air photographic and charting service cameraman put it to use to gain these aerial views of the McMurdo camp. Lawnmowers at McMurdo presented no serious logistic problem. But anyone having the snow shovel concession is bound to clean up. With so much equipment required in an operation such as deep freeze, loading and unloading becomes a major and seemingly never-ending procedure. This unusual piece of equipment is a snowmiller used to excavate trenches in the hard-packed snow which can be covered and used as storage shelters and tunnels between buildings. In all, 881 tons of priority equipment and supplies were airlifted here to McMurdo before the actual drop missions were begun at the Birdland and Pole Station. There was an interesting sidelight to the operation which involved an international flavor. A shipment of Alaskan Huskies was picked up by mats in Greenland and delivered to McMurdo in Antarctica for use by a New Zealand scientific group at Scott Base about 5 miles from the air facility. It took 18 flights prior to October 15 to bring in all the necessary maintenance equipment, aerial port drop gear and priority cargo. Then the airlift task unit could get down to work on the primary mission, the airdrop of fuel oil to the two remote scientific stations. Now with all the groundwork laid, the mission gets underway. Fuel oil to operate electrical generating equipment and to supply warmth for the scientists during their long vigil in the angry cold climate of Antarctica starts for the Bird Station. The flight to this first drop target covers 800 miles. Part of the trip is over the Ross Ice Shelf with its deep crevasses, some large enough to swallow an entire airplane. There's Bird Station, a small blister of humanity on the crisp smooth desert of snow. Over the station now and ready for the drop. Carefully packaged bundles of precious fuel weighing nearly a ton of piece, spill out of the globe master and are eased to the ice 1200 feet below. As the drop aircraft returned to base they passed a deserted building used by Captain Robert Scott during his 1919 expedition. Today, the Air Force keeps a living record of its operations in the Antarctic on motion picture fills. Wherever the Air Force goes, cameraman of air photographic and charting service go to, documenting Air Force activities for current study and future reference. In an operation in this part of the globe, time is of the essence. A deadline of one December had been established and meet it they must. Through experience it had been learned that by the end of November, the ice trip begins to deteriorate from rising temperature and heavy traffic. No sooner does a plane return from an airdrop and it is ready for another mission. The Antarctic continent is famous for its sudden blizzards and whiteouts. The first three weeks of October were continually plagued by the most adverse weather conditions that have ever been noted in the Antarctic. General Kennan said in his report, this year's deep freeze operations are past previous years in terms of difficult weather and mission demands. Storms like this present real hazards to personnel and equipment. There was a very limited amount of preparation that could be accomplished while weather conditions of this type persisted. After the storm, the operation gets back into high gear with the arrival of a globe master from Christchurch. The newly fallen snow creates a miniature blizzard as it is caught in the wash of propellers as they reverse pitch. As the inbound planes approached McMurdo, their maintenance status was radioed to the Matt's operations office there. This information was then relayed to the ground maintenance men on the ice trip so they could meet the plane prepared to perform the repairs necessary to get the plane on its way again. No shelter from the elements was available for the maintenance men as they worked on the planes at McMurdo. But this didn't hinder them. Their work went right off. Necessary maintenance was performed to keep the planes in safe flying condition. Most of the work, however, was done back at Christchurch. Meanwhile, the aerial port men prepare bundles of fuel oil barrels for air drop. All drops during the entire operation totaled 68 with a gross weight of 1,091 tons. A short breather from work was taken to celebrate an Antarctic Thanksgiving. All the festive trimmings, including candlelight, were provided. Good food and lots of it was the motto of the U.S. Navy Cooks. They did an outstanding job of satisfying the holiday appetites of the hardworking men. A solar magnetic disturbance disrupted all communications and prevented any flying operations for a seven-day period. This gave the men at McMurdo an opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing and photograph some of the native inhabitants. These curious and friendly penguins have no fear of humans and enjoy playing with the men. The seals come up through the ice to sun themselves. A mother and her pup pose sleepily for shutterbugs among deep-freezed personnel. Seals like the penguins seem to have little fear of man. Here's an interesting contrast between old and modern means of Antarctic transportation. Once the communications blackout was over, it was back again to serious business for every member of the operation. The work of the men of the 1710th aerial port squadron in loading and offloading of cargo, rigging for the drops and deploying the dropped cargo from the planes was a vital contribution to the success of the mission. During the 24-hour-a-day operation, many of these men worked an 18-hour day with only time out to eat and sleep. Their smooth working team allowed the crews to take full advantage of the periods of good flying weather as they usually had a returning plane reloaded for another dropped mission within two hours after its arrival. The area provided at McMurdo Sound for aircraft movement, refueling, loading, and maintenance could accommodate a maximum of seven C-124 aircraft at any one time. The refueling pit could only accommodate one plane at a time. Very often the pumps in the refueling system were frozen mechanically out of commission due to the cold. The seals and the refueling nozzles were often either frozen or worn out. As a result, there was excessive fuel spillage. This, in part, was responsible for the rapid deterioration of the ice in the refueling area. As a result of this experience, recommendations have been made to deal with this problem. Crews were normally alerted three hours prior to their scheduled takeoff time. The weasel was utilized in such a manner that the incoming crew could return the weasel to camp and the outgoing crew would return it to the ice strip. The aerial port squadron maintained loads ready for each station in case the weather at one station went below drop minimums. Then all drops would be concentrated on the other station while the weather was good. Of a total of 73 sorties to Marie Bird Station and the South Pole, only six aircraft were forced to return to McMurdo. Four of these because of in-route weather and only two because of equipment malfunction. The 740-mile route to the pole crosses the Ross Ice Shelf to the mouth of the Beardmore Glacier, then up the glacier to the ice cap and the South Pole station. Lieutenant Colonel Jack Frost, the 9th troop carrier squadron's commander, holds the distinction of having the most appropriate nickname for this type of mission. The Beardmore Glacier provides a breathtaking view up this river of ice in a slow climb toward the polar plateau. The rugged and forbidding mountains and crevices below caused the viewer to admire the fortitude and courage of the early explorers Edmondson and Scott in their slow and laborious trek over this same route on their way to the South Pole. Flying over such terrain also makes the air crewman appreciate the expert maintenance that keeps the aircraft in top-notch flying condition. Precise navigational calculations result in the arrival of the plane directly over the camp, which is the southernmost point on the globe, 90 degrees south. This man-made pole, flying old glory, has been erected at the exact geographical location of the South Pole. The C-124 goes about its work of delivering its cargo to the isolated base below, where the average year-round temperature is 52 degrees below zero. For crewmen aboard the aircraft, with drop doors open, the coal becomes even more bitter. During this deep-freeze airlift operation, the 63rd wing flew over 3,700 accident-free hours and maintained an average utilization rate of over five hours per day per aircraft. In flying these hours, the task unit accomplished 68 drops to Antarctic stations, totaling nearly 1,100 tons, with the recovery rate of 99 percent, a truly impressive record in the face of difficult operating conditions. During the deep-freeze airlift, Matt's flight crews and all their supporting elements demonstrated again the versatility and professional skill of this nation's only strategic airlift force.