ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) -- Air Force Reserve Command C-141 Starlifter aircrews will stop flying Operation Deep Freeze airlift missions to Antarctica in February.
When the new season starts in August 2005, mission responsibility will revert back to the 62nd Airlift Wing at McChord Air Force Base, Wash. The Reserve took on the mission almost four years ago while McChord crews transitioned to the C-17 Globemaster III.
"Currently, the Reserve holds the Operation Deep Freeze brain trust. Our crews are the most skilled in the Air Force when it comes to this challenging mission," said Lt. Col. Steven Strader, a C-141 pilot in the command’s aircrew standardization and evaluation branch here. He is an Operation Deep Freeze mission commander in what he calls "one of the most fulfilling missions in the Air Force."
Weather conditions are extreme in Antarctica. Summer high temperatures at McMurdo Station average just below freezing, and intense winds can blow ice and snow particles around for days at a time, reducing visibility to near zero.
"Because of all of these abnormal caveats, all our crews are highly skilled and qualified instructors or evaluators," Colonel Strader said.
Airmen from the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; 452nd Air Mobility Wing and 4th Air Force at March Air Reserve Base, Calif.; and AFRC headquarters here, will form the last reservist crews to move National Science Foundation researchers and equipment from Christchurch, New Zealand, to McMurdo on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
The three-phase Operation Deep Freeze season runs August through mid-February. Phase One, called "Winfly," was completed in August by Air Force active-duty C-17 crews who delivered advance teams and equipment to McMurdo.
Active-duty and Reserve crews will handle the second and third phases (mainbody and redeployment). Mainbody runs late September through mid-November; redeployment runs late January through mid-February.
Flying to the coldest, driest and windiest place on Earth requires extensive mission planning, said Colonel Strader, a three-year veteran of Deep Freeze missions.
The flight from Christchurch, New Zealand, to McMurdo takes more than five hours.
"It's not a long flight, but it's a long day, start to finish," he said.
Mission planning involves tradeoffs so the planes can carry the maximum amount of cargo.
"We trade off fuel for cargo," he said. "We take as much fuel as we can, but it's never enough for a round trip to McMurdo.
"We calculate a (point of safe return) for each flight,” he said. “That is the point en route to McMurdo where we commit to continuing or turn back to Christchurch or an alternate landing location. But once we commit, we land at McMurdo, no matter what the conditions.” (Courtesy of AFRC News Service)