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Military Sealift Command Ships Replenish U.S. Antarctic Research Station

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS070206-15
Release Date: 2/6/2007 1:20:00 PM

By Military Sealift Command Public Affairs

MCMURDO STATION, Antarctica (NNS) -- Military Sealift Command (MSC) dry cargo ship MV American Tern arrived at the National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station in Antarctica on Feb. 4 to deliver supplies and equipment as part of Operation Deep Freeze, the station’s annual replenishment of supplies.

American Tern docked at McMurdo’s ice pier following the departure of MSC tanker USNS Paul Buck, which arrived on Feb. 1 and pumped off 162,000 barrels of fuel for equipment ranging from generators to helicopters.

American Tern will spend about four days offloading more than 29,000 tons of equipment, food and other supplies. The ship will then spend another three days loading cargo for a return trip to the United States, with a stop in New Zealand. This shipment includes ice core samples that will provide scientists studying global climate change with information about the composition of the atmosphere hundreds of thousands of years ago.

“MSC is an important part of Operation Deep Freeze,” said Tim Pickering, MSC cargo project officer. “Air Force cargo planes make hundreds of trips a year to McMurdo, but without the use of ships, it would not be possible to move the large quantities of supplies needed to keep the station operating.”

The National Science Foundation used two ice breakers, USCGC Polar Sea and Swedish icebreaker Oden, which began work in December to break a channel through 18 miles of ice that separated the pier from open water.

“Paul Buck and American Tern encountered severe weather conditions, rough seas, high winds and small icebergs en route to McMurdo,” said Larry Larsson, Deep Freeze Project manager at MSC’s Sealift Logistics Command Pacific. “But they made it on time and are doing their job.”

MSC has participated in Operation Deep Freeze every year since the station was established in 1955.

Military Sealift Command operates approximately 110 noncombatant, civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, chart ocean bottoms, conduct undersea surveillance, strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world and move military equipment and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces.