Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star crew's deployment to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2016.
The Seattle-based cutter played a pivotal role by breaking a channel for supply vessels to reach the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station.
U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Grant DeVuyst.
SAN DIEGO — Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star is scheduled to return to its homeport of Seattle, Tuesday, after a four and a half month-long deployment to the Antarctic in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2016.
The cutter recently completed the safe delivery and transport of necessary cargo to sustain the U.S. Antarctic Program’s McMurdo and South Pole stations for the next year. The National Science Foundation manages the U.S. Antarctic Program.
Operation Deep Freeze is the U.S. military’s logistical support to the National Science Foundation-managed U.S. Antarctic Program. The mission includes strategic inter-theater airlift, aeromedical evacuation support, emergency response, sealift, seaport access, bulk fuel supply, and port cargo handling and transportation requirements.
Polar Star’s crew left their homeport of Seattle Nov. 18, 2015, and arrived in McMurdo Sound Jan. 7, to break a channel for supply ships to reach the NSF’s McMurdo Station. The cutter worked to form navigable shipping lane through 13 miles of ice in the Sound, encountering ice up to eight feet in thickness. The shipping channel was used by the motor vessel Ocean Giant to deliver 7.85 million pounds of cargo to supply the station for the year, and the tanker Maersk Perry to deliver 4.8 million gallons of fuel.
Operation Deep Freeze is unlike any other U.S. military operation. It is one of the military's most difficult peacetime missions due to the harsh Antarctic environment. Active, Guard, and Reserve U.S. Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and Army personnel work together to forge a strong Joint Task Force Support Forces Antarctica that continues the proud tradition of U.S. military support to the USAP. The U.S. military is uniquely equipped and trained to operate in such an austere environment and has therefore provided support to the USAP since 1955.
The Polar Star, a 399-foot cutter commissioned in 1976, is the nation’s only operational heavy icebreaker, and the most powerful non-nuclear icebreaker in the world.