C-17 Tackles South Pole

A C-17 from McChord AFB, Wash., made two passes over the South Pole on Dec. 18, airdropping 10 containerized delivery system bundles on each pass for a total of 22,372 pounds of supplies. It was the second such test of the C-17’s capability to airdrop in this “challenging” environment, said Lt. Col. Jim McGann, commander of the 304th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Christchurch, New Zealand. Using the C-17 for this part of the Operation Deep Freeze mission, instead of the ski-equipped LC-130s, enables the Joint Task Force-Support Forces Antarctica to deliver up to four times as much supplies in a single mission to support the National Science Foundation. (13th Air Force report by Lt. Col. Toni Kemper)