The 2006-07 season of Operation Deep Freeze has just concluded, and it “has been a record setting year,” said Lt. Gen. Chip Utterback, Joint Task Force-Support Forces Antarctica commander. Personnel from the active 62nd Airlift Wing and Air Force Reserve Command 446th AW, both based at McChord AFB, Wash., flew C-17s in 57 missions from New Zealand to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, carrying more than three million pounds of cargo and 2,700 passengers; then ferrying from McMurdo to New Zealand, more than 720,000 pounds of cargo and 2,600 passengers. It was the C-17’s first ODF appearance. Old timers from the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing flew their ski-equipped LC-130s for 430 missions, moving nearly 11 million pounds of cargo and 1,000 passengers throughout Antarctica.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
