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.
Less than a day after arriving in the Middle East, F-15E Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. defended Israel from an Iranian attack in April 2024. DUDE flight, four F-15Es from the 335th Fighter Squadron, downed two dozen Iranian drones in roughly 45 minutes.