McChord C-17s To The Rescue!
 

If I am not mistaken, one of APC's very own is an active participant in this. Nice job!! We are very proud of you. Don't forget our "date" in a couple of weeks. I look forward to it immensely.

From Seattle PI:

MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- An Air Force cargo plane and crew from McChord Air Force Base flew from New Zealand to Antarctica early Saturday to assist a stranded British fishing trawler.

The C-17 Globemaster III, along with its pilots and loadmasters from the 446th Airlift Wing and 62nd Airlift Wing, were already in New Zealand to deliver supplies to Antarctica as part of Operation Deep Freeze - a research program of the National Science Foundation and U.S. Antarctic Program.

The New Zealand Rescue Coordination Center contacted the Operation Deep Freeze C-17 mission commander in Christchurch, New Zealand, to seek assistance in dropping supplies to a British fishing trawler, the Argos Georgia, that had lost all main power and was frozen in the ice flow off the Ross Ice Shelf.

The Air Force said other options to rescue the ship were either no longer available or would be more than 10 days away. The trawler crew had been without main power for six days.

The air crew dropped an engine piston and casing from approximately 400 feet above the surface at a speed of about 170 miles per hour.

From New Zealand Herald:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/...ectid=10485479

Very Cool! Erep for you sir!

Looks better with some illustration! :)

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/622/693358hp6.jpg

Good job! But, I'm sure they're going to ruin the whole thing with DFCs, CGOY awards, newspaper articles, ORP/EPR bullets, chest pounding, and all around "I'm the greatest ever" type stuff. Sorry for being cynical when I see stuff like this, it just happens so often. The AF (and all too often, the wing, the group, the squadron, the crews) take this stuff and just go bat-sh!t crazy with it until everyone is rolling their eyes and scoffing it.

Deuce Darling, you are much too young to be so cynical! ;) I, on the other hand, admit to being overly maternal towards my McChord boys, who fly over my house frequently and display some fantastic flying abilities, the likes of which I can never do myself. Alas.

schwanm, what happened to your "illustration?" All I see is a box with a small red x in it.

Now now, everyone needs an OPR bullet and the thing I love about the AF is that I can make a panama layover sound just as heroic. Give the tcm folks some kudos since we all know the chs crewdogs lead the way.

Duece, I give you a DFC for calling it like it is ! I put myself in for a Bronze star for thinking of this. Actually- some of my buds have dads that got these awards in 'nam for doing or surviving really knarly stuff. Not cool.

Liftr92,

I hate to brake the news to you but CHS does not fly the Antartic missions.

Hmm, works for me

wingnut - really I wasn't aware of that - neither did tcm when LTS then SUU then RIV ran the show. The folks at TCM did a good job securing the run and i give them kudos - nothing wrong with me poking fun at my mcchord brothers and sisters over yet another save in between all the "beer"rest in NZ I can only hope the reserves continue to keep the AD out of the act. Fly on

Where once I saw nothing, now I am seeing ddouble!! ;);)

Our ever vigilant moderators must have fixed the little glitch. Thanks, guys.

And now the only other thing that would make my day is a picture of a Hornet. :)

How's this?
http://www.english-country-garden.co...s/hornet-5.jpg

Makes you wonder who the heck took the photo.. I'm thinking another boat from the height of it......hmmm....possible cooked up scheme for Air Force Recruiting. Sorry....conspiracy theorist. I miss Air Drop...this one would have been really cool.

It was taken from the boat that was in the area to make sure nobody on the ship died/ran out of food :p

On the left in this pic

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/442/picta5.jpg

Vegabond - thanks for the props - and no, I haven't forgotten! Unfortunately, I can't take credit for this as I was out touring the beautiful NZ countryside at the time. I was certainly disappointed I had to pass on the opportunity, but I had spent time/money planning my family road trip and couldn't bring myself to cancel it. I do, however, have plenty of photos and video from the guys who did it.

As schwanm discovered, there were 2 ships in the area. What is not commonly known, however, is that the red ship in most of the photos released by the press was actually not the one in distress - it was the blue one shown above. They were underway again within 4 hours of getting the cylinder and sleeve delivered. Beforehand though, they had plenty of time to make the signs shown below.....

Oh, and Dave - fugetaboutit!

Another photo

Where did you travel to around NZ mooseflyer? Find driving on the left good? :p