Squad’s Antarctic Duties May Go to N.Y. Outfit

As predictable as birds heading south for the winter, a squadron of Navy cargo planes and helicopters lifts off from Point Mugu each fall to begin its annual four-month mission to the coldest, driest and windiest place on earth.

*

The Port Hueneme-based Naval Support Force Antarctica and its VXE-6 squadron at nearby Point Mugu have spent decades making the 8,500-nautical-mile trip to Antarctica to help the National Science Foundation conduct its research.

The Navy squadron typically moves about 2,000 passengers and 2 million tons of cargo from October to February--the austral summer--while scientists and other federal officials probe the frozen continent.

In late February, the squadron begins the return flight from McMurdo Station Antarctica to Ventura County, giving Operation Deep Freeze’s 558 Navy personnel eight months to thaw out at Point Mugu and Port Hueneme and prepare for their next mission on the ice.

But now the Navy unit famous for its annual flight is threatened with extinction.

New York’s congressional delegation has spent years quietly lobbying for the New York Air National Guard to take over the Navy’s duties supporting the National Science Foundation’s research in Antarctica.

And the Navy is considering a proposal to let its traditional role slip to the Air National Guard, according to Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley).

Last week, the congressman rounded up some California colleagues and fired off a letter of protest to Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, chief of naval operations.

“We urge continuation of this mission by the U.S. Navy and its celebrated Operation Deep Freeze,” said the letter, signed by Gallegly and four other House members that handle the Navy’s purse strings.

The lawmakers vowed to oppose any legislation authorizing the transfer against the Navy’s wishes, regardless of “the efforts of our esteemed colleagues from New York to find missions and continued justification for New York Air National Guard units during this period of base closures.”

Since 1988, the New York Air Guard unit has helped the Navy with Operation Deep Freeze, according to a letter from Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-New York). It was a natural extension of the airlift work the Schenectady-based guard unit has done in the Arctic, he said. The Air Guard doubles as a reserve force for the U.S. Air Force.

Four years ago, the National Science Foundation asked the New York Air Guard’s 109th Airlift Group to consider assuming responsibility for both poles, McNulty said.

The foundation now endorses the proposal based on the Air Guard’s performance and an expectation that it would result in a significant savings to the taxpayers, McNulty said.

“Moreover, I feel that it is vital to the people of New York from a civilian perspective,” McNulty wrote last month in a letter to the Air Force. “In recent years, New York State has been disproportionately hit by federal cutbacks.”

But Gallegly challenges the wisdom of relying on part-time aviators to fly in and out of the harsh and unpredictable environment of Antarctica. And he also questions whether it would provide any real savings.

“The taxpayers will continue to provide this support . . .to either the Navy or the Air Force,” Gallegly wrote in Friday’s letter.