The Road to Hut Point
Standish Backus #57
Oil on canvas, 1957
88-186-BR

In McMurdo Sound, icebreakers came alongside the U.S.S. Wyandot, got the cargo and then ferried it up the channel through the heavy ice to deliver it to tractor trains on the ice shelf. Tractors dragged it by sled to the supply dump where it would be available for building the Air Operating Facility.

"The bay ice in McMurdo Sound being reluctant to break up and depart in keeping with the shipping schedule of Task Force 43, it remained for the ice-breakers to plow a furrow for themselves leading nearly sixty miles south from the open sea to a final position of six miles short of the base at Hut Point. It was a rocky road through ice ten feet thick. The broken fragments, having no place to go, had to be forced under the ships' bottoms and through the whirling propellers. The wear and tear of such beating, eventually accumulated broken propeller shafts in Edisto and Eastwind. Hut Point, in the painting, is at the base of the dark, triangular observation hill on her way to take on another load from the cargo ships. Offloading at the end of the cut channel is Edisto. White Island is the backdrop to the southeast."--Commander Standish Backus.

Williams Air Operating Facility, McMurdo Sound
Standish Backus #53
Watercolor on paper, 1956
88-186-BN

The establishment of an Air Operating Facility in the vicinity of the Ross Ice Shelf was one of Operation Deep Freeze I's primary objectives.

US Army Signal Corps Departs for Little America V, 1 January 1956
Robert Charles Haun #2
Oil on canvas, 1 January 1956
88-192-B

The U.S. Army Signal Corps provide worldwide information systems and networks for real-time command and control of Army, joint, and combined forces in tactical, garrison and strategic operations. In short, they are in charge of communications.

Tractor Train Hauling Supplies Across the Bay from U.S.S. Arneb, U.S.S. Glacier, and U.S.S. Greenville Victory
Robert Charles Haun #8
Oil on canvas, 1956
88-192-H

A D8 Caterpillar tractor, the largest unit of a tractor-train, pulls a sled of cargo from the ships to the supply dump.

U.S.S. Arneb, U.S.S. Glacier, U.S.S. Greenville Victory, D8 Hauling Sleds
Robert Charles Haun #35
Watercolor & pencil, 31 December1955
88-192-AI

Study for 88-192-H (above). Sketched on the bay ice.

Tractor and Sled Leave U.S.S. Arneb for Little America V, Kainan Bay
Robert Charles Haun #68
Watercolor & pencil on paper, 1956
88-192-BP

Waiting For D8 to Take Sled to Supply Dump
Robert Charles Haun #30
Watercolor & pencil, 30 December 1955
88-192-AD

The artist originally dated this sketch as Dec 30 1956 but then later must have realized his mistake and added 30 Dec 55.

Tractor and Two Men
Robert Charles Haun #31
Watercolor & pencil, 1955
88-192-AEB