New York Air National Guard

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR HICKAM, Hawaii -- As part of Operation Deep Freeze, Airmen at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, held a retreat ceremony Feb. 16 after the last LC-130 Hercules belonging to the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing left the continent. The 2009-2010 season of Deep Freeze, the Department of Defense's logistical support to the National Science Foundation and U.S. Antarctic Program in Antarctica, is wrapping up as personnel re-deploy from Antarctica and New Zealand. In this file photo from 2007, a maintenance crew conducts a post-flight check of an LC-130 Hercules on the ice runway near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, during Operation Deep Freeze. Ski-equipped LC-130s, crews and support personnel from the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing from Scotia, N.Y., supported the 13th Air Force-led Joint Task Force Support Forces Antarctica, Operation Deep Freeze. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Shane A. Cuomo (RELEASED)