JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- Airmen and a C-17 Globemaster III from Joint Base Lewis-McChord participated in a routine mission, which included patient movement, from McMurdo Station, Antarctica to Christchurch, New Zealand October 17.

Active-duty and Reserve Airmen from the 62nd and 446th Airlift Wings are currently deployed to Christchurch in support of Operation Deep Freeze. Operation Deep Freeze, which runs from mid-October to mid-February, supports the National Science Foundation in Antarctica.

The support Operation Deep Freeze provides to the United States Antarctic Program is unlike any other U.S. military operation. It is possibly the military's most difficult peacetime mission due to the harsh Antarctic environment.