ADMIRAL DUFEK’S PLANS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27894, 16 February 1956, Page 12

ADMIRAL DUFEK’S PLANS

Direct Return To United States

TRANSFER TO EASTWIND Rear-Admiral George Dufek, officer commanding the United States Antarctic expedition task force, will not return to New Zealand this summer as originally planned. This was announced yesterday by the United States Navy. Admiral Dufek, who was expected in Lyttelton tomorrow on the icebreaker Glacier, has had his programme altered by operations which had been unforeseen in the task force's schedule. He will now remain in the Antarctic to supervise the erection of the expedition’s winter bases. Now aboard the Coast Guard icebreaker Eastwind, which is at McMurdo Sound, Admiral Dufek will sail direct from there to the United States later this month.

Next spring he will return to New Zealand to oversee the second phase of the United States Navy’s Antarctic programme in support of the Interactional Geophysical Year. The Glacier, which is due in port tomorrow, will remain there for a “minimum period.” While at Lyttelton the icebreaker will take aboard thousands of gallons of fuel, and will then return to Antarctica with the fuel barge, Y.O.G. 70, which has been alongside the Cattle Jetty since December. Preparing for Globemasters

The barge contains more than 200,000 gallons of aviation- spirit, and will be frozen into the ice alongside the Ross Sea shelf to be used as a fuel farm for the Globemasters of the United States 18th Air Force. These aircraft will operate from the 8000 ft airstrip at McMurdo Sound next October, when an attempt will be made to set up a scientific base at the South Geographic Pole. Arriving in the Glacier will be the deputy-commander of the task force, Captain Gerald L. Ketchum, the United States Navy’s most experienced ice pilot, who was responsible' for guiding the task force through the Antarctic ice pack two months ago. Also aboard the icebreaker are three New Zealanders, Dr. Trevor Hatherton, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Mr Bernie Gunn, of the University of Otago, and Lieutenant-Commander W. J. L. Smith, of the Royal New Zealand Navy, who were sent south by the Ross Sea Committee to select a site for Scott Base, New Zealand’s headquarters for the Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition.