WIMER AT BYRD STATION

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28747, 19 November 1958, Page 17

WIMER AT BYRD STATION

Men Return To [ America t Nine men arc on their way home to the United States, after ; a year of isolation at an I.G.Y. | [station 650 miles in the interior of Marie Byrd Land in the Antarctic, according to a United) States Navy news release. The men are some of the 12 Navy men who supported the I.G.Y. scientii.c programme at the 24-man] Byrd station. Throughout the long winter | night they were isolated from the' rest of the world, with the excep- 1 tion of contact through amateur!J | radios with their families. The • Antarctic weather and total dark- J ness for months prevented air , operations, and the station did not j receive any mail for eight t months. 5 With the coming of spring they < busied themselves preparing for a tractor supply team from Little 1 America. They also retrieved air- t drops of supplies from United i I States Air Force Globcmasters.] 1 [which made almost daily flights to I ! the station. 11 ] These labours meant that the ! men at Byrd Station sometimes J I worked for hours in the open at j temperatures of between minus 20 land 40 degrees Fahrenheit. At , times the wind would drag para- , I chutes for miles across the frozen . plateau, involving long trips by tractor to retrieve supplies.