OUA 1964 - Page 10
	and to the storage tank area. As empty bladders accumulate at the Dye Sites they are loaded on the empty C-130's for the return trip to Sondrestrom.
	s. Fighting for every minute of flyable weather, this operation is highly reminiscent of other famous airlifts of past USAF history. Seldom, unless the airworthiness of the aircraft is suspect, are engines shut down for the off-loading operation. While the engines idle, waiting ice cap ground crews join forces with the C-130 loadmasters to draw these ungainly cargoes onto the snow and permit speedy returns to Sondrestrom for the next load. Under ideal conditions - if all goes well, if tie-down chains don't snarl, if the load doesn't skew and hang-up in the cargo compartment - the C-130 can discharge its load of six bladders in about 20 to 25 minutes. Un- loading difficulties in the Arctic temperatures even in its "summertime" are frequent, however, and tum-around unloadings are not achieved on every sortie. The altitudes at which the Dye Sites #2 and #3 are located also contribute, to the difficulties of unloading. Dye Site #1 has an altitude of 7650 feet and #3 lies at about 8700 feet. The air gets thin at this height especially where heavy manual exertion is required of personnel ac- customed to much lower levels. This is especially hard on the aircrew per- sonnel assisting with the off-loading operation. The normally prevailing sub-zero temperatures also contribute liberally to the further discomfort of these arduous physical demands. This, then, is the broad picture of the annual POL airlift to the interior ice cap radar sites. Against this chal- lenging and forbidding backdrop, the 17th Squadron airlift task force estab- lished a unique feat of professional airmanship for an all time record within the Tactical Air Command. Within a twenty-five day period, 208 loads repre- senting a net pay load of 4.5 million pounds of POL were delivered to the Dye Sites.
	t. Operation Ice Cap 64, the airlift delivery of 320,000 gallons of POL to Dye Site #2 and 296,000 gallons to Dye Site #3, was scheduled for the period of 15 April to 8 June 1964. This annual operation was scheduled ear- lier than usual this year in view of the transfer of the 17th Squadron to the Alaskan Air Command. Physical movement of the squadron from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, was programmed for completion on 15 June 1964. Other factors such as when the maximum number of crews would be available and maximum availability of aircraft between periods of modification of the Doppler System installation and IRAN at Warner- Robins also entered into this decision. When. planning this operation only one sortie per day per aircraft and crew was scheduled through the period 15 April 1964, through 8 June 1964, flying six days each week. This schedule was increased to 4 sorties per day per crew and aircraft when it was deter- mined that weather, ice cap landing area, on-loading and off-loading, tem- perature of the POL and aircraft status were all favorable to sustained operations. On 15 April two aircraft with crews were in place and ready to commence the airlift; four days later two more aircraft arrived from the home station at Dyess; and, the fifth and final aircraft arrived on 20 April 1964.
	u. The tardy arrival of the last three ski-equipped C-130's did not delay the operation as after two loads of POL were airlifted to the sites on 15 April 1964, the Federal Electric Corporation (a Danish firm under contract
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