A Farewell to Ice

By DON WALSH

Don Walsh served 24 years in the Navy, during which time he was involved in many aspects of Navy oceanographic activity. He heads International Maritime Inc., which he founded in 1975.

During the course of the past 162 years, the U.S. Navy has forged a pioneering tradition of exploration, scientific research, and naval operations in the vast, remote expanses of the Arctic and the Antarctic—deploying ships, aircraft, and submarines to the very frontiers of earth’s most hostile environments. Despite this historic record, there has been a gradual but steady decline in the Navy’s presence at the Poles during the past 25 years. A grand tradition is on the point of extinction. As 2000 draws to a close, the Navy is poised to bid its "farewell to ice."

The Tradition Begins

Led by Lt. Charles Wilkes, the U.S. Navy first ventured to the southernmost reaches of the globe during the six-ship "Great American Exploration Expedition" of 1838. For five years, Wilkes explored large areas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, including a long route that would take Wilkes’s ships along the ice-ribbed coast of a southern land mass newly discovered by Russians in 1820.

During a two-year span, Wilkes charted 1,500 miles of the coastline that today bears his name: Wilkes Land. He is credited with giving the land its name: "Antarctica."

More than 30 years would elapse before the Navy directed its attention to the Arctic—a delay imposed by the exigencies of the Civil War and the reductions in military expenditures that followed. Under the command of Lt. George Washington De Long, the privately funded steam yacht Jeannette left San Francisco with 32 men aboard in July 1879. Their goal was to be the first group to reach the North Pole—which at the time was believed to be on land, as Antarctica is. The hardy explorers’ plan called for Jeannette to steam as close to the Pole as possible before landing the expedition for its overland trek.

Moving along the Siberian coast, Jeannette encountered massive ice floes and soon was trapped. Gripped in a westward-moving ice mass for 17 months, she sank 150 miles from the nearest land. After a difficult struggle over the ice, survivors reached the New Siberian Islands to await eventual rescue. Only a handful remained alive by the time a three-ship relief expedition led by Cdr. Winfield Scott Schley arrived in June 1884. De Long was not among the survivors.

Three years after Jeannette sank, some of its debris was found off southwestern Greenland—3,000 miles away. This discovery proved that the Arctic Ocean’s circulation was in a generally clockwise direction; calculations of its velocity were made based on the time it took for the debris to travel the 3,000 miles.

To the Ends of the Earth

Another U.S. naval officer, Rear Adm. Robert E. Peary, is generally credited for leading the first expedition to reach the North Pole. As a serving officer in the Navy, Peary took numerous leaves of absence for his Arctic explorations. Over a span of 23 years, starting when he was a lieutenant in 1886, he led seven expeditions north.

Peary’s quest was realized in April 1909 when, with fellow U.S. Arctic veteran explorer Matthew Henson and four Eskimos, he reached the vicinity of the Pole—aided by donations from the Navy League of the United States and other private sponsors. Congress recognized the magnitude of his explorations and ordered then-Cdr. Peary promoted to rear admiral.

Less than 20 years later, the Navy followed in the footsteps of Great Britain and Norway to explore the other side of the world during the remarkable aerial explorations led by Cdr. Richard E. Byrd.

A consummate explorer, adventurer, and expedition leader, Byrd was an icon of U.S. polar exploration during the 1920s and 1930s. During one of his leaves of absence he made the first flight over the North Pole in 1926. From 1928 to 1930, and again from 1933 to 1935, Byrd led private expeditions to western Antarctica from a base camp named "Little America." In 1929, during the first expedition, he made a flight over the South Pole. As with Peary, Congress recognized these feats by ordering that Byrd be advanced to the rank of rear admiral.

From 1939 to 1941, Byrd was the military commander of three U.S. government expeditions for the newly established U.S. Antarctic Service. Using aircraft and the most modern scientific devices available at the time, his team mapped and surveyed many unknown areas of the continent. World War II intervened, and Byrd would not return to the ice until 1946.

The Frozen Continent

In 1946, with Byrd in charge of Operation Highjump, the Navy sent a force of 4,700 men, 13 ships (including one submarine), and numerous aircraft to carry out the first large-scale survey of the frozen Antarctic continent. Among the ships was the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea, which delivered six Douglas R4D (DC-3) aircraft for logistics and aerial-survey work. The Highjump aircraft were used to map 1.5 million square miles of the continent—much of which had never been seen before.

In 1947, "Operation Windmill" was conducted in the Antarctic to complete the aerial-mapping tasks. Using ship-launched helicopters, the two-year expedition was able to establish the ground control points needed for the preparation of accurate maps.

The 1950s saw the commencement of the Navy’s epic series of "Deep Freeze" operations. Deep Freeze I, carried out during the 1955–1956 austral summer, was the first of these annual expeditions to the Antarctic. It would also be Byrd’s last naval command; he died two years later.

In the succeeding annual Deep Freeze operations, scientists from many nations carried out research with the Navy providing logistical support with its ships, aircraft, and shore-based personnel. Naval Support Force Antarctica, usually commanded by a flag officer, managed the mission for more than 40 years.

The International Geophysical Year

During the early 1950s, planning also began for a massive global geophysical exploration that would involve scientists, logistical-support forces, and assets of many nations. The project, named the International Geophysical Year (IGY), took place from 1957 to 1958.

In the polar regions, 12 research stations were established in the Arctic and 60 in the Antarctic. The United States set up six of the major Antarctic stations; 11 other nations manned the remainder. Among the U.S. sites was the first station at the South Pole. Work began there in 1956 during Deep Freeze II, and it was completed in time for the IGY. The South Pole site, named "Amundsen-Scott Pole Station," has been continuously occupied since that time. It has been replaced or rebuilt several times over the past half century, however, and is now operated by the National Science Foundation.

In addition to its station at the South Pole, the Navy also started building its major Antarctic logistical-support base at McMurdo Sound during Deep Freeze II. The facility, located next to the Ross Ice Shelf, supported the IGY scientific stations of many nations; today, McMurdo Station is the largest base on the continent.

The Navy’s last Operation Deep Freeze took place in 1998; the decommissioning of the Naval Support Force followed. Aircraft squadron VXE-6—which flew ski-equipped C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and helicopters and was the Support Force’s last operational unit—was disestablished in April 1999. The New York Air National Guard took over the Hercules operations, and a civilian contractor now provides helicopter services. The Guard will continue to use the Deep Freeze name to describe its operations.

Cold War in the Arctic

The Navy was engaged in more than scientific activity in the polar regions during the Cold War. During the 1940s and 1950s, urged on by Dr. Waldo Lyon, the Navy conducted limited submarine exercises in the marginal ice boundaries in the North Atlantic. The ice offered a temporary shelter from surface warships, because the acoustic conditions under ice are very poor for submarine detection. Diesel-electric submarines are limited in their ability to operate under ice, however, so the operational concepts developed remained good in theory but poor in practice.

As the Cold War intensified during the 1950s, it seemed that the Arctic could become an area of conflict with the Soviet Union. The U.S. Navy, joined by the Army and Air Force, took a greater interest in improving its operational capabilities and military readiness in the region’s extreme environmental conditions.

As part of this effort, the Navy established important research stations at Point Barrow (1947) and Cape Prince of Wales (1949), both in Alaska. The stations have been closed for more than a decade, but the Point Barrow facilities are now used by a variety of civilian organizations, including research agencies of Alaska’s Department of Wild-life Management. The Naval Arctic Research Laboratory was relocated from Point Barrow and continues its mission today in San Diego, Calif.

Submarines Under Ice

In 1954, the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, inaugurated a new era in under-ice operations. Free from the need to recharge batteries on or just below the ocean’s surface, submarines can remain submerged indefinitely, making them an ideal platform for under-ice missions—both military and scientific. Nautilus began probing under the ice in 1957, and eventually reached 87 degrees north latitude. In July and August 1958, she made the first submerged transit of the Arctic Ocean, journeying from the Pacific to the Atlantic by way of the North Pole.

During the same time frame the USS Skate conducted extensive under-ice operations, including nine "through-the-ice" surfacings and a run under the Pole. In March 1959, the Skate returned to the Arctic and became the first submarine to surface through the ice at the North Pole. Yet another Navy first was the joint surfacing of Skate and Seadragon at the Pole on 2 August 1962. In a span of six years, a radically different era in submarine operations had begun. Soon, a new class of submarines, led by the USS Sturgeon, was being designed with significantly improved capabilities for operating under ice.

During the next four decades, other submarines—from the Soviet Union and Great Britain—would join the U.S. submarines operating in the Arctic. Surfacings at the Pole and submerged ocean-to-ocean transits via the Arctic Ocean rapidly became more numerous—but never routine.

A Failed Opportunity?

As the Cold War retreated into history during the early years of the 1990s the U.S. scientific community received an offer that was hard to refuse when the Navy (in 1993) offered to provide, over a five-year period, at least 30 days of dedicated submarine time for research in the Arctic Ocean. The Science Ice Expedition (SCICEX) Program was born. An initial test-of-concept mission was conducted on the USS Pargo in 1993, and from 1995 to 1999 five expeditions were conducted on the Sturgeon-class submarines USS Cavalla, USS Pogy, USS Archerfish, and the USS Hawkbill, which made two cruises (Ed. Note: See July 1999 Sea Power). The longest run took place when the Pogy was out for 70 days.

The Navy and the civilian scientific community were convinced that these cruises would demonstrate a submarine’s unique attributes for highly productive research beneath ice-covered seas. A goal was soon formulated to obtain the funding needed to convert one of the soon-to-be-decommissioned Sturgeon-class submarines for scientific use. Despite their age, these durable submarines have proved to be the most capable platforms available for under-ice operations. Because of the Navy’s precipitous downsizing during the 1990s there are now several excellent candidates for conversion.

Removing some military systems would make space available that could be dedicated to scientific work. Naval personnel could operate the demilitarized submarine. Such a program would require considerable investment from outside the Navy’s own shrinking budget base, however, necessitating some sort of cost-sharing arrangement with the U.S. research community. Several studies were carried out to support the funding proposals, and the RAND Corporation is now conducting a major assessment.

Post-cruise reports and research papers from the SCICEX scientists were extremely positive. At the working level it is clear that a dedicated scientific submarine would produce results not available from any other type of platform. "I cannot overstate the importance of Navy submarines for this type of research," said Dr. Peter N. Mikhalevsky, an ice-camp science director during SCICEX 99. "It [having a submarine available] has been a tremendous boon for Arctic science."

Dr. Margo Edwards, the 1999 expedition’s chief civilian scientist, shares his views. "We have increased what we know about the bottom of the Arctic Ocean by two or three orders of magnitude—literally, it is just an explosion of information compared to what we had before," she said in April 1999.

Despite such positive acclaim by top U.S. scientists and years of favorable results from SCICEX missions, no funding has yet been budgeted for the conversion of a Navy submarine for civilian research in the Arctic. USS L. Mendel Rivers, the last Sturgeon-class submarine available, will be decommissioned on 1 January 2001. In October, she made a final visit to the Arctic for a few days of research while en route from Norfolk, Va., to Bremerton, Wash., for inactivation and decommissioning.

Farewell to Ice

Submarines of today’s "improved" Los Angeles class retain modest under-ice capabilities, but they do not rival the more robust features of the Sturgeon class. The overall size of the U.S. undersea fleet has been slashed drastically during the past decade—to the point where there are insufficient numbers of submarines to perform all of the operational taskings levied on the force by the U.S. unified commands and the National Command Authority. Unavoidably, the submarine force’s under-ice skill levels and experience will wither as fewer and fewer missions are conducted in the frozen north. It seems highly unlikely, therefore, that the civilian research community will ever again have the ex-tensive level of access to under-ice platforms enjoyed during the historic SCICEX expeditions.

A few U.S. submarines are still operating in the Arctic, however. News media reports about the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea in mid-August mentioned the USS Memphis and the USS Toledo being in the area. Infrequent Arctic Ocean submarine operations probably represent the last vestige of the U.S. Navy in the polar regions. A 162-year tradition has been reduced to an occasional and greatly reduced presence.

Other civilian efforts remain. Polar scientific programs funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration continue to grow. The U.S. Antarctic program continues to be the largest on the continent, with 365-day operations underway at stations at the South Pole, McMurdo, and Palmer. Polar research has made important contributions to the scientific community’s understanding of global warming and other phenomena.

But the Navy is no longer there. Polar operations had given it the institutional capabilities needed to perform a wide variety of missions in extremely cold climates. Naval aviators maintained and operated their aircraft and helicopters in the worst possible weather. Officers and crews knew how to sail treacherous waters—how to "read the ice." Ashore, Seabees could build and maintain a support infrastructure in the world’s coldest climates. A relatively small corps of personnel maintained these Navy "know-how" assets. Now, most of this corporate memory will be greatly reduced, and eventually vanish.

In the end, the Navy’s presence at the Poles fell victim to many of the same pressures that have reduced the fleet to its smallest size since 1932. In the Antarctic, it was more expensive to rely on Navy support than to use civilian contractors. The Navy might have remained if it had offered to pay the differential between contractor and all-military costs. With the end of the Cold War, the Arctic also is a region no longer of major concern to Department of Defense planners in any case. The Russian bear is preoccupied with internal difficulties, and China’s interest in Arctic matters is not apparent.

If the lessons of history reveal anything, however, it is that politicians, strategists, and national-security planners are remarkably inept in predicting the future. Can the U.S. Navy safely assume that future threats will occur only in the more temperate regions of the world or in tropical oceans? Should the Navy cede its vast legacy of experience and operational capability at the Poles to other nations?

Those responsible for maintaining the global dimensions of U.S. power and presence think not. As the Navy bids farewell to ice, some of these planners, at least, argue that a continued polar presence remains an important element in the Navy’s exercise of sea power around the world.