Operation Deep Freeze

Here are some OP Deep Freeze covers with various support ship covers.

Here are more OP Deep freeze covers with various support ship covers.


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And 1 more example of which I do not know the origin of.

From casual observation, the covers posted so far are generally philatelic in nature.

Here are some which originated from Antarctica. All were from individual on a team of scientists from Texas Tech College (now University), primarily Geologists, who were on one or more trips to Antarctica during the 1960s.

The first is a Christmas card mailed Dec 15, 1966.

The envelope front:



and reverse:


And the card outside front and back:



Inside:



The sender of this card was Vestal "Pappy" Yates, and information about him can be found at this link: https://today.ttu.edu/posts/2018/03/antarctica/

The next card is from a personal letter sent from Dr. R. W. Strandtmann to his wife, who was one of my professors in graduate school. I was picking up mail one morning as she was, and noticed the cover and asked if I might have it. She was nice enough to accommodate me, and here it is. There is no postmark date, but it should be 1966.



The last is one of the semi-official cachets prepared by members of the Texas Tech Staff. It is signed by J. R. Wilbanks and V. L. Yates, who was mentioned above.



The reverse is blank.

Mike

Ah! Thanks for posting those Operation High Jump covers, Ham & Egger. I have one, too. It appears that all the mail was cancelled on the same day, when the ship reached NYC.

Glade to see this may have shed so light on a question about the canceled date.

Here's a cancellation variety that hasn't been posted yet. The stamp hides the lettering between the bars, but it says "U.S. Navy/Operation/Deep Freeze".

An early cover (December 15, 1956) from Pole Station. As with most such covers, I am assuming that this is philatelic too...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world... I discovered there were military operations in the Arctic, as well. Does anyone know about this "Sealift for Security"? (No back stamp.)

I just picked up this Operation Deep Freeze envelope, but it differs from the others presented based on Task Force 199 rather than 43. I found an article on "All Hands, Nov 1978" that states:

The back of the envelope appears like someone is practicing how the hand stamps will look once completed. It also includes a signature at the bottom:


The front of the envelope is plain, but may help someone date it for me:

Any ideas on the signature or what I have here? Thanks in advance.

That cover has the nuclear power plant cachet for the nuke plant installed down south. The PM 3 plant only operated for 10 years and shut down in 1972 for its unreliability.

Judging from the "All Hands" reading, sometime before 1978, TF 43 ceased to exist and the collection of Antarctic mission ships along with VXE-6 became TF 199.

With regards to dating the cover.....I have this cover dated 1961 so your cover would have been cancelled sometime between 1961-72 (had it been cancelled).

I have no idea about the signature....sorry

GregAlex - "Sealift for Security" was just an operational code name for Artic operations involving artic re-supply missions using Merchant Marine and USN assets. These missions took place from the 50's right up until the 70's. Most involved DEW line re-supply, Thule AFB, "Pine Gap" sites, etc.

The signature reads something like Gary Craig, but Google stymies me there.

More Deep Freeze stuff.....






I am trying to get a variety...of bases and sites....