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Industrial freezers converted into buildings for living and working were bolted
together and secured to the permanent ice sheet on the permanent ice shelf.
"Huts" used as living quarters are barely visible after a being buried by drifted snow during a 4 day long storm. Winds often exceed 100 miles per hour creating white-out conditions and driving snow off the polar plateau down towards the coastal regions. The storms can form quickly with little warning often stranding people in buildings for days at a time. In a town where every vehicle has a first name, including the buldozers, these fierce antarctic storms have become to be known as "Herbie".
Portable huts on sleds were used for the Navy's aircraft maintenance buildings. VXE-6's ski-equipped LC-130's operated on wheels from the sea ice during the months of October thru December. When the sea ice began melting and breaking up, the huts were dragged by buldozer to Williams Field located on the permanent ice shelf. The LC-130's continued polar logistical support mission using skis to takeoff and land on the snow to the end of the science season in February.
The U.S. Navy's VXE-6 squardon provided logistical support throughout Antarctica using ski-equipped C-130's and UH-1 helicopters. VXE-6 was decommisioned in 1999 after 50 years of antarctic operations.
To visit the squadron's "unoffical" site for more historic images click on the penguin. 
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