Polar mission pauses for penguins

On the frigid airfield of McMurdo Station in Antarctica, the crews who keep the 109th Airlift Wing's giant cargo planes flying for their daily supply missions to the South Pole tend to be all business.

But even seasoned veterans of Operation Deep Freeze took pause and scrambled for their cameras one Saturday when a platoon of emperor penguins waddled onto the ice runway at McMurdo, the logistics hub for the National Science Foundation in Antarctica.



"Out of nowhere, they just started walking across the line," recalled Master Sgt. Tom Flynn, the crew chief for one of several CL-130 ski planes based at Stratton Air National Guard Base that fly the polar missions. "Everybody was surprised to see them. It brought everyone out of the shop to take pictures."