My daughter spent the last couple of years onboard POLAR SEA and she tells me there were no definite plans to go south this fall. They had an Arctic deployment scheduled but that's it. They would have been on standby for Operation Deep Freeze but the past few years, the NSF has contracted with foreign countries to do the icebreaking down at McMurdo. Apparently, it's cheaper for them to do that than to spend the money to repair our icebreakers. I think it's kinda sad really......the heavy icebreakers are in such disrepair and even though Admiral Allen has been asking the govt for years to do something, no one seems to think it's much of a priority. Also, my girlie tells me that if there had been a deployment to Antarctica scheduled, she would have re-enlisted because she really wanted to make that trip!

Laurie