ok, Operation HighJump is really damn intriguing…
Operation Highjump 1947 US NAVY
https://www.hooktube.com/watch?v=w-RLncjmln8
The documentary about the expedition The Secret Land was filmed entirely by military photographers (…) It features Chief of Naval Operations Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in a scene where he is discussing Operation Highjump with admirals Byrd and Cruzen. The film has re-enacted scenes of critical events, such as shipboard damage control and Admiral Byrd throwing items out of an airplane to lighten it to avoid crashing into a mountain.
6:12 odd JollyRoger/Neptune ceremony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Highjump
Operation Highjump, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, was a United States Navy operation organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN (Ret), Officer in Charge, Task Force 68, and led by Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Officer, Task Force 68.
Operation Highjump commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947. Task Force 68 included 4,700 men, 13 ships, and 33 aircraft.
Operation Highjump's primary mission was to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV.
Highjump’s objectives, according to the U.S. Navy report of the operation, were:
-Training personnel and testing equipment in frigid conditions;
-Consolidating and extending the United States' sovereignty over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic continent (publicly denied as a goal even before the expedition ended);
-Determining the feasibility of establishing, maintaining, and utilizing bases in the Antarctic and investigating possible base sites;
-Developing techniques for establishing, maintaining, and utilizing air bases on ice, with particular attention to later applicability of such techniques to operations in interior Greenland, where conditions are comparable to those in the Antarctic;
-Amplifying existing stores of knowledge of electromagnetic, geological, geographic, hydrographic, and meteorological propagation conditions in the area;
-Supplementary objectives of the Nanook expedition (a smaller equivalent conducted off eastern Greenland). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Nanook_(1946)
(…)
Naval ships and personnel were withdrawn back to the United States in late February 1947, and the expedition was terminated due to the early approach of winter and worsening weather conditions.
(…)
"Admiral Richard E. Byrd warned today that the United States should adopt measures of protection against the possibility of an invasion of the country by hostile planes coming from the polar regions. The admiral explained that he was not trying to scare anyone, but the cruel reality is that in case of a new war, the United States could be attacked by planes flying over one or both poles. This statement was made as part of a recapitulation of his own polar experience, in an exclusive interview with International News Service. Talking about the recently completed expedition, Byrd said that the most important result of his observations and discoveries is the potential effect that they have in relation to the security of the United States. The fantastic speed with which the world is shrinking – recalled the admiral – is one of the most important lessons learned during his recent Antarctic exploration. I have to warn my compatriots that the time has ended when we were able to take refuge in our isolation and rely on the certainty that the distances, the oceans, and the poles were a guarantee of safety."
(…)
After the operation ended, a follow-up Operation Windmill returned to the area in order to provide ground-truthing to the aerial photography of Highjump from 1947-1948. Finn Ronne also financed a private operation to the same territory until 1948.
https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/operation-highjump-18223476/
A year after World War II ended, the U.S. Navy mounted a massive-though hastily planned-mission to the bottom of the world.
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It was the largest naval expedition ever in Antarctica. Even the [Operation Deep Freeze] expeditions during the International Geophysical Year [in the 1950s] were a fraction of that. These were also newly released soldiers and sailors from World War II. And there were very few of those 4,700 who had any [polar] experience. So it’s a little odd that they would have conjured up so many. The leadership ranks were very thin, especially in the flying ranks.