Original 1970’s Operation Deep Freeze US Navy Antarctic Development Squadron Six (VXE-6) Cold Weather Kit grouping featuring a wool balaclava, leather and wool mittens, and a New Zealand McMurdo Station Insignia Patch.
The grouping belonged to Charles D. Gaussiran who served as a Pilot in Vietnam with the US Navy’s HAL-3 SeaWolf’s. The HAL-3 (Helicopter Attack Squadron, Light, 3) nicknamed the "Seawolves", was a naval special operations aviation squadron unit in the United States Navy and were formed in support of the US Naval Special Warfare Command (USNSWC) operations and Mobile Riverine Forces (MRFs) during the Vietnam War. They played a key role in support of the Navy's River Patrol Force (also known as the "Brown Water Navy") providing rapid-reaction, close air support to Navy river boats, SEALs, Army troops, and South Vietnamese forces with heavily armed UH-1 "Huey" helicopters.
Gaussiran Glacier is a glacier in the eastern part of the Britannia Range, Antarctica. It drains north from the saddle with Merrick Glacier to a juncture with Darwin Glacier between the Cranfield Icefalls and the Nebraska Peaks. It is separated from Alley Glacier by a series of large rock buttresses, including Robertson Buttress. The Glacier was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Lieutenant C.D. Gaussiran, U.S. Navy, a pilot with the VXE-6 detachment at Darwin Glacier Field Camp, 1978-79.
Antarctic Development Squadron Six (VXE-6 or ANTARCTIC DEVRON SIX, commonly referred to by its nickname, The Puckered Penguins) was a United States Navy air test and evaluation squadron based at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California with forward operating bases at Christchurch, New Zealand, and McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
Established at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on 17 January 1955 as Air Development Squadron Six (VX-6), the squadron's mission was to conduct operations in support of Operation Deep Freeze, the operational component of the United States Antarctic Program. The squadron relocated to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island on 1 February 1956. On 1 January 1969, the squadron was redesignated Antarctic Development Squadron Six (VXE-6).
Following the closure of NAS Quonset Point in the 1970s, the squadron relocated to NAS Point Mugu. Using the tail codes XD (1955) and JD (1957), the squadron flew numerous aircraft throughout its existence—many of which were pioneering endeavors. For example, the first air link between Antarctica and New Zealand was established by men and aircraft of VX-6 in 1955. The following year, a ski-equipped R4D Dakotaof VX-6 became the first aircraft to land at the South Pole. In 1961, the first emergency midwinter medical evacuation flight was conducted from Byrd Station to Christchurch. In 1963, an LC-130F Hercules of VX-6 made the longest flight in Antarctic history. In 1967, a United States Navy LC-130F of VX-6 completed the first scheduled winter flight to Antarctica, landing at Williams Field.
Following the closure of austral summer operations at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in February 1999, the squadron returned to Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, where it was disestablished on 31 March 1999. Beginning in 1997, responsibility for long-range logistical support of Operation Deep Freeze had been transferred from the VXE-6 squadron to the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard (NYANG).
VX-6 traces its roots to Operation Highjump (1946–1947), the fourth Antarctic expedition conducted by United States Navy Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd. That expedition set out in December 1946 to conduct an extensive aerial survey of Antarctica, using Martin PBM Mariners based in the pack ice of the Ross Sea, as well as land-based R4D Dakotas (Dakota, from the acronym "DACoTA" for Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft, was the designation used by the United States Navy to refer to the Douglas C-47 Skytrain). By the time Operation High Jump was concluded in late February 1947, the team had mapped about 5,500 miles (8,900 km) of coastline and 1,500,000 square miles (3,900,000 km2) of the interior of the continent.
