Update on Operation Deep Freeze
and the e-mails from Antarctica Project

by Kathleen Carpenter, Editor in Chief

Coast Guard LT. Marshall Branch is the U.S. Coast Guard officer and helicopter pilot who initiated and will be coordinating the e-mails from Antarctica Project Deep Freeze, acting as contact and guide for with Teachers.Net readers and classroom teachers who have signed up to participate. You can read all about the project in the September 2002 Gazette http://teachers.net/gazette/SEP02/covera.html

Approximately 665 classrooms with close to 13,000 students will be participating in the weekly e-mails from Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica. Participating schools are scattered all across the United States, the UK, Canada, Italy, Uzbekistan, and 31 Department of Defense schools in Japan.

While the deadline has passed for signing up to participate, Teachers.Net readers will be able to access monthly updates from LT. Branch in each monthly Gazette for the duration of Operation Deep Freeze. So check back every month!

The latest message from LT. Branch:

Greetings from Mobile, Alabama!

The crew of AVDET 157 has completed their preparations and we are departing for Seattle on Monday! This will be the last email from this email address. In the future, all email will come from, and go to, jbranch@polarsea.uscg.mil. Please note that change! I will not receive any email addressed to jbranch@atc.uscg.mil.

Our plan is to depart Mobile, fly across the southwest states, then catch the Pacific coast and head north to Seattle. It'll take about 4 days to do by helicopter. Then, on November 4th, we'll be underway aboard the Coast Guard POLAR SEA! I will start sending weekly updates after the ship is underway, including a description of the scientific experiments we will be helping with.

Thanks to everyone who sent in information about their schools. More than 200 schools responded with over 650 classrooms represented!!

I look forward to talking with all of you next week!

Sincerely,
Your partner in Adventure,

Marshall

LT J. Marshall Branch
Polar Operations Division
U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Training Center
8501 Tanner Williams Rd.
Mobile, AL 36608

To all who signed up for e-mails from Antarctica,

We got underway from Seattle on Nov. 4th and are steaming west. Our computer system onboard is experiencing some technical difficulties and I have been unable to get out Operation Deep Freeze mass emails updates. I promise as soon as these issues are resolved, we'll get the other emails out to everyone who signed up.

Marshall