Photo Credit: Al Baker

South Pole Station residents, above, gather at the geographic pole on Veteran's Day. The U.S. military has a long history of involvement in Antarctica. In the early 20th century, Adm. Richard E. Byrd was a pivotal figure in exploration of the continent. The U.S. Navy served as the main logistics arm for science beginning in the 1950s through the 1990s. Today, the U.S. Air Force at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and New York Air National Guard continue to support the National Science Foundation mission in Antarctica with intercontinental and intracontinental flights. You can follow the adventure with U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Ed Vaughan, commander of the McMurdo Station Detachment of Joint Task Force–Support Forces Antarctica on the Dispatches from Antarctica blog .