Abstract :
LIGHTED only by glittering stars and an occasional, spectacular Aurora Australis, seven small Antarctic outposts have battened down the hatches for a long, cold winter´s night. The sun has set below the northern horizon, not to reappear again until October. With it went the 12 ships, 40 aircraft, and more than 3,500 U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps personnel that had bustled around and across this desolate, ice- and snow-covered wasteland.
