DIED  IN  UNFORTUNATE  ANTARCTIC  ACCIDENT

Operation Highjump, officially titled “The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946-1947,” was an operation organized by the famous polar explorer RADM Richard E. Byrd, USN (Ret), who was the Officer-In-Charge of the operation.  RADM Byrd publically stated that the purposes of the operation were “primarily of a military nature to train naval personnel and to test ships, planes and equipment under frigid zone conditions and a major purpose of the expedition was to learn how the Navy's standard, everyday equipment would perform under everyday conditions".  The task force formed for the operation included over 4,700 men, multiple aircraft and 13 ships, including the amphibious attack cargo ship USS YANCEY (AKA-93), making it the largest Antarctic expedition ever organized. 

After departing from Port Hueneme in California, YANCEY arrived in Antarctica and after threading her way through the pack ice she finally moored at the shelf ice at the Bay of Whales, Antarctica, on January 18, 1947.  Over the next two days landing parties went ashore and selected a site for Little America IV and unloading operation began.  An assortment of vehicles was used in this undertaking, including tractors, jeeps, weasels, bulldozers and other tracked equipment.  On January 21, Seaman Vance N. Woodall, from YANCEY, was working on the ice in the unloading area when a tractor picked up a load of snow roller sleds to move to the barrier cache area.  The roller equipment was designed to pave the ice to build an airstrip.  The tractors were proving too heavy to ride on top of the snow that lay on the surface of the bay ice and in order to gain sufficient towing traction, the drivers had to let the steel treads plow into the snow until reaching the hard ice.  This would cause one tread to often grip the ice before the other, throwing the tractor violently from side to side until both treads took equally.  SN Woodall, who was riding on the equipment, unfortunately lost his balance and was thrown into the slats of the roller as the tractor suddenly lurched ahead.  His right arm and head were caught in the slats and he died instantly as his body was severed.  SN Woodall thus became one of the first Americans to die in Antarctica after World War II.

SN Woodall has been laid for final rest at Pleasant Run Cemetery in Pulaski County, Kentucky.  Woodall Peak, a small 720 meter rock peak, close to the south edge of the Ross Ice Shelf midway between the mouths of Good and Ramsey Glaciers, in Antarctica, has been named in his honor.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)