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Show fj American Women "Invade" the South Pole - t.immifxvrwamr- ' t vest'' yfyf :..r- CPS Antarctica had long been an stronghold, until an expedition of lady scientists and a journalist went to the "end cf the world" all-ma- le By ARTURO F. GONZALEZ, Jr. women!" shouted "N' Rear Adm. J. Lloyd o Abbott, Jr., U.S.N., the previous commandant of Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica at the South Pole. But his stringent command barely had time to lose its echo in the frozen wilderness before five female scientists and a lady journalist jumped off the back ramp of a military transport plane and set foot onthe 9,200 feet of snow and frozen turf that cover the South Pole. Leader of the icy expedition was Dr. Lois M. Jones of the Institute of Polar Studies at Ohio State and more recently the University of Georgia. She was anxious to study rock weathering and salt accumulation in Antarctica, and she just got tired of begging male scientists who went there for rock samples. So she applied to the National Science Foundation to go to Antarctica only to receive the traditional "no." But Doctor Jones' determination J4 her to the Pentagon, where she got the backing she needed for the expedition. The only stipulation was that the party had to be all female since Antarctic living conditions and sanitary facilities were not set up d on a basis. The first to sign up after Doctor Jones was Eileen McSaveny, a graduate student in geology. Mrs. Kay Lindsay, an entomologist, joined to look for life forms in that area. The baby of the group was Terry Lee from Ohio who Tickhill, a was studying geology in college. 'Joining the four ladies of Doctor Jones' expedition were Mrs. Peter Jones, a scientist from New Zealand, and Mrs. Jean Pearson, a science writer for a Detroit newspaper. The ladies' trek into Antarctica took them from Washington, D.C., via Navy plane to Hawaii and on to co-e- 14 Family Weekly, February 22, 1970 Christchurch, New Zealand, before landing at McMurdo Station, where they were outfitted appropriately. From here, the ladies got the chance to take a quick side trip on a Navy daily supply mission to the South Jf t si- i .: "a Bundled up for reporter sub-zer- o 1 Eileen McSaveny (left) and Mrs. Peter Jones, a New Zealand scientist, eagerly await arrival at the Pole. temperatures, lady scientists and female (front center) at South Pole. pose with Admiral Welch .TA t) kj?i In fa I j f Pole before they were eventually helicoptered out and dropped in the wilderness to fend for themselves for 90 days. At the pole, passengers usually climb out of the plane one by one through a hatch aft of the cockpit, but the Navy feared the women might get competitive about who put the first female foot on South Pole "soil." So they solved the problem by plopping them down all together on a ramp. Arm in arm, with Operation Deep Freeze's current commander, Rear Adm. David F. Welch, the ladies invaded the Pole. The party walked 200 yards up hill to be photographed at the Pole, where a mirror-ball-toppe- d "candy cane" is stuck in the snow with a sign identifying that as latitude 90 degrees south. Admiral Welch walked the women around the Pole, which meant that they were going around the world in just five seconds, and at the same time they had walked from one day into the next and back Ladies deplaned simultaneously and walked 200 yards in weather to South Pole. J .. Mrs. Kay Lindsay reads commemorative plaque and admires Admiral Byrdfs sweater hung in ; clubroom. again in the same amount of time. At the under-ic- e lounge, appropriately called "Club 90," the women and hosts defrosted in comfortable quarters complete with books, movies, and pool table. On the walls of the crew's lounge are hung Antarctic memorabilia including a framed sweater of Adm. Richard E. Byrd. Here the lady scientists contributed now historic tubes of lipstick and bobby pins to the collection of those who had attained a "first" at the frozen South Pole. After getting commemorative entour of the under-ic- e base, the ladies climbed back into their plane and were gone. A few days later, the gals were buckwinds and spending ing nights in sleeping bags and doing their scientific thing on the ice. velopes and taking a 50-m- |