Whatever will be will be...
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This photo by LT John R. Swadener appeared in the 31 December 1956 issue of TIME Magazine, with the following 2-line caption which was the editorial standard for TIME then:
"DUFEK'S PARTY AT THE POLE The TIME magazine article describes the takeoff thus: "Then, with frostbite already showing on [RADM] Dufek's nose, the party stomped back into the airplane, its engines still turning over. But when Pilot Conrad Shinn gunned his engines and fired four JATO (jet assist) bottles for takeoff, the R4D stuck fast, its skis frozen to the icy surface. Only by blasting off his eleven remaining JATO bottles did Shinn wrench the plane loose and stagger into the thin air at well below normal takeoff speed." Also according to RADM Dufek's book, the R4D carried 15 and Gus fired 4 at a time, then the last 3 before he got off deck. Many journalists wanted to go on the flight, but given the extreme hazards (no one had ever done it before) none were allowed. Some of them accompanied the mission aboard a wheeled USAF C-124 Globemaster which flew overhead but of course did not land. Others flew in on a Navy Skymaster which developed engine trouble over the Plateau and had to turn back. Many of these journalists gave their cameras to the Gus Shinn and his crew, hence the following pictures, courtesy of Billy Ace Baker. Oh, that Globemaster carried survival gear, food, and sleds...in case the R4D couldn't take off, that stuff would be dropped so as to enable the stranded folks to walk back to McMurdo. 
A good black-and-white view showing the Globemaster overhead. 
Another colorized (?) view used for promotional purposes by McDonnell Douglas, builders of the R4D...
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