A Military Sealift Command (MSC) Pacific expeditionary port unit (EPU) is a small Navy Reserve team that rapidly deploys to commercial or military ports to manage MSC ship operations. Its primary responsibilities are to act as the on‑scene liaison between the ship, MSC, and local port services; oversee and coordinate cargo loading and offloading; monitor schedule and safety; maintain communications and situation reports up the chain of command; and help resolve any problems that could delay the ship or its mission.
At Port Hueneme, the reservists are overseeing the loadout of 302 pieces of cargo onto the MSC‑chartered heavy‑lift ship Plantijngracht. The cargo includes containers of construction materials and equipment, parts for an ongoing barge project at McMurdo Station, dry goods and other survival supplies for a year on Antarctica, plus 24‑foot sections of a 65‑ton Modular Causeway System that will be assembled into a floating pier to replace McMurdo’s traditional ice pier.
Operation Deep Freeze 2026 will deliver these resupplies to McMurdo Station, the main U.S. logistics and research hub in Antarctica. The mission’s primary objective is the annual sealift resupply of McMurdo—moving in most of the fuel, food, construction materials, equipment, and other goods needed to sustain National Science Foundation–managed U.S. Antarctic Program operations and station personnel through the year, and carrying out retrograde of waste and excess equipment off the continent.
The article states that a four‑person expeditionary port unit team of Navy reservists is supporting the Port Hueneme operations. They serve as the “eyes on the pier,” acting as liaisons between the ship’s crew, pier/stevedore crews, and MSC; overseeing and reporting on the cargo onload; and maintaining communications and situation reports to MSC’s Operation Deep Freeze team in San Diego. Individual billets are not all listed, but the team includes a commanding officer and enlisted specialists such as a hospital corpsman.
For Operation Deep Freeze 2026, cargo from Port Hueneme will be carried by the Military Sealift Command–chartered heavy‑lift ship Plantijngracht. The available reporting names only this vessel for the 2026 sealift; it does not identify additional ships, other sealift assets, or specific commercial contractors beyond noting that Plantijngracht is an MSC‑chartered ship.
The four‑person EPU team began cargo operations at Port Hueneme on December 21, 2025, paused briefly over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and continued the loadout through early January. Plantijngracht is scheduled to depart Port Hueneme on January 8, 2026, then stop in Christchurch, New Zealand, to load additional cargo before sailing to McMurdo Station—an approximately 8,040‑nautical‑mile voyage expected to take nearly a month.