10/31/2009. By February 13, 1956, the USN had purchased thirteen DHC-3 (BuNos. 142424 to 142427, 144259 to 144261, 144669 to 144674), designating them UC-1. Several of these aircraft were used by Air Development Squadron SIX (VX-6), based at NAS Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

VX-6 served as the aerial support arm for Task Force 43 operations in Antarctic, and also supported the US Deep Freeze Expeditions II and III in 1956 to 1958. At Antarctica the USN also acquired from the RAF an Otter (XL710) that had been used by the 1956 British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, it became BuNo. 147574.

Delivered to the USN in September 1956, BuNo. 144672 was crated and shipped to Antarctica aboard the USS Wyandot (AKA-92) in November, it was first flown at Antarctica on February 3, 1957. During the Arctic winter (mid-1957) the aircraft was damaged by accumulated snow and needed a new wing, which was fitted on site and the aircraft flew again in October 1957.

By 1960 the aircraft had returned to the USA, was redesignated NU-1B in 1962, while serving with VX-6 till 1965. It served for another ten years at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Naval Air Test Facility, Lakehurst, and the Pacific Missile Range, Point Mugu, before it became part of the naval museum collection at Pensacola in 1975.