During its wartime service, the R4D was also used in a number of specialized roles such as radar countermeasures using special electronic equipment, air-sea warfare training, navigation training, and as troop carriers for Marine paratroopers.

During peacetime, the winterized R4D made a name for itself in operations from the polar icecaps of Antarctica. In January 1947, CDR William Hawkes (with RADM Richard Byrd aboard) led a flight of six R4Ds off the deck of an aircraft carrier (USS Philippine Sea) as part of Operation Highjump. This marked the first carrier take-off for the R4D. These planes operated along with six PBMs for 24 days logging 650 hours of flight time on photographic mapping flights covering 1,500,000 square miles of the interior and 5,500 miles of coastline of the Antarctic Continent.

Que Sera Sera was the name given to this R4D-5L (Douglas DC-3) that made the first landing at the South Pole on 31 October 1956. It was named after a popular song of the time. The aircraft's crew of seven were the first Americans to set foot on the pole and the first humans since CAPT Robert F. Scott of the Royal Navy reached it in 1912.

In 1962 the the R4D was redesignated back to C-47.