F E AT U R E
Operation Deep Freeze Airmen in Antarctica support ‘world-class research’
U.S. Air Force Maj. Matthew Wimmer, 56th Operations Group flight surgeon, poses for a photo in front of an LC-130 aircraft on the flightline of Amundson-Scott South Pole station, Antarctica, in 2021. (Submitted photo)
BY SENIOR AIRMAN DOMINIC TYLER 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
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n 1955, the United States began a series of continuous operations in support of the National Science Foundation mission in Antarctica. Operation Deep Freeze, an inter-continental mission located in one of the coldest and most austere environments on the Earth, has been in place since the 1950s. Year after year, people travel to Antarctica in the name of science, exploration and for a historically unique human experience. U.S. Air Force Maj. Matthew Wimmer, 56th operations group flight surgeon, was selected for a temporary duty assignment in support of Operation Deep Freeze. “The medical personnel selected to deploy for Operation Deep Freeze are the best of the best,” says Maj. Andrew Fisher, joint task force-support forces Antarctica chief of medical services. “Maj. Wimmer’s extensive operational experience in providing care in austere environ-
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Sound of Freedom | MAY/JUNE 2022
The McMurdo Station in Antarctica in 2021. The research station is the logistics hub of the U.S. Antarctic Program, established by the National Science Foundation in December 1955. The U.S. Air Force has provided intercontinental airlift support to the National Science Foundation research stations in Antarctica since the 1950s. (U.S. Air Force/Submitted)
ments was a big contributor to his selection.” Wimmer aided in six emergency medical evacuations and provided medical assistance on the ground at two primary Antarctic research hubs — McMurdo Station and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. “Something you learn being out there on the ice for any amount of time, is that things can go very wrong, very quickly,” Wimmer says. “It’s
an eight-hour flight to the closest medevac station, so all the steps have to be thought out well in advance before we decide on the best course of medical care.” In the austral summer, from November to February, when the temperatures often drop into the teens at McMurdo, the Air Force proSEE DEEP FREEZE PAGE 30
