George J. Dufek

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George J. Dufek

George John Dufek (born February 10, 1903 in Rockford , Illinois , † February 10, 1977 in Bethesda , Maryland ) was an American rear admiral and polar explorer .

Life

Dufek was born to Frank Dufek and his wife Mary (née Wachuta). He was a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corps at his high school before moving to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1921 . He completed his training there in 1925 with the rank of Ensign . After several years of service on ships and submarines in the United States Navy , he was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade in 1929 . From 1933 he was a member of the naval aviation , rose on August 24, 1934 to the rank of Lieutenant and in 1939 Lieutenant Commander . After the United States entered the Second World War , he was assigned a squadron of training pilots for the Africa campaign . During this time he was promoted to Commander in 1942 and Captain in 1943 . From 1944 he was the skipper of the USS Bogue , which was involved on April 23, 1945 against U 546 in the last naval battle of the German submarine fleet in World War II. During the Korean War , he was in command of the aircraft carrier USS Antietam .

Dufek's career as a polar explorer began as a navigator of the USS Bear in the United States Antarctic Service Expedition (1939-1941) under the direction of Richard Evelyn Byrd . During a flight on February 27, 1940, Dufek discovered Thurston Island . Between 1946 and 1947 he led, also under Byrd, the Eastern group of Operation Highjump . On August 16, 1954, he was used as the commander of the so-called Task Force 43 , the support units of the Navy in Antarctica . In this role Dufek took over from February 1, 1955 after the promotion to rear admiral, the direction of the tactical operations of the first Operation Deep Freeze . On October 31, 1956, he was the first American and, after Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, the third expedition leader to reach the geographic South Pole . On August 15, 1957, he took over as Byrd's successor to head the United States Antarctic Program , a function he held until his replacement on April 14, 1959 by Admiral David Merrill Tyree (1904-1984).

Dufek was married to Muriel Thomson Bones (1912–2012) since 1947. The marriage resulted in two sons and a daughter. After his active service, he lived in Newport News , Virginia , where he was in charge of the Mariners' Museum from 1960 to 1973 . He died on his 74th birthday from the effects of cancer . His grave is in the United States Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland. In his honor, the headland Dufek Head , the Dufek coast , the Dufek massif and the Dufekfjellet mountain bear his name in Antarctica .

literature

  • John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . Vol. 1, McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , p. 461 (English)

Web links

Commons : George J. Dufek  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Lucibella: Sixty Years of South Pole Flights. In: Antarctic Sun, October 27, 2016 (accessed July 20, 2017).
  2. ↑ George J. Dufek in the Find a Grave database (accessed July 20, 2017).
personal data
SURNAME Dufek, George J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dufek, George John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rear admiral and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Rockford , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1977
Place of death Bethesda , Maryland