66 U.S. VETERANS MAGAZINE WWW.USVETERANSMAGAZINE.COM

FEATURE

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n 1956, traveling the world wasn't an easy option for the average person. So, when 17-year-old Civil Air Patrol Cadet Robert Barger III was chosen to accompany the Air Force on a South Pole expedition, it became the adventure of a lifetime - one for which he's finally received recognition. Civil Air Patrol Brig. Gen. Ed Phelka, CAP's national vice commander, recently presented the Antarctic Service Medal to now-82-year-old Barger in South Bend, Indiana. The medal was created in 1960 to recognize explorative and scientific achievements; however, it was only recently brought to the attention of the Air Force that Barger was retroactively eligible for it. Dr. Barger was a true CAP pioneer, Phelka said while presenting the 82-year- old with the medal and a CAP challenge coin. To be entrusted with an array of responsibilities on the other side of the world? Unprecedented. The Civil Air Patrol is an Air Force auxiliary organization that has helped with search-and-rescue operations and homeland protection since World War II. Barger had always wanted to fly, so he joined CAP at 13. He worked hard, graduating high school early and working a part-time job to finance his flying hobby, and even taking part in a CAP exchange to Denmark. Those achievements could be why he was chosen from a large pool of CAP cadets to be part of Operation Deep Freeze II, a joint Navy, Air Force and civilian scientific expedition tasked with airlifting supplies

Air Patrol Cadet & Antarctic Explorer Honored 65 Years After Expedition

By Katie Lange

Dr. Robert Barger III receives the Antarctic Service Medal from Civil Air Patrol Brig. Gen. Ed Phelka 65 years after he was chosen as a CAP cadet to join a joint military expedition to Antarctica called Operation Deep Freeze II.

CIVIL AIR PATROL LT. COL. ROBERT BOWDEN

Left: Civil Air Patrol Cadet Robert Barger III stands beside an airplane. Right: Barger, now 82, looks closely at the Antarctic Service Medal he received for his role in Operation Deep Freeze II in 1956.

COL. LOUISA S. MORSE CENTER FOR CAP HISTORY/CAP LT. COL. ROBERT BOWDEN

President Dwight D. Eisenhower receives a horseshoe from the South Pole on a plaque from Civil Air Patrol Cadet Robert Barger III, who accompanied the Air Force for Operation Deep Freeze II in 1956 to further Antarctic exploration. The horseshoe was a relic from a 1910 expedition by British explorer Robert Scott.

COURTESY PHOTO FROM THE COL. LOUISA S. MORSE CENTER FOR CAP HISTORY