Interview of Michael Baronick by Dian O. Belanger

The Antarctic Deep Freeze oral history project was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and supported by the Antarctic Deep Freeze Association. The original paper copies and unaltered tapes have been deposited in the library of the National Science Foundation.Aviation ordnance chief Mike Baronick was a crew member on the first R5D that flew to the polar continent from New Zealand in December 1955. He wintered over at McMurdo during Deep Freeze I as the senior aviation enlisted man. The line chief for the aviation unit VX-6, he was responsible for all operations on the aircraft-fuel, arrivals and departures, maintenance, preheating. He also had charge of building and running the Beardmore auxiliary base for three spring-summer months of DF II. Mistakenly located that year at the foot of the Liv Glacier, the small temporary camp was a weather station and refueling stop for Pole-to-McMurdo flights. Baronick served in five Deep Freeze operations in all, through DF 60. He died in 2000.National Science FoundationAntarctic Deep Freeze Associatio