Iceman receives Antarctica Service Medal

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Rachelle Coleman
  • 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  Staff Sgt. Michael Stolp was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal Feb. 22 for his service in Antarctica.

Sergeant Stolp deployed to the McMurdo Dry Valley, Antarctica for 32 days to assist the Air Force Technical Applications Center maintenance team with annual maintenance of its seismic monitoring site.

Established in the mid 1990s, the seismic monitoring site in Antarctica is part of the Auxiliary Seismic Network, providing vital southern hemisphere coverage for the Air Force Technical Applications Center's nuclear treaty monitoring mission. Due to the extreme weather conditions, AFTAC sends a team only once a year to conduct maintenance during the Antarctic summer, October to March.

It took Sergeant Stolp about five days to get to Antarctica with stops in Australia and New Zealand, where he received Antarctica familiarization training from the National Science Foundation.

During his time in Antarctica, Sergeant Stolp provided expertise and technical assistance during preventative maintenance and assisted with the replacement of more than seven tons of batteries at the Mt. Newall radio repeater site.

Additionally, he prevented a weeklong trip delay by rebuilding a defective heater in the field with minimal spare parts. In spite of long hours, high winds, extreme cold and hard work, he never lost his infectious good attitude and outstanding work ethic.

"It wasn't hard to keep a good attitude." said Sergeant Stolp. "This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I kept thinking 'what would a person outside of the military going to do to get here'."

Sergeant Stolp is a site supervisor at Detachment 460, Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Det 460 is the largest, most comprehensive United States Atomic Energy Detection Systemfield detachment collecting critical subsurface and atmospheric technical measurements supporting national monitoring of foreign compliance with the treaties limiting nuclear testing.

"At Eielson, we work on a powerstation that is nearly identical to the stations in Antarctica," he said. "Having experience allowed me to help train others."

Det 460 operates and maintains a network of three atmospheric equipment locations and seven seismic arrays stretching from the Arctic Ocean to Canada to the farthest most Aleutian Island of Attu. Det 460 also performs primary alert analysis in the event of a loss of USAEDS mission capability due to communications or equipment outages.

"It was an all-around awesome experience," said Sergeant Stolp. "The location was amazing, the people were awesome, everything was amazing."