In recognition of his many hours of exploratory flying over the South Polar continent, Dufek later received the United States Antarctic Expedition Medal.

[citation needed] After a brief postwar stint in Japan, Dufek was assigned as chief staff officer to a U.S. Navy-Coast Guard task force to establish weather bases in the polar regions.

[citation needed] He returned to Washington D.C. briefly, but by 1947 was back in the Antarctic, this time commanding a task force sent to supply existing weather stations and to establish new ones near the pole.

[citation needed] In 1954 Dufek joined a special Antarctic planning group preparing for the Navy's Operation Deep Freeze, a scientific polar research expedition.

When planning was complete Dufek was given command of Task Force 43 which, with more than 80 officers and 1000 enlisted men, three ice-breakers, and three cargo ships, was charged with logistics and support for the expedition.

Among other accomplishments, the task force established bases on Ross Island and in Little America, and on October 31, 1956,[3] Admiral Dufek and a crew of six,[4] having flown on a ski equipped US Navy R4D-5 Skytrain named Que Sera Sera, became the first Americans to set foot at the South Pole and to plant the American flag, and the first men to land on the pole from the air.