“Greenland’s Bermuda Triangle”

“Greenland’s Bermuda Triangle” with Lou Sapienza July 21

Lou Sapienza presents the story of The Lost Squadron in his slide talk, “Greenland’s Bermuda Triangle,” on Tuesday, July 21, at 7:00 pm at the Camden Public Library. Sapienza was the photographer of the group that made the recovery from the glaciers of Greenland. The “Lost Squadron” was a flight of two B-17s bombers and six P-38 fighters that made an emergency crash landing on the glaciers of Greenland during World War II. The planes remained there and were swallowed by the snow, although the men of the lost squadron survived and were rescued.

Lou was a member of the Greenland Expedition Society WWII P-38 Recovery Team. He participated in three expeditions that developed the technologies and equipment that succeeded in recovering a P-38 Lightning fighter plane from 24 stories beneath the ice sheet surface. Lou also served as the mission’s principal photographer, and his work was used extensively in the History Channel’s “The Hunt for the Lost Squadron.” On previous trips to Greenland, in 1989, 1990, and in 1992, he was the photographer of record who took the photos of the P-38 fighter plane Glacier Girl being recovered from 268 deep within the ice. (The restored P-38 now flies, with approximately 80% original parts.)

Lou Sapienza of Rockport, as CEO and expedition lead of North South Polar, Inc., heads numerous expeditions to remote Greenland to locate and recover WWII crash sites and victims. He is a US Department of Defense subject matter expert (SME) and continues to lead multiple search and recovery expeditions; in 2012 his team located the debris field of a WWII J2F-4 Grumman Duck amphibious biplane crash site deep within the ice sheet. The fuselage is known to contain the remains of the US Coast Guard aircrew, and a rescued US Army Air Corps Radioman Missing In Action (MIA).

In his role at North South Polar and as a founding member of the Fallen American Veterans Foundation, Lou’s guiding principle is to “Honor the Promise of ‘Leave No Man Behind.’” He formed and leads a remarkable coalition of world-renowned explorers, scientists, engineers, and specialists — global experts — on private and governmental missions to recover American servicemen Missing-In-Action from World War II.

To accomplish that goal, Lou works closely with branches of the US military and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA – formerly JPAC). He also manages an informal community of international scientists from NASA/JPL, the US Geological Survey, the National Science Foundation, and numerous universities to develop the most efficient information and techniques to locate and return US Armed Forces MIAs.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) granted permission to the Fallen American Veterans Foundation, Inc., to perform the in-country search and reconnaissance of two B-24 Liberator Bombers that disappeared atop a mountain peak in the Philippines during WWII. The Fallen American Veterans Foundation is currently planning missions to Greenland, Antarctica, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea in pursuit of 53 missing WWII servicemen.

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