“IT’S A POWERFUL and unsettling experience to be drawn into the orbit of someone possessed by an impossible dream. At times I wondered if Lou Sapienza would awake and abandon his quixotic plan to find three airmen entombed in a glacier. Or maybe he’d suffer one too many sacrifices and surrender to self-preservation. But no matter how many setbacks Lou faced, nothing deterred him. The Duck Hunt expedition was the accomplishment of a rare and remarkable man. If I’m ever lost, I hope that Lou decides that I need to be found.”- Mitchell Zuckoff, Frozen in Time
Lou Sapienza is cofounder of the Fallen American Veterans Foundation, Inc. Whose guiding principle is to “Honor the Promise” of “Leave No One Behind.”
As photographer of record for the recovery of Greenland’s WWII Lost Squadron, the United States Defense Department and the United states Coast Guard tapped Lou to investigate and continue the search for several other WWII crashed Greenland aircraft with over a dozen U.S. MIAs buried within their aircraft below the surface of the ice sheet. Lou is considered a subject matter expert (SME) and works closely with branches of the US military, Homeland Security and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) on these mission.
As member of the Greenland Expedition Society WWII P-38 Recovery Team during the early 1990s he participated in the three expeditions that developed the technologies and equipment that recovered a WWII P-38 Lighting fighter plane from 24 stories beneath the ice sheet surface. He served as the mission’s principal photographer, and his work was used extensively in the History Channel’s “The Hunt for the Lost Squadron.”
Lou has completed 6 expeditions to Greenland, three of them for the US Coast Guard and Defense Department. The expeditions have led closer to the discovery of a J2F-4 Grumman Duck amphibious biplane containing three heroic American servicemen who had been missing since November 29th, 1942.
Lou continues to travel the world as a professional photographer. His work has appeared in LIFE magazine, National Geographic, Forbes, Paris Match, and Gulliver (Italy), as well as numerous other international publications and corporate annual reports.
Sapienza is an elected member of the world-renowned, New York-based Explorer’s Club. Most recently he mentors new and experienced members of the Club in the advancement of their exploration careers and the balance between exploration and the explorer’s family life.
