Mission could recover aviators lost in 1946

A photographer with a renowned expedition that recovered a World War II-era plane in Greenland plans to turn his lens on another long-lost military flight, one with Lake County ties.

Lou Sapienza, whose photographs have appeared in National Geographic and other publications, wants to recover the bodies of three Navy aviators killed when their plane crashed on Antarctica in 1946.

Among the dead was radioman Wendell K. Hendersin, whose sister, Betty Spencer, lives in Mundelein and long has campaigned for the bodies to be returned to the United States.

For Sapienza, the time has come to exhume the plane, called the George One, and its doomed crewmen. The Navy has been reluctant to mount a recovery effort, so Sapienza formed a group called the George One Recovery Team and is prepared to launch an independent mission.

"We're ready to go … with or without the Navy's blessing," said Sapienza, of Seattle. "It's time to do it."

Spencer, who knew of Sapienza's work on the Greenland expedition, is excited about his interest and the prospect of finally bringing her brother home.

"Ever since I heard about the recovery up in Greenland … I was hoping that he would come aboard," said Spencer, 81.

The George One, a Martin PBM Mariner seaplane, crashed during Operation Highjump, the largest Antarctic expedition ever undertaken. The effort gave the U.S. military experience in polar conditions at the start of the Cold War.

Hendersin, a Wisconsin native, received his basic training at what is now the Great Lakes Naval Training Center near North Chicago. Also killed in the George One crash were flight engineer Frederick W. Williams of Tennessee and navigator Maxwell A. Lopez of Rhode Island.

Six men survived. Before being rescued, they buried the dead near the wreckage.

Spencer and her family have pressed the Pentagon and the government for a recovery mission, but their pleas have gone unfulfilled.

According to the Navy, the bodies were not recovered immediately because the military usually did not retrieve remains of soldiers who died overseas then. Additionally, because the men died in a peacetime accident, the crash didn't qualify for the federal funding that pays for recovery efforts.

The push for a recovery gained momentum in 2003, however, after a Daily Herald story about the crash prompted assistance from U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park. Other media stories followed, as did a book penned by the son of a George One survivor.

In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey, a scientific agency that studies the world's natural resources, announced it may have located the wreckage using ice-penetrating radar and other technology.

The craft is likely buried more than 100 feet beneath the surface, an official said at the time. The Pentagon has taken no action since; a Navy expedition was called off in 2005, Sapienza said.

Sapienza first learned of the George One crash this summer from a magazine article. He was a member of the Greenland Expedition Society, a group that, in the early 1990s, burrowed deep into the Greenland ice and recovered a P-38 Lightning fighter plane lost there in 1942.

The plane, dubbed the Glacier Girl, has since been restored.

Sapienza believes the same equipment his team used to recover the Glacier Girl can be used to retrieve the George One and its three airmen.

"The guy who built the first (equipment) is going to build this one for me," he said.

Sapienza estimates the mission could cost $1.5 million and take three months to complete.

"In a best-case scenario, I can have those guys out in 30 days, from the time we hit the ice," he said.

Sapienza still hopes to get the Navy on board. Pentagon support would mean federal funding and permission to work around the plane.

"I don't see any reason why the Navy isn't going to say yes," he said. "All the elements have come together."

The Navy should support the proposed recovery effort, Kirk said.

"It's a unique mission that would inspire a crew," he said.

For more information about the George One tragedy and Sapienza's recovery plans, or to read his blog about the effort, visit www.george1recovery.org.