Norwegian Bernt Balchen was America's greatest Arctic expert of modern times, most notably he was the first pilot to fly across the South Pole. In WWI he served as a cavalryman in the Finnish Army, which fought against the Russians. In 1921, he became a pilot in the Norwegian Naval Air Force. At the beginning of the WWII, he spent the next two years building air bases in Greenland so that aircraft being ferried from the US to Great Britain would have airports to refuel. From a base in Greenland he flew many spectacular rescue missions, saving the lives of numerous U. S. flyers whose planes had gone down on the icecap. [ Norway :: 2006-03-28 :: ] Famous as the first man to pilot a plane over the South Pole, he served with the British following the German conquest of his native Norway in World War II until September 1941 when he entered the United States Air Forces. For a time he commanded an airfield in Greenland and engaged in polar rescue operations, with most important work in connection with the Norwegian underground. He helped to set up an escape route between the United Kingdom and Sweden that enabled some 5,000 Norwegians and other people to flee the Nazis. He was also responsible for supplying underground in Scandinavia. From November 1944 to August 1945 he commanded air operations that chased the Germans from Norway and Finland. He was the Chief Pilot for 's first flight over the South Pole in 1929. He was born on October 23, 1899 and died on October 18, 1973 at Mount Kisko, New York. He was buried in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery.