Earhart's Electra Found?

TIGHAR ^ | 5/28/2013 | Tighar

[Deek]

TIGHAR is able to share details of our search for a conclusive answer to the Earhart mystery thanks to the international agreement signed in Washington, DC on March 20, 2012. The Republic of Kiribati, the sovereign nation of which Nikumaroro is a part, has granted TIGHAR the exclusive right to conduct research, search, and recovery operations related to the Earhart disappearance within the national borders of Kiribati. No one is authorized to undertake Earhart related search, recovery of artifacts or research within the boundaries of Kiribati (including Nikumaroro) without authorization from both the government of Kiribati and TIGHAR.

[IYAS9YAS]

I've got some friends that were on Kwajalein Island for several years. They told me they've been scuba diving over an aircraft that looks like an Electra and they said that it's in clear water about 35 to 50 foot below the surface.

If that's the case, you'd think you could spot something simply searching around the area with Google Earth. 35-50' of clear water wouldn't hide it.

[BenLurkin]

Love this comment from a Gizmodo article on the same topic:

mwhite66UCasey Chan
For the love of god, people; let it go. She was a mediocre pilot who attempted a crazy dangerous stunt, got lost, ran out of gas, crashed and died. Enough already; let her rest in peace.
8/21/12 8:50am

[dljordan]

That’s a thing of beauty right there. The plane.

[SaxxonWoods]

That’s very interesting. If your friends are correct, TIGHAR is a complete fraud...and it’s very odd that no one has located orsalvaged the plane if the location is that easy to obtain.

It would make one heck of a traveling display, along with a collection of related items.

[Robwin]

I didn't realize Kiribati was a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Where did I say "Security Council", friend? I obviously meant in the General Assembly.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Deek. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[DariusBane]

Is that you Hillary? LOL!

[DariusBane]

Ewoks? Nice touch!

[DariusBane]

You really should throw in a “late Reverend” for added credibility.

[blam]

"Who? Kiribati, you might like to know, is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, the Gilbert chain, has about 100,000 permanent residents, and is a member of the United Nations with a vote equal to that of the United States."

Aren't they also suing us for global warming that will cause their island to go underwater?

Island Nations May Sue U.S. Over Climate Change

"Other potential plaintiffs include a host of popular vacation spots. Kiribati, Tonga, Cook Islands, Palau, French Polynesia, Tokelau and Republic of the Marshall Islands all have woes similar to those of Tuvalu and Maldives. Each nation is struggling for a solution"

[Yosemitest]

Check this out.

"... On this second attempt to fly around the world, the Navy reversed Amelia's flight plan. That is why Howland Island became her last stop! She could fly over the forbidden Japanese territory and photograph their bases. Then she could land on Howland Island and the Navy would quickly remove the cameras and the film. But as Amelia flew over the Marshall Islands, she was spotted as an intruder. Also in the area was the Aircraft Carrier AKAGA. (This is one of the aircraft carriers that would attack Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941).

Zero fighter pilots were sent aloft to force the American plane down, one way or another! One pilot stated, "we were not told that the intruder was a world famous American Aviator." The Japanese pilot that shot Amelia down made one fly-by. But Amelia ignored the zero, so on the next pass he fired both machine guns. Amelia swerved downward and crash landed on the beach at Mili Atoll. The Japanese were in no hurry to pick them up, as they were having war games.

No one could enter this area, and the American search party had been warned to stay away. For this reason, Amelia Earhart was able to send out an SOS for four long days, and they were heard as far away as Los Angeles, California!

It is incredible that we did not try to get them out. Fred Noonan had a cut in the middle of his forehead. He also had a badly infected cut on the knee. A sixteen year old native medical corpsman from naval hospital on Jalvit Atoll, tended to Fred's wounds. His name was Bilamon Amare, he said the Japanese called the American woman "Meel-ya, Meel-ya." Bilamon also remembers seeing their airplane with a broken left wing.

Fred Noonan was beheaded in Saipan, just a few days before Amelia Earhart was shot. There are hundreds of reliable people that saw both of them in Saipan. Some are natives who lived there, and some are American servicemen who were there at the time.

Army Sergeant Thomas E. Devine was shown where they both were buried. They were not even buried in a cemetery, but do lie side-by-side. Devine has been trying for all these years to bring the bodies back to the United States for DNA testing. But Saipan officials still refuse to allow them to be exhumed. And the U.S. Government still has everything classified.

It seems a shame that these two lonely graves still remain on foreign soil. It seems that Fred Noonan and Amelia Mary Earhart are two people without a country."

Sources:
With Our Own Eyes - Mike Campbell
Lost Star -  Randall Brink
Missing Believed Killed - Roy Conyers Nesbit
The Fun Of It - Amelia Mary Earhart

[cynwoody]

Sounds like someone is asking for money.

That would be correct.

Richard E. Gillespie qualifies as a non-profit entrepreneur. From 1973 to 1984, he was an aviation accident investigator. Then, in January 1985, he founded TIGHAR and has been its executive director ever since. See their about page.

[Yosemitest]

Watch this 6 minute 59 second testimony video.

" ... The Electra was found on June 18, 1944 on Aslito airfield by US Marines. I have 6 of them in the film - they had other eyewitnesses standing with them.
The US Military identified it as Earhart's Electra because that was the contents of the decoded message by US Marine Nabors.
These men served their country and speak the truth.
For those of you who think they may not be, I suggest you take that up with a Marine sometime.
Some of these men were wounded in battle, I suggest to those who may consider they're making this up, to serve your country in the same manner and get back to me.
This clip is Interviews with three eyewitnesses, (there are more in the documentary) who were on Saipan in July of 1944 when Amelia Earhart's airplane was found and destroyed by the US Military.
Thomas E Devine, Robert Wallack (who found her briefcase) and Julious Nabers, who decoded the messages for Colonel Wallace that stated they had found her plane, and that they were going to destroy it.
He also guarded the plane for 24 hours.
These interviews are part of my film "Earhart," the official website is www.earhartmovie.com, and I'm hoping to start filming the dramatic portions in the spring of 07.
All three of these gentlemen have passed away, and my condolences to each of their families.
They were generous to tell me their stories on camera, and only hoped that one day I could make my film about what really happened to Amelia.
Based on interviews with US GI's who saw Earhart's plane on Saipan.
I've collected over 200 eyewitnesses who saw her after she disappeared -
people who claim her plane came down in Mili Atoll, where she was arrested by Japanese forces,
she and the plane were taken from Mili Atoll, transported by ship to Majuro, then Jaluit,
then Saipan where she was incarcerated in Garapan prison for a number of years before being executed.
Her plane was found on Aslito airfield June 1944, by a number of US Marines (6 whom I've interviewed) where it was destroyed by US forces."

[Yosemitest]

Read The Airfield, The 2nd Eyewitness, The One who started it all....

[Yosemitest]

Data on Aslito Airfield, Saipan:

CHAPTER VI Capture of Aslito Airfield


Building the Navy's Bases in World War II; Part III The Advance Bases; Chapter XXVI; Saipan, (on pages 340 - 343)

" ... At dawn on June 15, 1944, the transports, cargo ships, and landing craft of the amphibious forces came into position off the west coast of Saipan. The Second and Fourth Marine Divisions moved in, under heavy fire from enemy mortars and small-calibre guns, to establish two beachheads at the town of Charan Kanoa. Landing with the Marines were men from the 121st and the 18th Construction Battalions, together with small echelons of the 92nd and 67th Battalions.

Aslito airfield was captured on the fourth day of fighting, but not until the strip had been damaged by shells and was covered with shrapnel. It was decided that the northern side of the runway was easiest to repair, and the next day, three companies of the 121st Battalion began work. Holes were filled with coral from stockpiles found near the edge of the field. Two Japanese road-rollers were found and put into operation.

By the end of the second day, the entire strip, 150 by 4500 feet, had been repaired, and the first plane, a Navy TBF, landed. The Seabees were then assigned to unloading and storing aviation gasoline in Japanese-built gasoline-storage blockhouses. By D-plus-six, the runway had been widened to 200 feet. An Army aviation engineer battalion then took over the remaining construction, one company of Seabees remaining at the field to assist in laying marston mat. On D-plus-seven, Army planes began patrol operations from the field.

Seabees not assigned to airfield construction were occupied in unloading activities and repair of a Japanese pier. ... "

CHAPTER VI Capture of Aslito Airfield Aslito airfield was captured on the fourth day of fighting, but not until the strip had been damaged by shells and was covered with shrapnel. It was decided that the northern side of the runway was easiest to repair, and the next day, three companies of the 121st Battalion began work. Holes were filled with coral from stockpiles found near the edge of the field. Two Japanese road-rollers were found and put into operation.

[cynwoody]

Her plane was found on Aslito airfield June 1944, by a number of US Marines (6 whom I've interviewed) where it was destroyed by US forces."

Why would US forces have done that? It would have made a fine extra knot in Tojo's noose.

[Yosemitest]

I don't know.
I guess it was a secret mission and they didn't want it known that the U.S. was responsible for her loss.

[Yosemitest]

Information on Mili Atoll:

[Yosemitest]

Read Why the Cover-up? (about 3/4ths the way down of the link).

" ... Under the larger Goerner scenario from which he did not back off, the massive 16-day search operation for the missing plane would have been nothing but a gigantic sham, aimed primarily at deceiving the Japanese, because we knew all along that they had Earhart and Noonan in custody, but to let the world know would be to tip off the Japanese as to how we knew. One can imagine FDR laughing up his sleeve at his cleverness. Then with the sham threatened with exposure when Saipan was taken, Roosevelt’s only option, as he must have seen it, was to attempt to erase the evidence as fast as it appeared. ...

... Now, in the summer seventy-five years after Earhart’s disappearance, the national media have devoted their entire attention to an expedition by one Ric Gillespie of an organization called TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) to the vicinity of Gardner Island (also known as Nikumaroro) in search of possible evidence of Earhart’s fate. We learn from Campbell that his May 14 to June 14, 2010, expedition was his ninth such trip.

“Gillespie offers nothing but the assorted refuse he continuously and unsuccessfully tries to connect to the fliers or the Electra,” says Campbell, “but with a compliant, supportive media and a strong establishment wind at his back, he continues to receive untold hundreds of thousands of dollars from various donors, disclosed and undisclosed, for his serial expeditions to Nikumaroro.” (p. 382)

This time, much of the establishment wind has come from Hillary Clinton:

Why the US support for this effort? Well, for one thing, Clinton herself is something of an Earhart aficionado. She said that when she was growing up in Illinois her mother was an Earhart fan and filled her ears with stories of the aviatrix’s derring-do. This led Clinton to dream of herself becoming an astronaut – so she wrote NASA when she was 13 to ask whether she could qualify.

“NASA wrote me back and said there would not be any women astronauts. And I was just crestfallen,” she said in her speech.

A second reason for today’s government involvement is that the US government was heavily involved with Earhart’s effort in the first place, in part due to its demonstration of American skill and technology during the Great Depression. State Department personnel arranged for visas and safe conduct for Earhart and Noonan and helped shepherd them along the way. On the day she disappeared, a US Coast Guard cutter, the Itasca, was in position off Howland to aid in radio direction finding and resupply. (The Christian Science Monitor, March 20, 2012.)

Hillary and Gillespie can be seen here being much ballyhooed on CNN.

If the 1937 search was a sham, in light of the massive eyewitness testimony brought forward in Campbell’s book, how much more obvious a sham is this repeated searching for Earhart’s plane by Gillespie under the glare of the U.S. news media! And what an affront it is to those members of Tom Brokaw’s “greatest generation” who have had the courage to come forward and to tell us frankly what they saw with their own eyes! When our leaders have no further use for them, it would appear, they really have no use for them. ... "