Posted on 12/23/2004 7:37:21 PM PST by nickcarraway
PORTSMOUTH - City resident Donald Capalare says his World War II experiences in the Pacific could help solve the long-standing question of what happened to American aviatrix Amelia Earhart. Capalare is angered that no one else has come forward with information that he believes others have about this matter, he says. "It’s about time one of us tell our story to enlighten the American people," Capalare, 80, said. "I feel like I have to speak up for other Marines because I don’t understand why the Navy won’t come out and tell the truth about her disappearance."
Earhart disappeared in 1937 during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe by air. At the time, the Navy released a statement indicating that Earhart had run out of fuel and her plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of Howland Island. Capalare, however, said his wartime experiences call that information into question.
Capalare, along with six other Marines, came across two caves on Guam during World War II, he said. When he and the others entered the second cave, they found a briefcase containing an envelope, some papers and a small lead pencil. There was a cross hanging on the cave wall, Capalare said, along with evidence that someone had been cooking there.
"The papers said to contact GM," he said. "The Marines figured out that GM stood for General MacArthur and that his headquarters were in the Philippines."
At that time, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was serving as head of a U.S. military mission charged with preparing the Philippine Islands for full independence.
Capalare found these papers of interest because he and the other Marines figured that Earhart was leaving as many traces of her survival on the island as possible in hopes of being rescued.
"Where else would those papers come from?" he asked rhetorically. "There were no Americans on the island except those dead from war. The natives said they saw a white woman fall from the sky and the Japanese talked about it."
Capalare said he and the other Marines believed the documents they found belonged to the missing aviatrix.
The papers were later seized by an intelligence officer, and Capalare said he was threatened by a Navy officer not to talk about the discovery.
"Sixty years ago, we were told not to say anything about the papers we found and we were threatened while in combat, but now I can talk about it," Capalare said.
When informed of Capalare’s story, a U.S. Navy captain at the Department of Defense said, "Did you call ‘60 Minutes’? I mean, it sounds like an interesting idea he has, but you won’t get anyone to give you a response." The captain did not wish to give his name.
Capalare said he believes Earhart moved from island to island - as he understood she was a good swimmer - leaving information behind to let Americans know where she was and what happened to her after it was reported that her plane had crashed. He said he believes she swam as far as she could or was transported around the islands by the Japanese.
One theory about her disappearance is that Earhart was captured by the Japanese.
"If the Japanese captured her, then the natives must have seen her," because the Japanese would have been moving her around the islands, said Capalare.
Even though Capalare never actually saw Earhart, he believes she lived on the island of Guam and that those were her belongings he found in the cave.
Showing a picture of himself with the Marines he fought with during World War II, Capalare said he thinks only one of the six others who found the cave is still alive, and lives in Illinois.
Discussions among Capalare’s family members and friends about Earhart’s disappearance don’t come up often, but Capalare said that at some reunions he has been to, the subject has been mentioned.
"I never really talked about war until my oldest son, Frank, asked me about it when he was 13," he said. "He was learning about war in school and wanted to know what I was doing in the war, as his dad. Frank served on Guam during the Vietnam War."
According to various biographies, Earhart had become fascinated with airplanes at an early age. In June 1928, she became the first woman pilot to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1937 she attempted to fly around the world, and it was during that trip that she disappeared, somewhere in the mid-Pacific, flying at an elevation of around 1,000 feet.
In an effort to find Earhart, the most extensive air and sea search in the Navy’s history was launched. The U.S. government called off the search on July 19, 1937, after spending about $4 million and searching 250,000 square miles of ocean.
In February, an expedition to the Pacific Ocean to locate the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s plane is scheduled to get under way.
Nauticos LLC, a Kennebunkport, Maine-based company, is using eBay to auction off four spaces on the voyage, seeking minimum bids of $250,000, $150,000 and $80,000 for each of three different packages, depending on how many people go. The money from the auction will be used to help defray the cost of the five-week expedition, said company owner and deep-sea explorer David Jourdan, as reported by The Associated Press.
In 2002, Nauticos launched a similar search for Earhart’s plane, but a winch failure after the 27th day cut the trip short. The expedition planned for February is intended to complete the search of the area, said Jourdan.
I am pinging this for later, but...
Amelia Earhart’s death disputed.
I am pretty sure she is dead.
She is alive and well and voting for democrats in Washington state.
ROTFLMFAO!
I'm sure I saw her with Elvis the other day at the 7-11.
Sorry, Old Paint but I think your judgment maybe a little cloudy. Thank you for your service to our nation.
LOL! Along with Elvis
I think readers are misunderstanding what this guy is saying.
I don't think he's claiming Amelia Earhart is still alive; I think he's claiming she was still alive back in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, rather than having died in an airplane crash.
And as for "moving" around, I get the impression he means the Japanese might have moved her (and Fred Noonan, her co-pilot, ostensibly injured) around from island to island.
And in other news, Generalissimo Franco is still dead.
I saw Amelia Earhart in my younger days. She was flying an autogyro and landed at our local airport.
God bless this American hero.
I believe Amelia Earhart is still alive.
Are you serious?
Earhart's story gets bigger every year, just like all fishing tales.
I'm shocked you would say that, Elvis would vote conservative.
She was sighted in Roswell in the summer of 1947.
She was sighted at Area 51 in the mid 1950s.
She, Elvis and Osama are running a 7-11 in a small town in Wyoming.
I thought she ran off with Judge Krater..
Elvis would vote conservative? Uh-oh, now what have I done?
I must admit I never liked him. Nope. Can I still be a freeper?
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