Friday

The plot thickens...

The dig continues.. day two
Digging continued into day two and word came in from HPO that our permits have been approved for our larger site near the airfield on Monday in Naftan point.

Things are falling into place.

We had an evening with a number of local residents who came down to here us talk about our journeys into this project - Captain Cooper spoke of his 17 years as a pilot for Southwest, Mike Harris told of his expeditions to find the Titanic, and now to find Earhart, and Rich talked about his bewilderment of why people have ignored eyewitness reports for so long.

Capt Cooper and Mike Harris
Dave Sablan, who met Mike Harris back in 1983 and who has been overwhelmingly helpful in this expedition, spoke passionately of how he is now convinced she was here.  He spoke of being a 12 year old boy and hearing a friend of his father say he was at the airfield in Alsito where he saw Earhart's Electra, and how the aviatrix and navigator Noonan had been taken by the Japanese.  It was not a story a 12 year old boy forgets.  Thank you David.

David M Sablan


We also spoke to Ray Bermudes - his first interview ever - where he recounted how his mother told him as a little boy that she was a nurse in the Japanese hospital because she spoke and could write Japanese.  She told him how she had seen and heard the story of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan being brought to the hospital in 1937 to treat their wounds.  How she had been told not to tell anyone about it - and she had only told her family, which included a young Ray.  He had never thought to tell anyone the story until he read in the paper we were looking for second hand accounts as well.  Thank you Ray.

Ray Bermudes

Also in the audience tonight an audience member revealed that she was the granddaughter of the woman who had the ring that Amelia had given to her great aunt.  We had heard that the ring had been given by Amelia to Matilde Arriola, and Matilde gave it to her niece Trinidad.  Trinidad is the grandmother of these folks, and we are going to their old home tomorrow to dowse and use ground penetrating radar for the ring - which was reportedly lost during a rainstorm somewhere under the old house.  We'll let you know what we find.  

Half of the audience, sponsored by the Humanities Council

Thanks to all the folks who came out, to Scott Russell for putting the event together and his staff. It was a lot of fun and we hope everyone got new information to contemplate!

We will post the video of the event in a week or so - look to the right side of the page for the link!  Stay tuned!






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2 comments:

  1. Skull1986February 24, 2013 at 12:59 AM

    I am following this blog with interest...
    I am a long-time student of history and have an interest in this missing person's case.
    I think it's entirely solvable. My feeling is that something will be found (the plane or pieces of it), OR that "missing link" document with the facts on it will be leaked or released by accident.

    I hope your group does find something...
    Glad to hear you brought a GPR! That gives you the best chance, I think, of locating significant remains/artifacts.

    I am concerned, though, with the aircraft parts you found not long ago. I don't think they're from the Electra. You can see from the movies taken during the invasion that there were a lot of military aircraft on that airfield. Those pieces could be from any one of those. I think your best shot is finding the spot where the Electra was allegedly buried and digging there.

    As I was watching the period films of Saipan, I was trying to see if I could see any evidence of the alleged Earhart hangar... There was so much debris and destruction that honestly I don't know how you ID anything! Obviously, there aren't any publicly available pictures of that plane on Saipan but it does make you wonder if SOMEBODY documented anything in the military archives that are still sealed from that time.

    All this mention of Garapan Prison and Mr. Martini's work with after-life research reminds me of the story of Eugene Sims, a veteran(?) who lived on Saipan in the 1960s and wrote for an Army paper. He snapped a photo of the alleged Earhart prison cell. When it was developed, a ghostly figure appeared in the doorway of the cell. I wonder if THAT photo has ever been made public!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 4, 2013 at 11:28 AM

    What about the (rear rubber *TIRE) that came off the Electra when the Japanese dragged the plane off the reef on Mili Atoll/Marshalls? Saved by Robert Reimer's - SON.

    Why isn't somebody leading a Congressional Hearing or *INVESTIGATION into this matter?

    This NONSENSE from TIGHAR - UTTER RUBBISH - unintentional manipulation & untrained personnel - sounds more like TIGHAR itself???????????

    Mike Campbell's NEW BOOK - Amelia Earhart/The *TRUTH at Last - exposes all the DISINFORMATION the Government has been feeding the American Public on this matter/Amelia Earhart's disappearance.

    Let's EXPOSE this (GOVERNMENTAL LIE) & (COVER -UP) for what it REALLY IS!

    ReplyDelete

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This webpage examines the eyewitness accounts and other evidence that shows Amelia and Fred were arrested and taken to Saipan. There were over 200 individuals who claimed they saw her, this site examines who they were, and what they heard or saw. It includes details of evidence the Electra was found on Saipan, interviews with people who saw her and the Electra before and after they were taken to Saipan. Interviews with over two dozen Saipanese who claim they saw her there and over a dozen US Marines who claim they found the Electra, her passport, briefcase and other details.

EYEWITNESS REPORTS

THE EYEWITNESS REPORTS VIDEO IS NOW .99 CENTS

Eyewitness Accounts: Published

EYEWITNESS: THE AMELIA EARHART INCIDENT BY THOMAS E DEVINE WITH RICHARD M DALEY

Pg 40. “Glancing out on the runway ramp.. an area not the main part of Aslito Field, but an extended arm of the airstrip at the southwest corner… Near an embankment was (AE’s plane). (LATER) .. a muffled explosion at Aslito Field erupted into a large flash fire… I crouched and crawled toward the airfield. When I could see what was burning, I was aghast! The twin engine plane was engulfed in flames! I could not see anyone by the light of the fire… in July 1944.”

THE SEARCH FOR AMELIA EARHART BY FRED GOERNER

Goerner gathers dozens of eyewitnesses to Earhart’s incarceration and second hand info about her execution.

AMELIA EARHART: LAST FLIGHT

Amelia reveals she did not know Morse code (and neither did Fred Noonan)

AMELIA EARHART:HER LAST FLIGHT

By OLIVER KNAGSS

South African journalist gathers numerous eyewitnesses at Mili, Majuro and Jaluit. There is footage of these interviews, but it exists somewhere in Miami – still trying to locate the negative.

AMELIA EARHART: THE MYSTERY SOLVED By ELGEN M LONG AND MARIE K LONG

Elgen shows how the original plan devised by radio man Harry Manning was adhered to by the Coast Guard Itasca – they didn’t know Manning got off the plane in Hawaii and wasn’t on the electra. So 90% of all their communication was in Morse code – something neither AE or FN knew.

“WITH OUR OWN EYES – EYEWTINESSES TO THE FINAL DAYS OF AMELIA EARHART” MIKE CAMPBELL WITH THOMAS E DEVINE

PG 32. Robert Sosbe, 1st battalion 20th Marines, 4th marine division) Sosbe said he saw the Electra before and during its destruction) “on or about D+5 after our infantry had captured Alsito, the night before, then were driven off, only to capture it again, our Co was called up to fill a gap between our infantry and the 27th Army infantry. The trucks carrying us stopped off the opposite side of the runway from the hangars and tower about 3 to 5 hundred yds. This two engine airplane was pulled from the hangar to off the runway where it was engulfed in flames from one end to the other. I can still remember exactly the way it burned, how the frame and ribs because it was visible. It was about half dark. It burned approximately 15-30 minutes.”

Same page: a letter from Earskine Nabers: “I am seeking Marines who were placed on duty at Aslito to guard a padlocked hangar containing AE’s plane. The hangar was not one of those located along the runway. It was located near what may have been a Japanese administration building, and an unfinished hangar at the tarmac, in the southwest corner of the airfield.

The follow up letter (pg 33)

…”we had to get Col. Clarence R Wallace to sign all the messages that came through the message center.) Hq 8th moved back to bivouac area. I was dropped off at the Hangar for guard duty at the main road that went by west side of hangar. The road that went out to hangar, I was placed on the right side, just as it left the main road….

Pg 34 The best I can recall the plane was pulled on the field by a jeep.. the plane was facing north after the plane was parked and jeep moved. A plane came over real low and on the next pass he strafed the plane and it went up in a huge fireball. (We were sitting on the west side of the airfield about one hundred yards from the plane. We were on higher ground. As far as I remember, the (men) that pulled the plane on the field and us guys from H & S 8th were the only ones there.”

Pg 36 Marine Capt Earl Ford of Fallbrook, CA, artillery master sgt with 2nd Marines. Interview 6-7-88 by Paul Cook. “The aircraft was about 100 yards (from me) maybe less. We all saw it. No way we could miss it. A civilian twin engine. No way it was military. American aircraft in civil registration… some officers were saying it was Amelia’s… it had only two windows on the side, back here.”

Arthur Nash, Air Corps Corps, P47 group on Aslito. Claims he saw the plane on July 4, 1944 (book says 1945, must be a misprint based on following) pg 40:

“After landing on Isley.. at 2:30 pm, Japanese soldiers were running around the airstrip, one killed himself in the cockpit of a P47D with a grenade…” I slept fairly well (in the hangar) and (in the morning) wandered over to a large hole in the hangar wall facing the other hangar. The hangar floor and the area between the hangars was littered with debris, displace with siding from the hangars, maybe 65 yards apart, but close enough to get a good look at a familiar aircraft outside the other hangar. My eyesight was acute and what I saw was Amelia Earhart’s airplane!... the next morning I went over to see it but it was gone.”

Jerrell Chatham, 1st platoon, I company, 3rd regiment, 2nd marine deivions: “I was driving trucks .. on Saipan… when we went ashore I saw the hangar where Amelia Earhart’s plane was stored, I also saw the plane in the air. They told us not to go close to the airplane hangar and we did not…”

Pg 44: Howard Ferris, US Marines: “Sent to Saipan for guard dutey… an old hangar structure at end of a runway. This hangar was not large,.. small trees in front of big doors.. (then he recounts the same Marine argument that Devine and Nabers recount – where some Navy brass attempted to get in, but a Marine (Nabers) refused them entry.)” Howard was not present at the fire, but one of his buddies was. The buddy said a truck arrived with many gas cans and the guards saturated the entire hangar.. and it burned totally.

Pg 50 Robert Sowash, 23rd regiment 4th Marines Division: “I saw a plane in a building that was not a military plane.. I remember other Marines saying it was the same as Earhart’s. Later the place was cordoned off..”

Pete Leblanc, 121st Naval CB’s, 4th Marine division: “some of our guys were sneaking over towards the airfield to try and see (AE’s plane). We heard there were guards there. Then it was burned up later.”

AMELIA EARHART: LOST LEGEND - DONALD MOYER WILSON

Over 200 eyewitnesses as gathered by all the different authors with the various reports of her landing on Mili, being brought to Jaluit and incarcerated in Garapan prison.