Sunday
Amelia's Patch Found yet not found!
Amelia Earhart on Saipan
Wednesday
A day of remembrance... for Amelia Earhart on July 2, 2014
She disappeared from the newspapers, and from the radar - but not from the planet.
And not from our hearts...
For those who'd like to know "What happened?" you've come to the right place.
She may not have found Howland, but she did find land. In Mili Atoll. (Oliver Knaggs, a South African author went to Mili and interviewed a number of people, including the Queen of Mili. They all said they saw her plane come down and land on the beach.)
She was then arrested by the Japanese. (At the time, the Japanese had mandated these islands, were not supposed to be reinforcing the harbors for war, but they were, in violation of the League of Nations. Be that as it may, they'd beheaded a British couple the year before for spying. So when she showed up, they assumed she was a spy - whether or not she actually was one.)
She and Fred Noonan and the plane were taken to Majuro. (The Electra was put aboard a barge - this report comes from the footage below). She was then taken to Jaluit - where a number of people saw her, including a young doctor's assistant, who was interviewed a number of times. And his business partner vouches for his honesty in the footage below. She was then taken (by ship, possibly to Truk and Kwajalein, I've heard these reports but haven't followed them up yet) to Japan.
Let me say that again: She was taken to Japan.
Japan?
Yes. Japan. Saipan was part of Japanese territory effectively in 1914, and officially in the 1920's. The headquarters for the Japanese Navy was based in Saipan. (It's estimated 30,000 Japanese soldiers died defending Saipan - once the airfield was taken, the US could bomb Tokyo and refuel).
She was seen entering Saipan by Josephine Blanco (in the footage below) arriving at the Seaplane harbor with Fred Noonan. She was taken to a hospital (son of a nurse interviewed below) where her wounds were attended to. She was then put into the jail on Garapan - spent an indeterminate time in a smaller cell (according to an eyewitness who was incarcerated next to her cell, and down the hall from Noonan) and she was then, at some point transported to a larger cell (across from the Commandant's office.) She spent a number of years in that cell.
A number of people saw her in the prison, heard she was in the prison, or saw her plane at Aslito. All are referenced in the footage below
The last verifiable sighting of her was in 1944. She was on the back of a truck being guarded by two soldiers. Two people (eyewitnesses who don't know each other, but both came forward to say they saw her on that same day) in the footage below saw her on that truck in late May or early June of 1944. As one of the eyewitnesses said "I was 12 years old. I have never seen a caucasian woman in my life. And here was one wearing man's clothes, her hands tied, with two soldiers guarding her with guns. It's not something you'd ever forget." (His brother was an eyewitness as well, and still lives on Saipan).
According to a woman who lives near the jail, her Japanese grandfather told her that the "american female pilot was beheaded and cremated." An interview with that woman is in the footage below and a visit to the crematorium.
Her plane was found on Aslito airfield on June 19th, 1944.
How do I know that date? Because the man who decoded the message (footage below) remembered the date, and it matches when they took the airfield. Her plane was in a hangar. It was seen by numerous GI's (12 so far and counting) and it was then flown "around the field" - witnessed by a number of GI's. The plane was destroyed by US forces (for unknown reasons) a few weeks later - and the man who decoded that order is in the footage below.
He's a US Marine. So are many other eyewitnesses. You think the Marines would make this up? I suggest walking up to any Marine and suggesting the same to their face. Not very likely.
Her body was obviously never recovered, but her briefcase, maps and passport was. The Marine who found those objects is also in the footage below. It was turned over to the proper authorities. Who have kept this story a secret for all these years. Why? I don't know. But I don't particularly care - I'm not interested in their mistakes, or their cover up, or their reasons for keeping this woman's death an enduring mystery. I'm just interested in what happened.
So it's wonderful to honor the memory of Amelia Earhart. But it's really about time to honor her memory with the truth.
The truth, you see, is the thing that's supposed to set us free. It's in the good book. It's also carved into the wall of the CIA. So, hey, how about a little truth?
In honor of Amelia Earhart and her sacrifice for this country (it appears the only reason she was executed because she was an American and the US was on their way to liberate Saipan), I salute her and present this information to everyone to see for themselves.
EYEWITNESS REPORTS
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.