Tuesday

SHE WAS NEVER LOST: THE AMELIA EARHART SAGA - a six minute clip of footage from Aslito field June 18, 1944

 



People have been posting comments on the YouTube page where this resides:


3 days ago
"This is a" Six minute advertisement for a book. The "photographic evidence" is a blurred, shadowy picture of something under a tarp.

My reply:

AMELIA EARHART'S PLANE FOUND ON SAIPAN IN 1944 BY US MARINES. PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF THE PLANE

Wow. Jaded much are we? The book has four decades of research, interviews, transcripts from the Marines who found the plane.  I can't post all of that in a single clip.  So the clip points to the book. The photo itself is not proof, the photo is from the US Marines footage (easy to find on YouTube) from June 18, 1944, the day before the plane was found by US Marines.  (and reported in the book as such).  the idea that the photo is going to prove something is silly - what the footage proves is that there were only two hangars standing on Aslito when the footage was taken. And only one had planes in it. So when the Marines were ordered to guard it the following day - there was only ONE HANGAR THAT HAD PLANES IN IT. And as the book notes a dozen Marines, GI's, vets saw it in the only hangar on the field.  It's inference. If one actually reads the book SHE WAS NEVER LOST they'll see that I was as shocked as anyone to realize there was already footage of the plane in that hangar that they guarded.



If Amelia was never lost… why didn’t she return to the United States?

My reply:

AMELIA EARHART'S PLANE FOUND ON SAIPAN IN 1944 BY US MARINES. PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF THE PLANE

Because no one knew where to look for her. (or the ones who knew where she was couldn't reveal that as it would prove they'd broken the Japanese naval code). She was alive up until 1944. She knew where she was. The people who did her laundry, who guarded her, who escorted her around the island, who put her in a cell next to people who later reported seeing her - she knew where she was. It's these ridiculous people who dismiss what islanders say, who dismiss what the Marines have said, who dismiss the eyewitness reports - they're just like the military brass who decided to bury the story because it was inconvenient in the middle of a war. Today I was on a podcast and the podcaster asked "so why didn they not report finding her plane?" I replied, "Ask yourself why Churchill didn't save innocent Brits when he knew that the V2 bombs were on their way to kill them."  He did so because in the middle of the war - even though the Enigma machine's code had been broken - if he saved those innocent lives, it would have revealed they'd broken their codes.  And the US had broken their Navy codes in the early 1930's but no one was talking about it.  The answer is; she was expendable when they knew she was on Saipan.  She knew where she was, and knew she wasn't coming back. And if you read the book, she says so IN HER OWN WORDS. She landed the Electra on a coral reef, was arrested, and put in prison for the next 7 years of her life.  None of that was a mystery to her.


And right here on the same page as the video, 7 more videos saying things like "The Search is over" about her plane being found elsewhere, a couple showing pictures of "the plane" in 2 different places, both under water and "just been discovered".  They are all certain and positive they have solved the riddle.  Yours is just one of many, and probably all are wrong.  Your pix of her plane in the corner reminds me of the picture of the shooter on the grassy knoll in Dallas.....all imagination, seeing things in something that is just a blur and nothing more.

my reply:

AMELIA EARHART'S PLANE FOUND ON SAIPAN IN 1944 BY US MARINES. PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF THE PLANE

I understand the dismay, disbelief and general arguments. All I can say is that I worked on both feature films about her (Keaton and Swank) have been to Saipan, have filmed 15 new eyewitnesses, have gathered over 200 island witnesses, have filmed half a dozen GI's including the Marine who decoded that message that said they'd found the plane and then guarded it "in a hangar." Only one hangar had planes in it - clearly in the footage. So I appreciate "my pictures" comment - but they aren't "my pictures" - it's 16mm footage taken on June 18th, 1944. And when I went to Baldwyn Mississippi to interview Marine Nabers, he said "he remembered it as if it were yesterday "June 19, 1944."  He decoded that message - and then I've interviewed another five who saw it "in a hangar" and then have gathered dozens of GI's who "heard they'd found it on the field." It takes a certain amount of spirited denial to argue with Marines who found her briefcase, passport, maps, found a photo album with photos taken during the Last Flight, found the plane in a hangar, watched it test flown and then destroyed.. this photo is from that footage, and points to the data, the research, the data, the testimonies in the book SHE WAS NEVER LOST: THE AMELIA EARHART SAGA.  Read it, don't read it - I don't care to argue something that's moot.  Silly actually. but thanks for weighing in so I could repeat this comment ad nauseum.

Comment:

When I read Mr Nabers's name, along with Colonel Wallace's - I just about jumped out of my chair!  This was my father's regiment, the 8th.  He was in communications detail, a radio man & radio repairman, in Weapons Company, 8th regiment, 2nd Marine Division.  I had corresponded with Mr Nabers many years ago (sometime in the 90s) - at that time I believe he was the president of the Mississippi chapter of the 2nd Marine Div Association.  My father passed in '81 - but had I known about the possibility of Earhart's plane being there, I'd have surely asked him about it, along with many other details of their time in the Marianas, and Tarawa before that -  that I have since learned much more about.  He once mentioned being at a hangar and finding crates of unassembled Zeros, which were confiscated of course. Also, there are numerous eyewitness accounts by elders of Saipan about "the lady pilot".   We may never know exactly what happened to her and Mr. Noonan.

My reply:

AMELIA EARHART'S PLANE FOUND ON SAIPAN IN 1944 BY US MARINES. PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF THE PLANE

Thanks for weighing in... yes, I nearly jumped out of my chair when he said "I remember it as if it were yesterday" over the phone. I said "hold that thought" and flew to interview him in Baldwyn Mississippi. Everything he told me is corroborated by other marines or vets (Tom Devine, Doug Bryce, etc) In the book SHE WAS NEVER LOST there are numerous excerpts of interviews with GI's saying the same things (some from Devine's book, some from my footage).  It's moot.  The point is - over 200 people saw her on Saipan, and their stories have been gathered.Most were islanders, but some were soldiers.  So yes, I've heard a lot about Lt. Col Clarence Wallace  - as Julious called him "a bird colonel who didn't suffer fools lightly." My favorite quote of his is when an Army press officer asked to take his picture he said flatly "no." The officer insisted two more times, "it's good for morale" and Wallace turned to him and said "if you take my picture I will shoot you dead."  The fuller interview with EJ is in the book, and the documentary about "Earhart's Electra" that I did back in 2012 has most of that footage.  Thanks for weighing in.  (Fred was executed - either for throwing soup at a soldier, or for admitting being a spy. Either way multiple reports say it was a beheading - which was reserved for soldiers to give them a "quick return to Tushita heaven."  So if the multiple reports are accurate about the beheading it's likely because of the idea that he saved Amelia by saying he was the spy.  She was seen on the island as late as the spring of 1944.


READ THE BOOK


On the side of this page are longer interviews with EJ Nabers, Tom Devine, Robert Wallack, etc.




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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.