The Search continues....

Now that we're back Stateside, sifting through our copious notes and footage, a few tidbits have come to light.

Veteran Andrew Bryce met a Stevedore in Majuro who put the plane on the Kyoshu

Bilimon Amaron, the native of Jaluit who went aboard a Japanese ship to tend to Earhart's wounds - went on to become business partners with Jerry Kramer, the President of PII construction in Majuro, who has been doing business in that part of the world since 1961. He vouches for Amaron's veracity, and how he came to hear the many stories about Earhart's incarceration on Saipan and her subsequent execution there.

The ship that Bilimon Amaron went aboard to see Earhart and Noonan

Our interview with Major Rick Spooner, USMC retired, gives us a few tidbits as well.  He was there when Marines found a photo album in a military home on Saipan, and how his fellow Marines described it as a book filled with photos of Earhart and Noonan and other "white people."  He believes the book came from the Electra.  He also observed that the book was taken by Wallace Green, USMC, who turned it over to military intelligence.  This is a major revelation, as when Green became Commandant of the Marine Corps in the 1960's, and was asked about any information about Earhart being on Saipan, he was adamant that he knew nothing about her presence there.

Doug Bryce was stationed on Saipan, saw the Electra on Aslito 

Another piece of history - Spooner says that his troop of "about 100" had "returned to civilization" at Tanapag Harbor, where the Seaplane base was, and where all the materiel for the war effort was being loaded and offloaded.  He said the Marines had their C rations, and later that night said to him "Did you see the Electra?"  Major Spooner did not see it - but they described seeing it to him, amidst other airplane parts and pieces. They were adamant that it was Earhart's Electra.

Nabers guarded the Electra for 24 hours, then watched it burn

These Marines with Major Spooner saw the plane, or pieces of it at Tanapag Harbor, where they heard the airplane parts were destined to be "buried at sea" - If this occurred when Major Spooner says, in July of 44, that would have been just prior to the plane being buried.  It's possible that even after it was burned at Aslito field (witnessed by numerous soldiers, as reported here), it survived that torching (enough to be recognizable to battle weary troops) and was then deep sixed off the harbor.

Found Earhart's briefcase in a safe near the church

In the footage we have from the public talk at American Memorial Park, David Sablan mentions a phone call he had received the day previously from a Mr. Guerrero, who told him the story of when the Army Corps of Engineers was dredging Saipan Harbor (during the controversial dredging near the Sugar Dock as reported in the Saipan Tribune) one of the men, a "Mr. Mayer" claims that he pulled up from the harbor a wing of the Electra.

Oscar remembered his father saying they'd captured an
"American female pilot" and brought her to Jaluit in 1937

We are currently trying to locate Mr. Mayer - and appreciate any leads that anyone might have to do so.

He either served in Guam with the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1990's, and ultimately would have been under the Pacific Command in Hawaii.  The dredging began in the 1994 and continued for 6 years until the year 2000. His name may have been Mayer, or perhaps Meyer, or even Myers.

But one wonders what happened to the piece of an airplane he pulled up.  Where did it go?

Lotan Jack remembered a claim they'd shot her down.

All along this journey, we have stood by our maxim; if one person claims that they saw something, we look for a second person who may have seen or heard the same information.  That's how we have learned that the Electra came down at Mili, was taken to Jaluit, eventually to Saipan.  That Amelia and Fred were incarcerated, and Fred executed early on.  How Amelia was in a prison for up to 7 years, how more than one Chomorro saw her in prison, saw her transported on the back of a truck with two other downed US Pilots, and saw her, or heard of her execution.

Manny Muna tells the story of Jesus Salas, who was incarcerated between AE and Fred Noonan

And how the Electra was found at Aslito airfield, and was burned there by US Forces.  But now we are hearing for the first time that it may have then made a trip to the seaplane base near Tanapag harbor, Ponte Mucho, and may have been pushed into the ocean there.

Ms. Blas tells the story of seeing AE executed

We will continue to hunt for the truth no matter where it takes us.

Aslito when it was liberated in June 1944

Tanapag Harbor, where the plane may have ended up

  Thanks for staying tuned....