In the first flight of its kind, American aviatrix Amelia Earhart departs Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a solo flight to the North American mainland 88 years ago on January 11, 1935. Hawaiian commercial interests offered a $10,000 award to whoever accomplished the flight first. The next day, after traveling 2,400 miles in 18 hours, she safely landed at Oakland Airport in Oakland, California.
Two years after her Hawaii to California flight, she attempted with navigator Frederick J. Noonan to fly around the world, but contact with her plane was lost on July 2, 1937, somewhere between New Guinea and Howland Island in the South Pacific. Radio operators picked up a signal that she was low on fuel.
As many readers of this blog have seen here previously, ALL evidence points to Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan being captured and taken to the Pacific island of Saipan where they were eventually executed and buried in shallow graves there. For more information on this famous aviatrix and navigator, click on the excellent web log at Mike Campbell’s Earhart Truth web log and his third published book on the subject at: Amelia Earhart: The Truth At Last.
Today is a significant anniversary in American flight history. “Eighty-five years ago today on July 2, 1937, the Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan left Lae, New Guinea. The pair were attempting to fly around the world when they lost their bearings during the most challenging leg of the global journey: Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, a tiny island 2,227 nautical miles away, in the center of the Pacific Ocean.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was in sporadic radio contact with Earhart as she approached Howland Island and received messages that she was lost and running low on fuel.” (The History Channel)
Throughout the almost one century since Amelia and Fred were declared lost, various hypotheses have been offered, most of them eventually proven as either false or unlikely.
The most likely answer to the flight is offered up by Mike Campbell, a world-renowned Earhart researcher and expert. His three books on her last flight all detail her ditching her Lockheed Electra 10E airplane in the Marshall Islands near the Mili Atoll, where she was captured by the Japanese and taken to the island of Saipan.
More than 100 eyewitnesses….
More than 100 eyewitnesses, including US Army and Marine Corps military members and many Saipan natives, have detailed Amelia and Fred’s imprisonment in Garapan Jail on Saipan and their subsequent execution by beheading by Japanese soldiers. Her aircraft, which was seen by Soldiers and Marines on Saipan, some of whom eventually rose in the ranks to General, was eventually burned and it and Amelia and Fred were buried under what is now a large airport tarmac there.
The conclusion to their flight was even revealed to a world-famous CBS reporter, Fred Goerner, by no less than US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. The cover-up of her final flight by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the US Government is greatly detailed in Mike’s blog and books.
For much more on the final flight of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan that began eighty-five years ago today, see Mike Campbell’s web blog:earharttruth.wordpress.com and his excellent most recent book, Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last. That book is more than 400-pages long with hundreds of footnotes, photographs, and eyewitness accounts to the end of this daring pair of aviators.
On May 21, 1932, 90 years ago today, famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make a solo, nonstop transatlantic flight. Amelia Earhart flew across the Atlantic Ocean, landing her plane in Ireland after leaving Newfoundland just 15 hours earlier. She flew more than 2,000 miles on her flight, landing on the fifth anniversary of the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight made by Charles Lindberg on May 21, 1927.
Amelia had previously crossed the Atlantic Ocean as a member of a three-person crew. As the first woman to fly across the Atlantic with that crew in 1928, her main function was to keep the plane’s log. That flight earned Amelia national fame. Americans were enamored by the daring young woman’s crossing.
For her intrepid solo transatlantic flight on May 21, 1932, the US Congress awarded Amelia the Distinguished Flying Cross.
“…soloed again from…Hawaii to…California.”
Three years later in 1935, Amelia soloed again from Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California. That flight earned her a $10,000 prize awarded by Hawaiian businessmen.
Two years later in July, 1937, in an attempt to fly around the world, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan, disappeared on the transpacific leg of the flight from Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island. A complete account of her attempt and what really happened to end her flight can be found in Mike Campbell’s amazingly comprehensive book, Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last. Mike’s book, with more than 400 pages and hundreds of footnotes, details specific eyewitness accounts of Amelia and Fred’s capture by the Japanese, their imprisonment on Saipan, their subsequent execution there, and the coverup of their execution by the US Government. The book is readily available from Amazon and is now in its Second Printing.
I also highly recommend Mike’s Weblog: https://earharttruth.wordpress.com/. Mike Campbell has more than 30 years of experience researching this First Lady of Flight and is an acknowledged expert on Amelia Earhart. Several times a week, Mike covers contemporary events concerning Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan and those who knew them, as well as precise eyewitness accounts of her flight and death in 1937 in his Weblog.
Guinea Airways employee Alan Board is credited with this photo of the Electra just before leaving the ground on its takeoff from Lae, New Guinea on the morning of July 2, 1937. This is the last known photo of the Earhart Electra.
Amelia Earhart in front of her Lockeed 10-E Electra (NR 16020).
Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan.
Amelia Earhart in a colorized photo as she is pictured on the cover of Mike Campbell’s book: “Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last.”
by HB Auld, Jr., and Mike Campbell
Today is the 84th anniversary of the disappearance of famed American aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan. On July 2, 1937, Amelia and Fred took off from Lae, New Guinea, on one of the last legs on their around-the-world flight. Their destination was Howland Island, a tiny speck of land in the Pacific Ocean. From there, the final jump was to be to Hawaii and then on to the California mainland.
Mike Campbell, renown author of three books on the Earhart disappearance, takes up the narrative of the disappearance of Amelia and Fred and her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra (NR 16020):
“July is Amelia Earhart’s month, for those of us who still honor the memory of this great American, and we don’t forget Fred Noonan, Amelia’s intrepid navigator whose sad destiny was inextricably bound to her own.
“Today, July 2, is the 84th anniversary of Earhart and Noonan’s fateful takeoff from Lae, New Guinea in 1937, officially bound for Howland Island, 2,556 miles distant, a tiny speck in the Pacific, never flown before and the most difficult leg of their world-flight attempt. What happened that compelled the fliers to land their Electra 10E off Barre Island at Mili Atoll, about 850 miles to the north-northwest, twenty-some hours later, remains the true mystery in the Earhart disappearance. All else is smoke, mirrors and endless lies.
“No missing-persons case has ever been as misreported and misunderstood.”
— Mike campbell
“No missing-persons case has ever been as misreported and misunderstood. As I’ve said and written countless times,the widely accepted canard that the Earhart disappearance remains among the 20th century’s “greatest mysteries” is a vile, abject lie, the result of eight decades of government-media propaganda aimed at perpetuating public ignorance about the fliers’ wretched ends at the hands of the pre-war Japanese military on Saipan. Considering the lengths to which the U.S. government has gone to obscure, cover-up and deny the truth, it appears this state of affairs will persist until the Last Day. At that time, many will have much to answer for.
“As for any Earhart news, this year is among the quietest in memory — virtually nothing is happening, at least to my knowledge. A pair of pathetic cranks are claiming they’ve found the Earhart plane just off Nikumaroro and have even started a website with strange, inscrutable photos and nonsensical gibberish.
“No one in the mainstream media — or anywhere else — has paid a gnat’s worth of attention to the latest crap, and I won’t dignify this absurd, backhanded swipe at TIGHAR’s 30-plus years of propagandizing and fruitless searching off and on Nikumaroro by linking it here. You certainly don’t need to know about it, but if you insist, you can search under “Road to Amelia Earhart” and you’ll find it unless it’s already been circular filed under “lies no one will believe.” I only mention it because things are so currently comatose in Earhartland, and this latest is more proof that nature abhors a vacuum.
“The below cartoon from the Kansas City Star goes back to early 1994, but its misplaced humor perfectly captures the zeitgeist that’s always defined the Earhart matter. Far from being one of history’s “most perplexing questions,” as an angel explains to a newly arrived soul, the truth about the loss of Amelia Earhart is well-known and one of the most precious sacred cows in the corrupt archives of the U.S. national security apparatus.
“On a rare positive note, Polish author and publisher Sławomir M. Kozak recently informed me about his forthcoming book, Requiem for Amelia Earhart, which will introduce the Polish people to the truth about the Earhart disappearance. Requiem is scheduled for publication on Sept. 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of possibly America’s greatest betrayal, another sacred cow whose truth has eluded as many Americans as the Earhart cover-up, and another subject that the erudite Slawomir has studied closely. His website is www.oficyna-aurora.pl.
On July 24, Marie Castro and the Amelia Earhart Memorial Monument Inc. (AEMMI) will get together on Saipan to celebrate Amelia’s 124th Birthday, and I’ll have photos and comments when that time rolls around.“
Today marks the 83rd anniversary of the disappearance of the late famed aviatrix, Amelia Earhart.
Amelia Earhart had already flown solo across the Atlantic Ocean as the first female to do so in 1932. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, then set out in 1937 to fly around the world, island-hopping into the history books. They were near the end of their journey when they took off on July 2, 1937, from Lae, New Guinea. Their intended next stop on their around-the-world flights was Howland Island in the Pacific. From there it would be on to Hawaii and then the United States where they began their eastward trip. They never made it to Howland Island, although their radio transmisions were heard on board the USCG Cutter ITASCA, listening for them at Howland Island.
What REALLY happened to Earhart, Noonan, and their Lockheed Electra 10E aircraft, NR 16020, has been the subject of hundreds of books and sheer speculation since they flew into history and disappeared over the Pacific.
In my opinion, the very best book on Amelia Earhart’s final flight is Amelia Earhart: The Truth At Last, written by former Navy Journalist and Air Force Civilian writer Mike Campbell. Mike is the author of three books on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. He is a member of Amelia Earhart associations and has spoken to aviation groups throughout the US, including “The 99s,” an association of female pilots founded by Amelia Earhart herself. His most recent book, Amelia Earhart: The Truth At Last (Second Edition) is consistently among the top five of more than 1,000 books on Amelia Earhart on Amazon each month.
I first met Mike in the mid-1980s when he was a JO2 (Navy Journalist Second Class), assigned to a national Navy news service in Washington, DC. Later, we worked together as Writer/Editors at Naval Recruiting Command in DC. We have been great friends for more than 30 years. In 1988, Mike was assigned to write a feature on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart for the Navy news service. His exhaustive investigation of that subject for his article introduced him to the late Thomas E. Devine, a former Army Postal Clerk who had served on Saipan in World War II.
Devine was convinced that Earhart crashed in the Marshall Islands in 1937 on her way to Howland. She and Noonan were subsequently captured by the Japanese and transferred to Saipan where she was imprisoned at Garapan Prison and later executed and buried on Saipan. Devine had interviewed countless Saipanese who were live eyewitnesses to Earhart and Noonan’s capture and execution there. Out of that friendship grew Mike and Thomas E. Devine’s first co-authorship of the book, With Our Own Eyes, (Eyewitnesses to the final days of Amelia Earhart). With that friendship, Mike was hooked and has spent the past 32 years continuing Devine and his quest to prove what really happened to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.
In the now Second Edition of his more than 450-page Amelia Earhart book, Mike delves into the detailed eyewitness accounts and interviews with others notables. He digs into famed radio investigative journalist Fred Goerner’s book, The Search for Amelia Earhart, which quotes interviews with three US military flag officers, including Fleet Admiral Chester A. Nimitz, and a US Marine Corps Commandant. Mike’s book contains hundreds of footnotes, several Appendices of declassified naval messages, a complete Bibliography, and a detailed Index. In short, this is NOT a rip-snorting, thrill-a-minute, action-packed account of an exciting flight, but a well-researched, historical scholarly narrative of what really happened on the flight. Along the way, Mike debunks the other myths and legends out there about the aviators disappearance, including the “crash and burn” in the ocean, the “captured as a spy and flown to the Japan mainland where she was eventually released and lived out her life in obscurity in New Jersey” theory, and the well-publicized trips by an aviation group who makes annual excursions to another Pacific Island, searching for non-existent artifacts in the wrong place.
l highly recommend Mike’s book, Amelia Earhart: The Truth At Last, (Second Edition) available from Amazon. It is the definitive work on what really happened to this famous aviation pioneer and her navigator who flew into history 83 years ago today.
hbauld's Weblog 