FINDING AMELIA

The other day, I was watching the Raider game with my brother-in-law, Abe Martinez, (really good guy) and he told me about a program he watched the night before regarding Amelia Earhart, a famous female pilot, who had supposedly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean during the 1930's and was never found, but according to Abe, the program indicated that she was actually captured by the Japanese army after she had crashed and was executed and buried on a island, which was witnessed by a female islander.  I told him that I thought his story sounded a bit odd since I had not heard anything like that before especially something that would break the infamous myth about Amelia's disappearance, so I informed him that I would do some quick research to confirm that story and this is what I found out:

Amelia Mary Earhart born July 24, 1897-July 2, 1937 (date of her disappearance) an American aviation pioneer was the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic ocean and had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by the U.S. Congress and in 1937 made an attempt to fly around the world with her co-pilot, Fred Noonan, in a Lockheed Model 10 Electra plane, but apparently they mysteriously disappeared by the Howland Islands, which is approximately 1,700 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, which became the most widely accepted explanation proclaimed in national television and in most school history books.

There have been other theories in regards toward the demise of Earhart and Noonan:  The first one was the "Crash and Sink" theory, which supported the original story that Amelia's plane, the Electra, ran out of fuel and crashed into the Atlantic ocean at 10am on July 2, 1937 by the Howland Islands, where several searches were conducted, but were unable to locate any proof of their remains, thus, causing there deaths  to be one of the many greatest mysteries of the 19th century.  The second theory, "The Gardner" theory assumed that Amelia collided near the Gardner islands, which is 350 nautical miles from the islands of Howland, but several searches also ended up with negative results.  Following was the "Japanese Capture" theory which was mentioned in a autobiography written in 1966 by CBS correspondent, Fred Goerner, where Earhart and Noonan were shot down by the Japanese Army over the islands of Saipan and survived the crash, but were eventually captured by the Japanese and subsequently executed.  Earhart's airplane, the Electra, was then scraped into pieces and thrown into the ocean.  In 1993, pilot Henri Keyser-Andre published his autobiography and mentioned while he was in Japan reviving their aviation industry, he had heard rumors of the Japanese Capture theory by several Japanese people.  In 1990, on Unsolved Mysteries, a Saipanese  woman claimed that she had witnessed Earhart and Noonan executed by the Japanese and overheard rumors that they were buried in a grave on the island of Tinian, which is next to Saipan, but in 2004, a scientifically-supported archaeological team dug at the site and failed to turn up any bones.  There were other theories like Amelia acting as a spy for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and that she was one of the propagandists of the "Tokyo Rose" dilemma during World War II then on 2006, a program on the National Geographic Channel indicated that Amelia survived the crash, returned to the states and moved to New Jersey where she changed her name to Irene Craigmile Bolam, a banker in New York during the 1940's.  Craigmile denied the claim and filed a $1.5 million dollar lawsuit for damages.  A professional criminal forensic expert later studied the photographs of both women and cited many measurable facial differences between both of the women.

Well...there you go Abe!  So I guess as it turns out we will never find out what really happened to Amelia and her airplane not unless we can get some more evidence, for instance, find her remains or any traces of her plane, but unfortunately all we have are assumptions and in today's world assumptions are not enough and Emilia's death will still remain as one of the greatest mysteries of the 19th century.  Next question please!