By MALUM NALU
I was pleasantly surprised to receive an
email recently from Douglas Westfall, a book publisher in
Southern California, USA, regarding a new book about the
hunt for famed American aviatrix Amelia Earhart.
Apparently, Westfall caught my January 2007 piece on the
Earhart saga in The National, and saved it until he got in
touch with me and sent me an electronic version of the new
book (e-book).
The year 2007 also marks the 70th anniversary of one of the
greatest unsolved aviation mysteries of all time.
The mystery – that of the disappearance of Earhart and her
navigator Fred Noonan – intimately involves Papua New Guinea
as Lae was her last port of call before she disappeared
somewhere over the vast Pacific Ocean.
Amelia Earhart, darling of American aviation, went missing
in July 1937, after leaving Lae for the longest stretch of
her around-the-world flight.
The mystery and a long fruitless search – costing many
millions of US dollars - had begun.
Today, 70 years after her final takeoff from Lae, the
mystery is still to be solved.
Old Lae residents used to recall entertaining the couple in
the Hotel Cecil the night before their departure, and then
seeing them off the next morning.
Their Lockheed Electra was so overloaded with its eight
tonnes of fuel that it was still barely clearing the waves
as it disappeared from sight, flying east along the Huon
Gulf coast on its way to Howland Island, 4600km to the
north.
Today, a plaque to her memory stands at the Amelia Earhart
Park, opposite the famous old Lae airport.
Up the hill from the park, at the Melanesian Hotel, the bar
is named Amelia’s after this great woman.
The just-released new book authored by Westfall, The Hunt
for Amelia Earhart, tells the story of the 16 days following
Earhart’s disappearance.
The US Coast Guard with the US Navy and nine ships, 66
aircraft, and some 3,000 men searched over a quarter of a
million miles for the Electra and survivors. The book
contains seven first person accounts.
It has a man from most of the ships including a Navy man on
the deck of the USS Lexington aircraft carrier (still alive)
and an airman (also still alive) from the USS Colorado.
They all give such great detail within their account of the
search.
The book has 260 illustrations including 160 photographs
over - 100 unpublished - plus the diary of Associated Press
reporter onboard ship James Carey.
The book has four hooks. 1) It's a first person account
piece, with unpublished diaries, interviews, and memoirs.
There are seven first person accounts in the book, from the
young men who were on the Earhart Search, three of whom are
alive and the rest have family who can be contacted for
interview purposes.
One of these young men was James Carey.
He was a student at the University of Hawaii, who was
working at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and was a
representative for the Associated Press.
His complete diary, photographs, and letters are included
within the book including: a letter to Carey from AP’s Clark
Lee, and a letter to Fred Noonan from AP’s Russell Brines.
Other than some web access, none of these materials have
been published before. 2) It's a hero piece, what the boys
did for Amelia.
“And I have seven of the boys; it's a real flag waver,”
Westfall boasts.
Nine ships, 66 aircraft, and 3,000 US Navy and US Coast
Guard men searched 260,000 square miles of open sea plus 24
islands within a 600 mile range of Earhart's target: Howland
Island.
The book contains the accounts of sailors and flyers who in
their early 20s were risking their lives on the Earhart
Search.
“Two of these boys are still alive and can be contacted,”
Westfall says. 3) It's a new theory piece, different than
the two primary theories. * The splash-and-sank theory of
Nauticos who have spent some US$3 million on three ventures
to search for Earhart's plane at the bottom of the Pacific
at 18,000 feet.
The book has the Lockheed man who built the aircraft, who is
still alive, and can be contacted in Southern California.
* The crash-landing theory of TIGHAR who have spent somewhat
less on five trips to search for Earhart on Nikumaroro
(Gardner) Island.
The book has the Navy flyer that flew over Gardner on the
Earhart Search, who is still alive, and can be contacted in
Utah.
4) It's a history piece, the story never told, with
unpublished photos, charts, and maps.
A surprise ending where the Japanese officially tell
Washington DC that they are out looking for Earhart, but
never report back.
Two days after they would have picked her out of the sea,
they attacked Beijing, China, on July 7, 1937, the start of
the Pacific War.
Four-and-a-half years later on December 8, 1941, one day
after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor; they bombed
Howland Island - some 1900 miles southwest of Hawaii.
There were only a few shacks, four boys, and a three-tube
radio on the essentially deserted island at the time.
The Japanese had investigated the island, six months before
Earhart was to arrive.
The Hunt for Amelia Earhart. By Douglas Westfall. The
Paragon Agency Publishers, 2007. 262 pages. ISBN
1-891030-24-8. Email: Paragona@Pacbell.net . Website:
http://www.specialbooks.com/.
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