Amelia Earhart's Grave Found?

www.rense.com...
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I've listed two links to an exclusive story from Rense.com about the possibility of the gravesites for Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan having been discovered on Tinian, a small island near Guam. I know many individuals here read the stories there but I found this one worth sharing as it truly does not seem to be covered anywhere else yet.

According to the pieces, an 82 year-old WWII veteran named John Naftel was shown the gravesites back in 1944 while stationed on the island with the Marines. The two articles don't really seem to go into any detail about who showed him the sites and how they might have known it was of Earhart and Noonan. However, when a friend of Naftel's wrote a letter to the Governor of Guam mentioning Naftel's experience, a call was made to a local radio station in Guam and from there several individuals connected with one another to form an expedition to the island and the sites.

Though the expeditionary team was put together last year, the spot believed to be the sites Naftel was shown was not discovered until very recently as the road off which the sites are located was only found on a very old map it seems almost as if by luck. The exciting part is that digging will begin at the sites tomorrow, Friday. According to the second article, if any remains are discovered though, it could take about two weeks or so before they could be matched to DNA from Earhart or Noonan.

I think it would be exciting to see if this could be the answer to this mystery. I'm also curious as to why this might have been kept secret if someone did know they were buried there. I would think they'd want everyone to know since this is/was such a well known event. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that there was a Japanese internment camp on the island at the time as the articles mentioned. Anyway, I certainly thought the pieces were worth sharing with everyone here.

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[edit on 04/11/11 by GradyPhilpott]

Interesting, but doesn't really mean much at this point - just curiosity about what happened.

I've been to Tinian and many other Islands in the area. Kind of one of those Blue Lagoon type of places and the water in the ocean is bathtub warm. Except for the nasty tropical storms probably not a bad place to live/die.

Without wanting to sound really stupid who is Amelia Earhart

You have got to be kidding me ? who is Amielia earhart.
she was the first woman who crossed the alantic ocean in a plane and was rummered to be a spy for the US during the war who mistersly disipered on her flyght never to be heard from again .
This is right up there with finding the titanic.

Originally posted by Stuey1221
Without wanting to sound really stupid who is Amelia Earhart

There are no stupid questions, Stuey; try this site for a quick history lesson.

Tinian is also the site from which the Enola Gay and Bock's Car took off on their historic flights.

I was on Tinian in 1994 with the US Marines for training. The US still leases the northen end of the island where the old B-29 runways are. Coincidentally, a local excavating some ground came across a buried old Marine Corps amphibious vehicle and asked us to check it out. We brought in an archeologist from Guam and another government official to look for possible MIA remains. They didn't find any, but when I was with them I did a story on the situation. The official said that people have been on Tinian for about 10,000 years so there are lots of remains around.

Well, here's the latest update from Rense.com about the first day of digging at the sight.

www.rense.com...

Taibunsuu - When you were stationed on the island, did you ever hear anything about the remains of Earhart and Noonan possibly being buried there?

I have to say that even for this being an "exclusive" to Rense, I would tend to think that other media outlets would have heard about this dig by now which makes me think of Grady's initial response about reading all of this with caution. Has anyone heard anything about this dig or even the idea that Earhart and Noonan might be buried there? I honestly don't know who the author is either so for all I know this could just be a very imaginative piece of fiction. I'm just not sure what one would gain by making the whole thing up other than to draw attention to themselves but I suppose anything is possible.

Well anyway, I will keep an open mind and continue to check other media about this story as time goes on. It would be sad to think someone went out of there way to contrive such a scenario.

Originally posted by trek315

www.rense.com...

Taibunsuu - When you were stationed on the island, did you ever hear anything about the remains of Earhart and Noonan possibly being buried there?

Didn't hear a thing and talked to a lot of locals. What happened is that the island came under the jurisdiction of the Japanese in the 20s. Then Saipan was invaded by the Marines, and then the Marines shelled the crap out of Tinian from Saipan and did a land-to-land amphibious invasion (only Marine one of the war). When Tinian was secured all the locals were moved off the island and it was made into a permanent aircraft carrier for B-29s ala Diego Garcia these days. Locals were moved back after the war and could buy US vehicles left there by the hundreds for $1 each. There's about 5,000 people (I think) on the island. The locals are called Chomorrans.

Tinian is not a triple-canopy jungle place with and in the days when she disappeared there was a strong 'civilized' presence on the island, completely Japanese controlled. At the time it was largely cane fields and low forest. The island is largely flat with no impassable places. If Earhart had landed there the Japanese would definitely have known.

[edit on 12-11-2004 by taibunsuu]

Thanks for the response Taibunsuu. Intriquing forum name by the way - I like it. Well, at the very least, it sounds like Tinian has quite an interesting history as well as you having had quite an interesting career or at least tour of duty. However, I take it from what you have written about the article that it sounds as though you do not feel the pieces at Rense are accurately describing Tinian thereby bringing them further into question. Am I correct about that?

As to the island itself, I find it amazing that they actually "moved off" the people who were already there but then you read my mind as I was typing this and answered that question for me when you edited your post - lol. As for it having been under Japanese control at the time of Earhart's disappearance, I seem to faintly recall rumors springing up along with the rumors of her having been a US spy that she might have crashed and fallen into the hands of the Japanese as a POW of sorts. Do you remember hearing/reading about anything like that?

Thanks again for your responses as I find myself now suddenly interested in this little place's history regardless of the authenticity of the Rense pieces.

Well Earheart as a spy is really common rumor I'm sure you can google more info than I can type. They kind of romanticize Tinian with the 'deep overgrown jungle' stuff. I mean, it's subtropical forest. It grows all year. lol. But I wish them good luck. There's a lot of WW2 junk left on the island. When I was there in '94 the locals had us dispose of dozens of 5" shells they plowed up in their fields. Most of those Pacific islands where big fights happened are still littered with war artifacts. I wish them good luck but won't hold my breath.

Originally posted by sandge

Originally posted by Stuey1221
Without wanting to sound really stupid who is Amelia Earhart

There are no stupid questions, Stuey; try this site for a quick history lesson.

Just stupid people and thanks for the link lol

Since I started this thread, I thought it only appropriate I continue to update it. Therefore, here are two more updates from Rense from the second day of the dig.

www.rense.com...

www.rense.com...

This time though I did a little more digging on the pieces' author. An internet search shows her to be a freelancer who regularly submits articles on various issues including remote viewing and other topics. There appear to be some claims that she exaggerates information contained in her articles but I found nothing to really discredit her.

More substantially, I found an article from another source, the Pacific Daily News, written by a different person which corroborates the Tinian Expedition. This may be the article referred to in the more recent Rense pieces. Below is the link for this.

www.guampdn.com...

When reading this article, it does appear that the author of the Rense pieces is putting more stock in the remains of Earhart and Noonan being discovered on Tinian than the actual members of the expedition themselves are putting on that possibility. This is evidenced by the fact that the independent article indicates that the remains are favored to actually be on another island altogether but that the group does not want to leave any stone unturned (quite literally it would seem).

In summation then, it appears their remains are not likely to be discovered on Tinian but it certainly keeps a more than 60 year old mystery fresh in the minds of those who still wonder about the fate of the aviator and her navigator.

Originally posted by Stuey1221
Just stupid people

and thanks for the link lol

Hey! Be easy on yourself! The only stupid question there is, is the question that is never asked!

Stupid people never ask questions because of their pride!

Just think if you never asked who Amelia Earhart is. You would have never known if you never asked, so now you know.

IMO, not stupid.

[edit on 14/11/04 by Intelearthling]

Update to Dig Day 3 from Rense is listed below.

www.rense.com...

Interestingly, this piece makes no mention of the bones supposedly found yesterday and, once again, reads as if it is just a matter of time before Earhart's and Noonan's remains are found. It would seem to me that the expedition is still far short of that goal although they supposedly enjoyed something akin to a Tinian luau of sorts with over 200 of the natives. Additionally, a couple of the major archaelogists as well as the students assisting in the dig have returned home to resume teaching and attending classes.

I am also including a link to the expedition's website which was listed in the most recent Rense article.

www.historicalexpeditions.org..../Pages/Frameset.htm

Apparently, the author of the Rense pieces is a "point of contact" for the expedition according to their website. That being the case, though she seems to be regularly e-mailing Rense about the daily activity at the dig site, she is not updating their website with that information. There are, however, links to some other news pieces from media sources in the area near the island.

At this point, I think I will only continue to post information if something new developes from what I read about at Rense or other sources. Once I find out that the expedition has concluded then I'll post again with a summary.