I'LL FIND AMELIA EARHART

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200480016-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 1999
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: January 1, 1964
• Content Type: OPEN

Sanitized - Approved
 TOP LEFTS WorGerif izedas- proved*orvReteeseiitCYVA-RE)P75-00149 R000200480416-4.
41 19
American woman flyer was
grave believed to have been burial site nesses say
of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. held by Japanese on Saipan before the
Teeth and pieces of skulls were found,`+' war. Reports generally agree that she
but identification was inconclusive. 1 died or was executed by her captors. y
 PYRGHT
"I'LL FIND AMELIA EARHART!". /CONTINUED
F ind Amelia Earhart? What are you-some kind of nut?"
That was the standard reaction 1 got in early 1960,
when T first began to probe the morass of rumor and con-
jecture spawned by the disappearance of the world-famous
woman flyer, Amelia Earhart, and her navigator, Frederick
Noonan, in 1937, on a flight from Miami to Africa. Three
years, three filing cabinets filled with research, and three
trips to Saipan later, I don't hear that comment any more,
from even the highest military and government leaders.
My search has produced the following:
? Twenty-three witnesses, including a lay brother of the
Catholic Church, who testify that a white woman and
man, flyers, arrived at Saipan in 1937.
? A former soldier from Connecticut, who was shown, on
Saipan in 1945, "the unmarked grave of two white flyers,
a man and a woman, who came before the war."
? A former member of Army Intelligence from New York,
who "took a photograph from a Japanese officer during
Saipan's 1944 invasion, showing Earhart in front of
Japanese aircraft."
? An ex-Marine from Virginia, who fought across Saipan's
Red Beach One in 1944 and "tore a snapshot of Amelia
Earhart off the wall of a house the Japanese had
occupied."
? A 1944 Navy Military Government Officer in the Mar-
shall Islands, who testifies, "I learned two white flyers
had landed near Majuro (Continued on page 96)
.E-LEFT: Author Fred Goerner loads piece of wreckage from.
"two-motored plane" found in, bay among fantastic tangle of
World War II hulks. Search in Tanapag Harbor was conducted
in. 1960, but plane part turned out to be Japanese copy of
Bendix plane equipment. New theory held by some Navy o/-
cials, as told to Goerner, is that Noonan and Earhart crashed
elsewhere, were picked up by Japs and brought to Saipan.
BELOW: Earhart's plane cracked up at Luke Field, Honolulu,
after taking off on second leg of around-the-world flight,
was repaired and trip was continued to mysterious finale.
Sanitized - For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200480016-4 25
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0149R00020068AT
"I'LL FIND AMELIA AR ART!" Continued from page 25
before the war and were taken to Saipan logical to assume that if Josephine Aki-
by the Japanese." yama, as a young girl, had learned about
? A United States Naval Manpower Di- "two white flyers," there must be others still
vision Expert, who says, "The flyers, ac- alive on that island who knew something.
cording to the Marshallese natives, were Permission to visit Saipan wasn't easy to
taken away on a Japanese ship-pre- obtain. At first, it was denied, then, after
surnably to. Saipan." various appeals, the Navy Department re-
? One of the most respected natives in lented. Early in June, 1960, I left for the
she Marshall Islands, who backs up the Marianas. I paused at Guam for clearance
stories of both: "The Japanese were and Navy transportation to Saipan, and the
amazed that one of the flyers was a aura of secrecy was deepened when riaval
woman." . officials told me that, on Saipan, I was to
? A former U.S. Naval Commandant of behave myself as if I were a member of
Saipan, who states: "The testimony of the military.
the Saipanese people cannot be refuted. From the air, Saipan, a twelve-by-five-
An ONI man was here, and regardless mile dot, appears to be a tropical paradise.
of what they tell you in Washington, On the ground, the impression is entirely
the story couldn't be shaken. A white different. Scene of some of the most brutal
man and woman were undoubtedly fighting of World War II, Saipan still
brought to Saipan before the war. shows the scars. The rusting hulks of tanks
Quite probably they were Earhart and and landing craft are scattered on her
Noonan. I don't believe they flew their reefs, and the shattered superstructures of
plane in here. They were brought by sunken Japanese ships protrude above the
the Japanese from the Marshalls. I surface of her harbors. The jungles have
think you'll find the radio logs of four covered the craters and foxholes, but in a
U.S. logistic vessels will prove that.'" day's time, enough live ammunition to start
? A series of strange discrepancies appear- a small revolution can still be collected.
ing in the official logs of the Coast In the 1944 invasion, the United
Guard Cutter Itasca, Earhart's homing States forces suffered more than 15,000
vessel at Howland Island in 1937, and casualties. The cost to Japan and the na-
the U.S.S. Lexington, the Navy carrier tives was even more clear. Twenty-nine of
dispatched to search for her and Fred. 30,000 Japanese troops and an estimated
? Literally hundreds of bits of infonna- half the native population were killed.
tion, none of which have been satisfac- The cloak-and-chigger atmosphere was
torily answered by official sources, that not dispelled at Saipan. Immediately after
point directly to the Saipan conclusion, landing, Commander Paul Bridwell, head
? A strong feeling that Earhart and Noon- of the Naval Administration Unit, whisked
an may be the key that will make public me to his quarters overlooking Tanopag
the truth behind one of the most in- Harbor, and spelled out some basic rules
credible and least-known periods in for my behavior while on the island. I was
United States Military Intelligence his- not to go further north on Saipan than the
tory-the twenty years that led to Pear administration area, and under no circunr. I-Iarbor. stances, was I to go over to the east sid
of the island.
The evidence is so great that, as you "What's this all about, Commander?"
read this, I will once more be on Saipan asked. "What does this have to do witl
This is the fourth expedition in as man' the Earhart investigation?"
years, and this trip may well provide thy- "Not a thing," was the answer. "Are yor
final answer we have so diligently sought sure you're here about Amelia Earhart?'
For me, it began in April, 1960, witl "Of course, I am," I answered. "Wha
Josephine Blanco Akiyama of San Mateo else? Why all the secrecy? Why can't
California. The San Mateo Times ha visit other parts of the island?"
printed a series of articles in which Mrs "A lot of questions," replied Bridwell
Akiyama was quoted as having seen "tw
white people, a man and woman, flyers, o
Saipan in Japanese custody in 1937."unmmuwuuuuunmiuiiomuouiuumiuimmmuunumumunouuwiminuiuunouuununu
More than a little skeptical, I called he
to ask why she had been late in makin THE TREASURE
the story public. OF THE DEAD MOUNTAINS
"I told about it a long time ago," wa
her reply. "I told a Navy dentist I worke
for on Saipan in nineteen forty-five." IT HAS all the elements of
The Navy dentist turned out to be Cas' = a classic thriller-a fortune
mir Shcft, now in civilian practice in Pas = beneath an Austrian lake, a
saic, New Jersey. Sheft didn't know th?
Mrs. Akiyama had come to the Unite race between two govern-
States, but he did back up her story. = ments, men murdered in
"I tried to do something about it," sat = fiendish ways. But the most
Sheft, but the naval officers I discussed _ amazing thing about this
with didn't seem interested in starting a
A = story is that it's actually
A investigation. I felt sure Washington kne
2 happening right now! Don't
about it anyway, so, when I returned =
the States after the war, I forgot about it = miss it in the
0 The possibility of corroborative test
S mony seemed to me to be sufficient to wa FEBRUARY ARGOSY
Y rant an expedition to Saipan. ff~~There w
a ring of i. kiy r a anLYr '91 Uancq ` ot~1r,Mr mi i m a i~ini~~m ~innuxmi ~AlAI um RD, 1211 i
6 A
ut I'm afraid I can't give you any an-
s vers. Just confine yourself to the area I've
f dicated and we'll get along fine."
You know about the bull and the red
ag? Well, that's how such a conversation
< ffects a newsman. But I decided I had
ome on the Earhart story, and on the Ear-
art story I would work.
It's an understatement to say that it's
ifficult to conduct an investigation when
alf the territory is denied you, but Brid-
ell was very anxious to be of help. He
ave me the names of some ten natives
who should know if Earhart and Noonan
ere on the island." He personally led me
o the natives and, to a man, they knew
othing. They were not only vague about
verything before the war, but also after
he war. I began to get the feeling I was
istening to a phonograph record.
It was then I enlisted the aid of Mon-
ignor Oscar Calvo, Father Arnold Ben-
owske and Father Sylvan Conover of the
atholic Church Mission at Chalan Kanoa.
Nearly all of the fewer than 8,000 Cha-
norro and Carolinian natives who inhabit
aipan today embrace Catholicism. Mon-
ignor Calvo, a native of Guam, Father
ylvan of Brooklyn, New York, and Father
rnold of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had not
been on the island before the war. A
panish Jesuit priest and a lay brother had
operated the mission under the Japanese.
Father Tardio returned to Spain after the
war, where he died. Brother Gregorio
is stationed at the church mission at Yap.
Monsignor Calvo told me that the na-
tives I had been led to by Commander
Bridwell all worked for the Navy or a
mysterious entity known only as NTTU,
that inhabited the parts of Saipan I was
not to visit, under penalty of no one knew
what, Monsignor and the two priests had
heard vague rumors about some white pco-
plc held on the island before the war, but
had not clone any probing. They were
glad, however, to help if they could.
I first laid some ground rules for the
questioning: We would not ask people if
they remembered the two white flyers Cap-
tured by the Japanese before the war. We
would first talk about recent years, then
the period of the war, and finally pre-war
Saipan. At a likely moment, Monsignor
Calvo would ask, "Did you ever see or
know of any white people on the island
before the war?" If the reply was no, the
questioning would be dropped. If the an-
swer was aflirrnative, we would try to de-
termine if a firm identification and a
definite year could be established.
Here, I am going to lump together all
of the testimony gathered during the three
trips, 1960, 1961 and 1962. In questioning
nearly a thousand Saipanese, Monsignor
Calvo, the fathers and I turned up twenty-
three witnesses, and this is their story:
Two white flyers, a man and a woman,
arrived at '1'anopag Harbor in 1937.
The woman had very closely cut hair, and,
at first, appeared to be a man. They were
brought ashore in a Japanese launch and
taken by command car into the city of
Garapan to military headquarters. (Gara-
during
$49ROOO2O04800464time thein
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Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200480016-4
the building, the pair were separated. The
man, who had some kind of a bandage
around his head, was taken to the military
police barracks stockade at Punto Muchot,
while the woman was placed in a cell at
Garapan prison. Shortly thereafter, prob-
ably within a few hours, the woman was
taken zron, the prison back into Garapan
.to a hotel which served as a detention cen-
ter for certain political prisoners.
The woman was kept at the hotel for a
period of from six to eight months. Al-
lowed a brief period of exercise each day
in the yard, she was constantly kept under
guard. After the aforementioned six to
eight months, the woman died of dysen-
tery. She was buried a day or so later,
just outside a native cemetery near Gara-
pan, in an unmarked grave. The man who
had come to the island with her was taken
with the woman's body to the graveside,
beheaded and buried with her, The Japa-
nese said several times that the two had
been American flyers spying on Japan.
Who are these witnesses? Men who
worked for the Japanese at the Tanopag
naval base; men and women who lived in
Garapan near the Japanese military police
headquarters; it native laundress who
served the Japanese officers, and many
times washed "the white lady's clothes. In
the beginning, she wore man's clothes,"
says this witness; a woman, who, as a
young girl, lived next to the hotel and saw
-the; wornan nearly every day; a woman
whose father supplied the black cloth in
which the white woman was buried; a
dentist who worked on the Japanese offi-
cers and heard what they said about the
two American flyers; a woman who worked
at the Japanese crematorium near the small
cemetery and saw the man being taken to
his execution, along with the woman who
was already dead; a man who was impris-
oned at Carapan prison by the Japanese
from 1936 to 1944, and who saw the
woman the Japanese called "flyer-spy."
"Are you sure they are telling the truth?"
I asked Monsignor Calvo.
"I'm certain," he replied. "In the first
place, these simple people couldn't concoct
a story like this. They come from different
parts of the island. There would be im-
mediate discrepancies. I'm a native my-
self, and I know when a lie is being told.
Finally, they have no reason for telling a
lie. Nothing has been paid to them. What
can they gain?"
Anothef question was logical: "Why
haven't these people come forward before?"
W by should they?" Monsignor ques-
tioned back. "If you knew these peo-
ple's history, you wouldn't wonder. They
have never had self-determination. The
Spanish conquered them first, then the Ger-
mans. The Japanese forced the Germans
out in nineteen-fourteen, and used the is-
land for their own purposes until the
American invasion. The Japanese had so
convinced the Saipanese that your forces
would torture them if they were captured,
that, whole families committed suicide by
throwing themselves off Marpi Cliff. Now
you have a United Nations trust. over Sai-
pan, and they aren't convinced you are go-
ing to stay. Two white people on Saipan
before-the war are of no interest to them.
As we gathered testimony about the two
flyers resembling Earhart and Noonan, a,
few tidbits about NTTU also carne to light.
NTTU, I learned, stood or Naval Techni-
cal Training Units. High wire fences sur-
rounc ec t re res rioted area. Aircraft were
landing at Kagman Field on the cast side
of the island in the dead of night. Large
buses with shades drawn were regularly
seen shuttling between the airfield and the
jungle. There were a large number of
American and civilian and military person-
nel within the restricted area, and they
were seldom seen on the south end of the
island. One native said he'd seen Chinese,
presumably soldiers, moving through the
jungle inside the restricted area.
I started to draw the conclusion that the
Navy was giving Nationalist Chinese some
special training. The guess was inade-
quate, although I felt my suspicions were
confirmed by an inadvertent slip at the
officer's club. Bridwell gave a dinner party
if'you dropped your film off with the PIO
officers at Guam for a look-see."
Before I left Saipan in 1960, I let one
question get the better of me: Did Earhart
and Noonan fly their plane to Saipan? It
seemed incredible. Saipan lies about 1,500
miles due north of their final take-off point,
Lac, New Guinea. Saipan, with Howland
Island as an intended destination, would
have represented a navigational error of
ninety to a hundred degrees. Yet there was
that possibility. The question enlarged
to: If they did fly here, could any part of
that plane still remain on the bottom of
Tanopag?
Monsignor Calvo brought me Gregorio
Magofni and Antonio Taitano, who had
been shelling and fishing in the harbor for
many years. After viewing a photograph
of Amelia's Lockheed Electra, Greg and
Toni agreed that they knew of the wreck-
age of a "two-motor" plane. About three-
quarters of a mile from what was once
in my honor, and one officer's wife, after
a half-dozen cocktails, gushed, "Yes, you
have to know a lot of languages on Saipan:
Chamorro, Spanish, German, Japanese.
And now we're even speaking Chinese."
There was a hush at the table as if
someone had used an especially pungent
four-letter word, and then the conversation
picked up, at double time.
One day, Father Sylvan took me up
Mount Tapotehan, a little over 1,500 feet,
the highest point on Saipan. From there,
one can see the whole island, but not down
into the jungle. I shot about a hundred
feet of motion-picture film and a few stills,
and then we headed back to the village.
Commander Bridwell was waiting. "Un-
derstand you've, been up Tapotchau with
your cameras?" he said.
the ramps of the Japanese seaplane base,
we went down in twenty-five to thirty feet
of water.
The bottom of Tanopag Harbor is like.
another world; Every conceivable type
of, wreckage is littered as far as a face
mask will let you see. Landing craft, jeeps,
large-caliber shells, what's left of a Japa-
nese destroyer, the Japanese supply ship,
Kieyo Maru, in deeper water . beyond the
reef, a huge submarine-all covered with
slime and of coral.
The "two-motor" plane proved to be a
huge, - twisted mass of. junk, From this in-
coherent form, we hauled several hundred
pounds of vile-smelling wreckage to the
surface. Later, I knocked a chunk of coral
as big as a man's head from one piece of
equipment, and found the first sign of air-
craft-parts wired together. In the early-
days, before the advent of shakeproof nuts,
might have reflectegAii1ti2L eti?Apprd d Fb 'Rb g: i~e:itC:Y4'-ROP75L0644%ROi Q NM6t4l- 97
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nnounce a ie
equipment possibly could have come from,
the type of aircraft Amelia had flown, that
I began to have some hope for its identifi-
cation. My motion-picture and still films
were checked, and I headed back home.
In San Francisco, July 1, 1960, the tape-
recorded testimony of Saipan's natives
made an impression on the press, but the
wreckage created much more interest. Sev-
eral numbers found on the interior of what
was once a heavy-duty generator were sent
to Bendix Aircraft in New Jersey. Several
days later, Bendix, which had manufac-
tured much of the electrical equipment
carried on the Lockheed Electra, an-
nounced that the bearings had been pro-
duced by the Toyo Bearing Company of
Osaka, Japan: The equipment was a Japa-
nese copy of Bendix gearl
. The Saipanese witnesses somehow be-
came lost in the reverberations from the
Bendix press release, and Earhart and
Noonan were again assigned to limbo.
If detailed, the next part of the investi-
gation would fill a book. It concerns the
search by the Navy and Coast Guard, in
1937. I'll sketch the high points in a very
few words.
We obtained photostatic. copies of the
message log of the Itasca, Amelia's Coast
Guard homing vessel at Howland Island,
and the search report of the U.S.S. Lexing-
ton, the carrier dispatched by the Navy
to hunt for the missing flyers. What we
found produced a mystery within a mys-
tery. Immediately after the plane was
thought lost, the Itasca had radioed to the
San Francisco Division of the Coast Guard
a group of messages purportedly to have
come from the Earhart plane. Three days
later, another group of messages, also sup-
posed to have come from Amelia, was sent
to San Francisco. From the first to the
Sanitized - Ap For'Release : Et -R'P75
second group, the time and content o
every message had been much altered.
How could such. discrepancies occur?
The answers of two of the radio op
erators who were aboard the Itasca tha
morning in 1937 were a continuing contra
diction. William Galten, of Brisbane, Cali
fornia, was radioman, third-class. II
maintained that the first group was cor
rect. Leo Bellarts of Everett, Washington
was the chief radioman, charged with hall.
dung all the communications with th
plane. Ile stipulated that the second grow
was accurate.
I went to sec Galten, and when face
with the photostats and Bellarts' statement
he admitted, "I may have been mistaken
We were under great pressure."
You may have already guessed this: The
Lexington's planes flew over 151,00
square miles of open ocean, an area de-
termined only by the first group of mes-
sages, not one of which was correct as t
time or content.
Why didn't the Navy double check with
the Itasca, or why weren't the corrected
group of messages relayed from San Fran-
cisco to the Lexington? There are only
two possible answers: A completely unex-
plainable lack of communications between
the Navy and the Coast Guard-or design.
When you know that the Navy spent near-
ly $4,000,000 on the search, it becomes
utterly incredible. Heads have certainly
rolled for less.
The statement I have just made was
contained in a monograph I. sent to the
Navy Department in 1962. Some five
weeks later, I received a call from a chief
at the Coast Guard office in San Francisco,
advising ime to check the next. day's edi-
tion of the Navy Times for further in-
formation on the Earhart matter. The
next day, the Coast Guard released a re-
port that had been kept secret in a classi
fled file for twenty-five year's. It was th
report. of Commander Warner Thompson
who had been the commanding officer o
the Itasca in 1937: It revealed that tli
Coast Guard had known next to nothin
about the plans for the final flight; tha
the Navy appeared to be handling th
whole show; that the Navy had brough
special direction-finding equipment aboar
the Itasca; that on the morning of the dis
appearance, a number of secret message
signed with the code name "Vacuum
were received aboard the Itasca addresse
to one Richard Black, who ostensibly wa
a Department of Interior employe.. Th
Coast Guard felt it had been used as
front and could not be blamed for any
thing when it had been given so littl
information.
The overtones of "intelligence" becom
e, u m a ieac o ie story
Early in 1961, I felt we had more tha
enough to warrant another trip to Sai
pan. In addition to further questioning o
the natives and raising more of the wreck
age from Tanopag Harbor to establish it.
identity, I wanted to follow through on in-
formation given to us by Thomas E. Dc
vine of West Haven, Connecticut. Devine
had been a member of an Army postal unit
on Saipan in 1945, and clammed that a na-
tive woman had shown him the grave o
"two white people, a man and a woman,
who had come before the war." Devine
said he had not connected the incident
with Earhart and Noonan until he read
of our investigation. For evidence, he pro-
duced pictures of the native woman and
an area near a tiny graveyard where the
woman had lived. He also provided a fair-
ly detailed description of the unmarked
grave's location outside a small cemetery.
Navy permission to go to Saipan was
really tough to come by this time. The first
application was filed in April, 1961, and
for several months, there was no answer.
In June, Jules ~Dundes, CBS Vice Presi-
dent in San Francisco, called Admiral
Smith's office in Washington, and finally
got Captain Alexander, then the Navy's
Deputy Chief of Information, on the
phone. Alexander flatly stated that per-
mission to return to Saipan was denied.
Not liking the tenor of that conversa-
tion, Dundes called CBS Vice President
Ted Koop, in Washington, who promptly
went to work on Arthur Sylvester, Assist-
ant Secretary of Defense. Early in Sep-
tember, I departed for the now familiar
4arianas-with the necessary clearance.
I went back with a bit more information
bout our friend, NTTU, too. Control of
aipan had been transferred from Depart-
Bent of Interior to the Navy by Presi-
lential order in 1952. Shortly thereafter,
contract amounting to nearly $30,000,-
00 was let to an amalgamation of three
ompanies, Brown-Pacific-Maxon, for the
onstruction of certain facilities on the
orth and east side of the island, the con-
rete foundations of which went down ten
o twenty-five feet.
At Guam, I told Admiral Wendt what I
bought might be going on. Then, at Sai-
an, I met once again with my old friend
mmandi0 Sr ' j ~gu~Fkly re-
~F i~from the
orth end and the east si e o e is an .
 CPYRGHT
"Look, Paul," I replied, "I'm not after
NTTU. Quit muddying the water for me
on the Farhart story. Let us get the final
answer and you'll have it off your back.
"It's not my business if you're training
Nationalist Chinese or operating ballistic-
"We're glad you feel that way," re-
turned Paul, "but if you do come up with
the final answer to Earhart, a dozen news-
men will be knocking on our door."
"Don't you believe it," I retorted. "No
one is going to send a photographer six
thousand miles to duplicate something we
already have. Just co-operate with me."
Bridwell finally did co-operate-the day
before I left Saipan for the second time,
and only after I had received an invitation
to enter the super-secret NTTU area.
Bridwell believes strongly that Amelia and
Fred were brought to Saipan in 1937 and
their lives ended six months to a year later,
but at that time, he was obliged to block
the investigation in any way he could. He
and i 4t_of,,the Naval Administration
Unit were frctii~g_fQ>1c- Cntra_Tnfclii
gence. Agci19Y....,.,.
I know now that word was passed to
natives working for the Navy or NTTU
that it would be best to reply in the nega-
tive to questions asked about any Ameri-
cans being on the island before the war.
Bridwell. even attempted to get witnesses
to change their testimony. In one case, he
was successful. Brother Gregorio, now
with the Church at Yap, had been on Sai-
pan in 1937. Father Sylvan had seen him
during the year I had been gone. Brother
Gregorio said that he had heard from sev-
eral people that a white man and woman,
reportedly flyers, had been brought to Sai-
pan.. He had not seen them himself be-
cause the Japanese had restricted him to
the church, but he gave the names of the
two men who had told him. Commander
Bridwell got to them first. The pair had
jobs with the Navy and refused to talk.
I hold no grudge. The Navy did it it
fe1L_nP 1sazy t0_protccC..I1le .. ___ar
During the '61 stay, Magofna and Tai-
tano took nie back down to the wreckage
off the old seaplane ramps, and an after-
noon of diving produced conclusive evi-
dence that the "two-motor" plane was
Japanese. A corroded plate from a radio-
direction finder unnnistakenly bore Japa-
nese markings.
Father Sylvan and I then went to work
on Thomas Devine's infornnation. The
small graveyard was easy to locate. One
of Devine's photos showed a cross in the
graveyard; another pictured an angel with
upraised arms surrounded by crossc': and
tombstones. The only change was the jun-
gle. It had grown up forty or more feet
over the cemetery. Devine had also sent
a picture of the woman who had shown
]him the grave site. Father Sylvan showed
the print to a native who works for the
mission, and the old man brightened,
"Okinawa woman," he said. "Sent back
Okinawa after war,"
F atlier Sylvan acknowledged that many
Okinawans and Koreans had been
brought to Saipan by the Japanese before
the war to build airfields and harbor in,
stallations. All w hadn't mar vied Chain-
orros or Carolini. } i AkiRttlt}Fl ro.
Devine had indicated that the grave site
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ovelfuls had been thrown aside, so, for
e next four days, we sifted every bit of
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had been Caucasians, as some of the teeth
appeared to contain zinc-oxide fillings; the
Japanese had never used that material.
The afternoon the excavation was com-
pleted, we carefully wrapped the remains
in cotton, and Father Sylvan placed the
package in the church vault.
That night came the strangest experi-
ence of my life. I was staying in what
was laughingly referred to as the "Presi-
dential Suite." It was nothing more than
a Quonset but, about twenty-five yards
above the commander's quarters. I don't
know what awakened me.- It was about
two o'clock in the morning and it was
raining quite hard outside. As I sat bolt-
upright on the cot, there was a flash of
lightning, and I saw a man in the room
by the door. I jumped from the cot and
yelled at him, "What do you want?"
As he turned, I saw he had a machete
in his hand. He stared at me for a sec-
ond, then ran out through the front of the
hut, banging the screen door behind him.
I pursued him to the door, and in the glare
of the running light on the front of the
hut, I got a good look at him as he raced
across the asphalt road and plunged into
the jungle. He was a native-a man I was
to hear a lot more from later.
As I tried to figure out what had hap-
pened, I was shaking so badly I could
hardly light a cigarette.
"Were you really awake? Did you really
see the man, or did you dream it?" I ques-
tioned myself. Wet sandal marks around
 CPYRGHT
cal challen`Sg0.. n c 1y n,Riip r9eY` i
he had wanted, lie could have killed me
as I lay on the cot. Expensive motion pic-
ture and still cameras and tape-recording
equipment rested on the cot next to me.
Several hundred dollars in cash was ex-
posed on top of the bureau next to my
passport. Nothing had been taken. Noth-
ing had been disturbed. Nearly a year was
to pass before the realization came as to
what my visitor sought: The package of
human remains I had given to Father
Sylvan for safe-keeping.
The next day, I asked Bridwell for per-
niissioir to take the package to an an-
thropologist in the States for study. He
didn't want the responsibility, and cabled
Washington for clearance.
That night, as we waited for Washing-
ton's answer, I received a mysterious sum-
mons by phone from a man named
Schmitz. I was to be admitted to the
NTTU area for the purpose of addressing
their personnel on the subject of Amelia
Earhart, A civilian in a handsome new car
picked me up at my Quonset, drove me by
circuitous route through the jungle, up a
hill and deposited me in front of a night
clubl I mean a' night club-complete with
canopy leading from the road, dance floor,
bar and stainless steel kitchen.
Mr. Schmitz (I never learned his full
naare) met me at the door and escorted
me to the bandstand and waiting micro-
phone. For the better part of an hour,
I told an audience of several hundred, in-
cluding many wives, of the investigation.
Afterward, the applause was warm and
prolonged, and many came forward to ask
questions or contribute bits of information
they had heard from the natives. Mr.
Schmitz and I had a drink at the bar and
chatted for a while and then I was driven
by the same circuitous route back to my
"Presidential Suite."
Just before I left the island, Bridwell
began to co-operate.. The invitation to.
NTTU had, worked wonders. Ile readily
admitted, "An ONI (Office of Naval In-
telligence) man has been here checking on
what you turned up last year. Most of the
testimony couldn't be shaken. A white
man and woman were undoubtedly
brought to Saipan before the war." '
The Commander went on to expound
his own theory: "I don't believe Earhart
and Noonan flew their plane in here. I
think you'll find they went down near
Ailinglapalap, Majuro and Jaluit Atolls
in the Marshalls. The Japanese brought
them to Saipan. A supply ship was used
to t.,ke them to Yap in the western Caro-
line. and a Japanese naval seaplane flew
them to Saipan. That's why some of your
witnesses said they came from ' the sky."
"What have you got that's tangible to
prove that?" I naturally wanted to know.
"I think you'll find all the proof you
need," replied Bridwell, "contained in the
radio logs of four U.S. logistic vessels
which were supplying the Far East Fleet
in 1937. Remember these names: The
Gold Star, Blackhawk, Chaumont and
Henderson. I believe they intercepted cer-
tain coded Japanese messages that you'll
find fascinating reading."
Returning to San Francisco October 1,
1961, I spst~lA eQdt
0 the Ear1r ~~ ~GMM
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
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.tatter of national security," he said.
"How will I know you?" I asked.
"Don't worry about- that," assured Mr.
"Mr. Schmitz has alerted us," began
inter, "that you have turned up a good
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aipan. Washington has asked me to talk
to withhold this information from publica-
tion or broadcast until you are given a re-
lease. We know you to be a good Amcri
scan, and we hope you will comply."
I had already made that decision.
The conversation lasted a little more
than a half-hour, and then, with a heart
handshake, we parted. I have not seen
Mr. Winter since, although we've had -one
brief telephone conversation.
Was Mr. Winter really from the-CIA?
I wondered for a while myself. I hadn't
asked for identification, but I wouldn't
have known the proper card anyway. For
protection, I wrote a note to John. McCone,
head of the CIA in Washington.
"We're happy to inform you that Mr.
Frederick Winter is the man he represents
himself to be," was the answer.
Lengthy conversations began with the
Navy Department about whether an expert
was to study the remains. The Navy stipu-
lated a number of things that must b
done before the package could be re
leased; among them was written permis
Dr. Frank Stanton of CBS flew out from
New York, and the entire situation was
discussed. We all strongly felt that noth-
ing should be broadcast or printed before
a positive identification of the remains
could be made. If identification was not
possible, the package could be returned to
Saipan without publicity. The primary
consideration should be for the next of kin.
I visited Amelia Earhart's sister, Mrs.
Albert Morrissey, in West Medford, Massa-
chusetts, and presented the facts of the
total investigation.
She thanked us for our efforts and
granted permission on behalf of Amelia's
mother, who has since passed away at
ninety-five years of age.
A week later, I met Mrs. Bea Noonan
Ireland, the remarried widow of Fred
Noonan, now living in Santa Barbara,
California. She also gave her consent to
do whatever was necessary to write an end
to the mystery.
Dr. Theodore McCown, University of
California anthropologist, was then asked
to do the study should the Navy release
the remains: Ile agreed.
It was another month before Navy per-
mission was granted, and unfortunately, we
had to learn of it from a wire service. A
previous arrangement had been made for
Father Sylvan to take the. package from
Saipan to Guam, address it to Dr. Mc-
Cown, and ship it by commercial airliner
to its destination.
Navy permission went direct to Saipan,
and Father Sylvan carried through with
his part. Someone on Guam, however, per-
haps a customs official, leaked the story
to a representative of Associated Press,
and it was on every broadcast and in every
paper in the country before we could do
anything to stop it.
There was nothing to do but admit we
had been pursuing the investigation.
Dr. McCown's study took a week, and,
his findings were disappointing in the ex-
treme. Instead of two people, we had
found three, perhaps four. At least one
man and one woman were represented by
the remains, but the strongest indications
were that these peope had been indigenous
to the Saipan area. The "zinc-oxide" fill-
ings that had excited the dentists on Sai-
pan turned out to be calcified dentine.
X-rays showed there were no metallic fill-
ings present. "The hypothesis that the re-
mains represented those of Amelia Ear-
hart and Fred Noonan," wrote Dr.. Mc
Cown, "therefore is not supported."
Privately, however, McCown told us,
"Don't be discouraged. You may have
missed the actual grave site by six or sixty
feet. That's the way it is with archaeology.
In all my experience, I have never known
a story with as much testimony supporting
it as this one has, not to have some basis
in truth."
Thomas Devine was also disappointed.
His disappointment turned to frustration
when lie saw a complete set of photo-
graphs I had taken of our excavation and
the surrounding area.
"You were on the. wrong end of the
p'Q1Xt4 bPrrir~
the a ~6-1tJ ~fIH ~ed~ `[t~~i,96tQ~~-FslV1 hRetas aesnmll
 CPYRGHT
dirt road the ran v e sort l s e, too. to c n7 m mild rat ter o It in tier-
Did you try to match that one photo
against the mountain from the north. side?"
I admitted I hadn't because the jungle
had grown too high in that area.
Nineteen sixty-one's news reached the
front page of nearly every newspaper in
the nation, and a number of persons were
motivated to conic forward with bits of
information.
Eugene Bogan, now a Washington, D.C.
attorney, had been the senior Navy mili-
tary government officer at Majuro Atoll in
the Marshalls after the January, 1944, in-
vasion. Bogan claimed that several na-
tives told hire that two white flyers, one of
them it woman, had landed their airplane
nor Ailinglapalap, close to Majuro, in
1937, and were taken away on a Japanese
ship bound for Saipan. "The name of one
of the natives is Elicu," Bogan said. "Elicu
was my most trusted native assistant."
Charles Toole, of Bethesda, Maryland,
now an expert in the Manpower Division
of the Under Secretary of the Navy, had
been an LCT Cornnlander, plying between
the same islands in 1944. "Bogan is abso-
lutely right," said Toole. "I came across
the salve information myself."
Why didn't Bogan and Toole file an offi-_
cial report on their findings?
"We were discouraged by , the senior
officer responsible for that over-all area
of the Marshalls," they replied. "The rea-
son he. gave was that there wasn't any
sense in raising false hopes at home that
Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan might
still he alive."
Ralph R. Kanna, of Johnson City, New
York, has worked seventeen years in
a responsible position for the New York
Telephone Company. In 1944, Kanna was
sergeant of the Intelligence and Recon-
naissanc,. Platoon, Headquarters Company,
106th Infantry, 27th Division, during the
assault on Saipan. Kanna's duty was to
take as many prisoners as possible for in
son. Higashi is bringing his family to San
Francisco on vacation, and will contact me
on arrival. I'm sorry I cannot include his
information in this article because of the
publication deadline.
obcrt Kinley of Norfolk, Virginia, was
a demolition man with the Second
Marine Division. Pushing inland from Red
Beach One, his squad came upon a house
near it small cemetery. Kinley went inside
to clear it of any booby traps. On a wall,
he found "a picture of Miss Earhart and a
Japanese officer. The picture was made
in an open field, showing only a back-
ground of hills. The officer wore a.fatigue
cap with one star in the center." Kinley
says he took the picture with him, but
everything was lost in July, 1944, when`lie
was wounded.
Robert Kinley then added it bit of
provocative information. "The Japanese
had a command post in a tunnel next to
the house where I found the picture. My
demolition team closed up the tunnel. You
might be able to find more pictures or
records in the tunnel."
Kinley sent along a map showing the
location of the house, tunnel and grave-
yard. It coincides almost perfectly with
the area Devine was shown by the Oki-
nawan woman.
In September, 1962, I went back to Sai-
pan for the third time, but I had to do it
on my own time and money. KCBS wasn't
uninterested, but there's a limit to finan-
cial soundness in making assignments. I
couldn't drop it, though; there was just too
much to go on, and no one in official
places had been able to satisfactorily
answer any of the many questions raised
by the investigation.
? Fearing that I might have become preju-
diced, I took along Ross Game, the editor
of the Napa, California Register, consulting
editor to the nineteen Scripps' newspapers
in the West and Secretary for the Asso-
terrogation purposes. ? ciated Press on the Pacific Coast. We
"On Saipan, we captured one particular picked up Captain Joe Quintanilla, Chief
prisoner near an area designated as 'Tank of Police of Guam, and his detective-lieu-
Valley' " wrote Kanna. "This prisoner . tenant, Edward Camacho, and took them
had ii; Lis possession a picture showing along, too.
the late Anii:ha Earhart standing near Jap-
anese aircraft on an airfield. Assuming the
picture of the aircraft to be of value, it
was forwarded through channels to the S-2
intelligence officer. But more important,
Things had changed in one year. My,
had they changed! Commander Bridwell
was gone; the Navy was gone; Mr. Schnitz
was gone-and NTTU was gone. I should
say NTTU were gone, since there were
on questioning of, this prisoner by one of'. 'eleven of them.
our Nesei interpreters, he stated that this The fence gates were open, and we
woman was taken prisoner along with a went in. Commander Bridwell and the
male companion, and subsequently, lie felt Naval Administration Unit had been a
both of them had been executed. From #rout-#ctr=olic::klii~lwit.i'tCljy
time to time, I have told these facts to schools in the , Jlistoly of this or perhaps
associates, who finally have convinced me an co,atry. The faculty, cousistedv of
to write." civilian professors of espionage, the very
Kam;,,, went on to list three Nesei inter- same men whom I had addressed that
preters who served with his unit during night at the club. It's hard to imagine the
that period: Richard Moritsugu, William impact of coming out of the jungle and
Nuno and Roy Higashi. . discovering a modern town of ninety two-
I have located and spoken personally and three-bedroom houses with concrete
with both Moritsugu and Nuno. Moritsugu, roofs, typhoon-proof and modern in every
now living near Honolulu, is unwilling to
discuss his part in the Saipan invasion.
Nuno lives now in Pasadena. California.
respect even to modern landscaping; it
modern apartment house for the single
members of the faculty, a libr,iry, snack
and indicates that he was not . with Kanna, bar, barber shop and theater-auditorium. U
that day in 1944. I found Roy Higashi Seven of the NTTU training facilities were Pennsylvania $
just three days ago. He is living in Seattle, located on the north end of the island and y
Washington, and almost seemed to be ex- four on the cast. For the spy-school stu- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
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 CPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200480016-4
A
R
G
0
Y
at each site and other concrete buildings
in which classes -were held,
For ten years, the students were flown
into Kagman Field at night, , taken in
buses with the shades drawn to any of
the eleven areas, trained in techniques
of spying and a very specialized brand of
guerrilla jungle warfare. Most of them
never knew where it was they were being
trained. When their courses were com-
pleted, they were dispatched on- any one
of a thousand missions, penetrating
through or parachuting behind Communist
lines. Nationalist Chinese, Vietnamese,
and men from other areas were brought to
Saipan, trained and then assigned.
What has happened to the $30,000,000
worth of buildings?
r" they're being used very nicely, thank
gg you. The Department of Interior has,
taken over control of the island again and
.has fallen heir to the whole works, along
with about $1,000,000 worth of equip-.
ment Commander Bridwell and his front
group left behind.
Where did the NTTUs go? Why did
the, go?
I can't answer the first. I don't know
that I want to.
The second has to do with the focus of
international. attention the Earhart story,
placed on Saipan twice within two years,
but more importantly, the United Nations
inspection' team for the Trust Territory
of the Pacific gave Commander Bridwell
and. the Navy bad marks in 1961 for the
administration of Saipan. They had done
too much rather than too little for the
people of Saipan. It was out of line with
what the Department of Interior was
doing for the rest of the people of the
Pacific area. I don't believe the UN team
everr knew about NTTU. They probably
got the same trip to Bridwell's quarters
I did. In any case, when the history of
the post-World War II struggle between
East and West is finally written, I'm sure
Saipan and NTTU will be prominently
mentioned.
We did some more excavation around
the perimeter of the cemetery; this time
outside the northern end, but found noth,
ing. We needed Devine to show us the
spot, but permission was still being de-
nied to him. We did find where the house
Kinley had entered once stood, and we
found a huge mound which must be the
command post he speaks of. It would be, of
course, a major and expensive earth-mov-
ing job to open it up.
Ross Game, Captain Quintanilla, Eddie
Camacho, Father Sylvan and I went back
over every piece of testimony, and even
managed to turn up some new leads. The
consensus: They were more convinced
than I. Two American flyers, a man and
a woman, bearing an almost unmistakable
resemblance to Earhart and Noonan had
indeed been brought to Saipan by the
Japanese in 1937.
The most important event of the third
expedition cane one morning at the mis-
sion house. One Jesus Dc Leon Guerrero,
a native Saipanese, came to see me. Father
Sylvan served as interpreter. Guerrero
proposed a trade. He had been collecting
scrap from ' the war for years and had a
up his scrap, he would give me the con-
clusive answer to the mystery of the two
American flyers.
I remembered several Navy and De-
partment of Interior people telling me that
U.S. policy was that no Japanese ships
were permitted to enter the former man-
dated islands.
I couldn't have changed that policy if
I had wanted to, which I didn't. No story
can be bought without being tainted. I
told Guerrero, through Father Sylvan, that
if he had anything to say to me, he'd
better say it now. There would be no
deal. Guerrero blinked, turned on his heel
and walked out of the mission. The most
striking thing about the whole conversa-
tion was that I recognized Guerrero. He
was the native who had been in my Quon-
set ' that rainy night the year before.
Father Sylvan told me later that the rest
of the natives fear Guerrero. Before and
during the war, Guerrero worked with the
Japanese military police.
The trip in. '62 produced another vital
piece of information. Ross and I went
down into the Marshall Islands, and found
Elieu. Elicu teaches at the Trust Terri-
tory school at Majuro. Ile tells exactly the
same story he told to Bogan and Toole in
'44. The American flyers landed near
Ailinglapalap in 1937.
And now, as you read this, I'll once
more. be on Saipan. There is one im-
portant difference this time. Thomas De-
vine is with me. After nearly a four-year
effort, permission has finally been. granted
.for him to enter the island.
both Earhart and Noonan, including dental
charts made by Navy Chief Pharmacist
Mate, Harry S. George, in Alameda in
the year 1937.
The large hulk of Naval intelligence
records for the Pacific from 1937 to 1941.
In spite of the fact that the Navy sent
the carrier Lexington to Howland Island
in 1937 and spent some $4,000;000 in a
fruitless search, their official position to-
day,: ~ at least to CBS and the Scripps'
League newspapers, is that "the Earhart-
Noonan disappearance is a civilian mat-
ter. There has been and is no reason for
this Department to make an investigation."
Bridwell told me an ONI man con-
ducted an investigation in 1960 after my
first visit, and the testimony could not be
shaken. The Navy maintains there has
,been no investigation at all. As recently
as four months ago, Captain James Dow-
dell, now Deputy Chief of Naval Infor-
mation in Washington, vehemently denied
to Ross Game that the Navy was with-
holding any information, and indicated
that the Navy hadn't conducted any in-
vestigation. Yet, just two months ago,
the U.S. State Department stated in a
letter to me, "The State Department does
have a limited amount of information
about the Earhart matter which is Classi-
fied, but the Navy Department has in-
formed us that they conducted a complete
investigation in 1960, and there's nothing
to the conjecture that Earhart and Noonan
met their end on Saipan."
As I said earlier in this article, I can't
really blame the Navy Department for its
evasiveness. The Navy was fronting, at
,
any cost, for the CTS;'-iinc7.tt s s g gooing to 'lie
a weeTiit em-Eiarrassint;, at the very least,
to clear the record now.
Were Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan
on a spy mission in 1937? I simply haven't
the space to begin that discussion here.
Let me simply say that those "two Ameri-
can flyers" on Saipan are, I believe, the
key to an even more incredible story: The
twenty years in the Pacific before Pearl
Harbor and a bitter battle between de-
partments of our Government over what
to do about the Japanese mandated islands.
There are many who say that the
enigma of Amelia Earhart and Fred
Noonan is best left untold. "Embarrass-
ment of Japan at this time would not be
wise," they say. "What good can it do to
rake over old coals?"
My answer is a simple one. With most
Americans, the individual still counts.
Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan fought
a battle for most of their lives against the
sea and the elements, not against men
bent on war. We orbit men around our
earth and turn our eyes to the stars
and what may lie beyond because of the
courage and contribution of such as Ear-
hart and Noonan.
I f they won their greatest victory only to
become the first casualties of World
War II, the world should know. Honor
for them is long overdue.
When all is considered, a single ques-
tion remains: If the two white flyers on
Saipan before the war were not Amelia
mountainous pile. If I would arranafoi' four United States logistic v ssels. t n t t f v i iiiy.
a Japanese ship t ' tt tpmdaa App ove rbRelease ~>C41 DR7 QnQOm4AZ626b4 U0iC 0
W by has such an effort been necessary?
What about Japan? This long after
the war, wouldn't she be willing to admit
an incident involving two white flyers?
The answer is no. It involves far more
than the detention of Earhart and Noonan.
Japan has categorically denied building
military facilities in the mandated islands
prior to Pearl Harbor. In the war crimes
trials in Tokyo in 1946 and '47, Japan
stated, "The airfields and fortifications in
the mandated islands were for cultural
purposes and for aiding fishermen to lo-
cate schools of fish." It is obvious that
Japan cannot admit an incident involving
two American flyers before the war with-
out also admitting a far graver sin-the
necessity for' covering up their activities in
the mandates. If Japan ever concedes that
the islands were used for military purposes,
it will represent a violation of the League
of Nations Mandate, it breach of interna-
tional law, a most serious loss of face and
the loss of the last chance to get the
islands back.
Is there any other way to clear up the
mystery, through extant records perhaps?
I don't know. The records that might
shed light upon this matter seem beyond
our reach. According to the United States
Navy, Army and other departments of the
Government, the following have been de-
clared "missing, destroyed, or returned
to Japan":
Twenty-two tons of Japanese records
captured on Saipan, which were never
interpreted.