Well, never one to back down, I will state that to the best of my knowledge, I havent tried to discredit anyone on this forum, or TIGHAR. As an attendee to the DC symposium, and a paying member to TIGHAR, I felt it necessary to ask MR Mellon to prove his claim of Electra parts at 800 feet on the reef. As far as I'm aware of, NO ONE has the physical evidence that was raised from the reef, or ocean bottom to validate his statement. Video, and pictures, are still a matter of enormous debate here. Experts, which I am NOT, have yet to render their expert opinion.
Ric, you and I are on the same team. We both want to see positive results from your long and tireless efforts to solve this mystery. This isnt a matter of 20 questions. Its serious business. Many millions of dollars spent, many millions of hours involved trying to piece together the final story of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. You have to admit, how many times in the past have there been a 'discovery', and then the statement of mystery solved, only to find that smoking gun, the real piece of hard evidence that ties all of this together, is still missing.
IMO, I think the Electra is there. Somewhere. With all respects to Gary, I have my own issues with crash and sank. But thats ok. He didnt like my brake hose opinion of the black squiggely either. But, whether we agree, or disagree, we still work as a team. No one is perfect. Certainly not me. I try to make sense of what is presented here just like everyone else. When something doesnt seem right , I ask the questions. I did with our friend Malcolm, because he was an archaeologist and I wasnt. I did with Gary, because he has alot more flight and navigation experience than I. I did with Jeff Glickman in DC, because he is a photo expert. Many other members here are experts in their fields, and I certainly dont call into question their expertise, or their integrity.
In Mr Mellons case, he made a statement that in my mind was out of the box, and was not substanciated by officials. BUT----he was on the expedition, and had first hand knowledge of the live video feeds--he said. He also may have known, or been aware of anything raised from the reef for examination. So I mearely asked him to validate his statement with some harder evidence than video pictures,whose contents are hard for me to see. And by the amount of posts here, I feel several members are having problem with their vision too. Undermining TIGHARs credibility, or members. Hardly.
A lot of light is being shined on TIGHAR by its investigation, and expeditions. People from all over the world are watching. Its bigger than even we can fathom. Several government agencies are involved in ways that we dont know. Because of this, TIGHAR needs to make sure that its data is correct. Pictures that show the Bevington object are great. The real pay off is to find it, examine it, identify it as an authentic part of NR16020. Tim's instruments are also fantastic--if you can show that they are in fact from her Electra.
See---just having aircraft wreckage doesnt do it for me, considering that the Pacific area was in WWII. Maybe not Niku specfically, but who really knows. Tighar has the build sheets from Lockheed, and the repair documents from the Luke field crash. I assume. So, if you do find something, it should be able to be identified.
Thats all I'm saying. Lets work together.
Tom Swearengen,
Beaufort, SC.