TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => The Islands: Expeditions, Facts, Castaway, Finds and Environs => Topic started by: Chris Johnson on May 18, 2012, 09:33:20 AM
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In some of the other posts it has been suggested that the 7 site had as one of its possible uses that of a ‘lover’s lane’ or area where the coastguards may have met with local ladies to enjoy the fine sunsets and cook fish.
As I understand it the commander of the LORAN station Ensign Charles Sopko actively discouraged the fraternisation of his men with the locals, keeping them to the vicinity of the station. That’s not to say that they took any notice.
We have evidence of station personnel interacting with the islanders such as Floyd Kilts.
I just wonder if anyone has any knowledge of the islander’s likely participation in these alleged trysts.
From my sparse reading via the book 'The Sex Lives of Cannibals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sex_Lives_of_Cannibals) I get the impression that the male islanders would not have been too happy for the ladies to do this sort of thing. But one book does not make me an expert. Does anyone have a handle on micronesian morals etc..
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The islanders had very conservative standards regarding morality due to the heavy influence of the London Missionary Socliety and the Catholic Church. Among the documents we collected at the Kiribati National Archive in Tarawa last summer are official British reports that discuss the issue of American servicemen corrupting the morals of islanders. It was a recognized problem on Sydney Island (Manra) due to weekend excursions by personnel from Canton, but not on Hull (Orona) or Gardner (Nikumaroro).
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The islanders had very conservative standards regarding morality due to the heavy influence of the London Missionary Socliety and the Catholic Church. Among the documents we collected at the Kiribati National Archive in Tarawa last summer are official British reports that discuss the issue of American servicemen corrupting the morals of islanders. It was a recognized problem on Sydney Island (Manra) due to weekend excursions by personnel from Canton, but not on Hull (Orona) or Gardner (Nikumaroro).
Maybe, and we all expect our daughters to be virgins until they marry. ;) But even so, it only takes a few unchaste women (maybe only one, and not necessarily unchaste, it might not have gone beyond flirting) to explain the female artifacts. The coasties were there for three or four years, there were a lot of them so lots of opportunities. Based on this, I think it more likely, just based on volume, that the western female artifacts more probably originated this way than a one time unlikely event like Earhart being on the island.
gl
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Yep, the familiar "over paid, over sexed and over here" syndrome. 25 lusty lads can find ways around most official proscriptions. And as Gary suggests there needn't even have been any actual instances of horizontal folk dancing - just the hope. The reality is that service on that LORAN station on Nikumaroro must have been mind numbingly boring for all the personnel - a perfect breeding ground (pardon the pun) for creative disobedience of the no fraternization rule. What would be the worst punishment? getting shipped home? After a month or so that might have looked very attractive.
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Questions for Malcolm and Gary
Can you tell me what the leave rota was for the LORAN guys as this would help show that one may have gone to a US controlled zone where a US compact was available?
Maybe you guys could speak to some ex islanders to gather evidence to prove your theory?
Ever heard of the postal service.
Letter from sex-starved Coast Guard guy to friend at home "Hey bud - get your girlfriend to buy a couple of compacts and post them to me. I might get lucky. These Micronesian chicks don't look half bad with the sun behind them."
;D
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Questions for Malcolm and Gary
Can you tell me what the leave rota was for the LORAN guys as this would help show that one may have gone to a US controlled zone where a US compact was available?
Maybe you guys could speak to some ex islanders to gather evidence to prove your theory?
And of course we have options two and three -
2. The Loran Station inmates (AKA the lusty lads of the US Coast Guard) put on some amateur theatrics called The Loran Lovelies of Gardner Island and the long-legged guy picked for the Betty Grable part writes home for an urgent supply of makeup and a compact. That's to repair any sweat damage. Hey a guy's gotta look good whatever the job - it's in the oath just after the bit where they swear to be absolutely chaste for the duration of their enlistment. However this gets a little out of hand and may have been a contributory factor in the Great USCG Sex Scandal of 1944 :-X outlined in option 3 below.
3. The Loran Station inmates have gone completely troppo after 3 months chipped beef, bird shit and coconut crabs and by now even the very hairy Petty Officer 3rd Class Kowalski is beginning to look faintly desirable and someone thinks "Hey a bit of makeup and ...". But their CO Ensign Charles Sopko, a doughty mariner of tender years and sensibilities discover this outbreak of deviant behaviour and in disgust flings the accursed compact over the fence. It is grabbed by a coconut crab which carries it away to a place where it is eventually discovered by TIGHAR. For a few brief months that crab was the best looking crab on the island. ;D
The possibilities are as endless as the imaginary interpretations of Amelia and Fred's life on Nikumaroro derived from Betty's notebook. ;D
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I find it interesting that the Gardner Island Transfer Title (http://www.loran-history.info/Gardner_Island/TransferDocGardner.JPG) specifically mentions "No push push with any natives on said Island". Do you think Ens. Sopco said that because the Naval Authorities had made that a standing order and he was doing his duty? Or did he put it on the "Transfer" because it was a problem that he had with his crew?
Brad
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I find it interesting that the Gardner Island Transfer Title (http://www.loran-history.info/Gardner_Island/TransferDocGardner.JPG) specifically mentions "No push push with any natives on said Island". Do you think Ens. Sopco said that because the Naval Authorities had made that a standing order and he was doing his duty? Or did he put it on the "Transfer" because it was a problem that he had with his crew?
Brad
TIGHAR found many cartridge casings from M1 carbines. Do you think the guys taking their carbines out and just shooting up the place was an "authorized activity?"
gl
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I find it interesting that the Gardner Island Transfer Title (http://www.loran-history.info/Gardner_Island/TransferDocGardner.JPG) specifically mentions "No push push with any natives on said Island". Do you think Ens. Sopco said that because the Naval Authorities had made that a standing order and he was doing his duty? Or did he put it on the "Transfer" because it was a problem that he had with his crew?
Brad
That's a comic document much like "King Neptune" coming aboard for the "crossing the line" ceremony to turn "polly-wogs" into "'shellbacks." According to Lambrecht, they had to postpone this ceremony for several hours due to duty requirements. In fact, I take the "no push push" line to have exactly the opposite meaning, that "push push" was tolerated, wink, wink.
gl
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How can you possibly interpret "Therefore be it resolved; First: No Push Push with any natives on said island" to mean anything else but what it says? Ens. Sopco could have been brought up on charges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternization) had he said or enforced anything else. No means No in English and any other language you care to list. The Navy had and still has faily strict rules that govern the conduct (http://doni.daps.dla.mil/Directives/05000%20General%20Management%20Security%20and%20Safety%20Services/05-300%20Manpower%20Personnel%20Support/5370.2C.pdf) of it's members. The policy is such that a commander can order no contact between his personnel and indiginous peoples in order to maintain "good order" within his organization.
Brad
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How can you possibly interpret "Therefore be it resolved; First: No Push Push with any natives on said island" to mean anything else but what it says? Ens. Sopco could have been brought up on charges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternization) had he said or enforced anything else. No means No in English and any other language you care to list. The Navy had and still has faily strict rules that govern the conduct (http://doni.daps.dla.mil/Directives/05000%20General%20Management%20Security%20and%20Safety%20Services/05-300%20Manpower%20Personnel%20Support/5370.2C.pdf) of it's members. The policy is such that a commander can order no contact between his personnel and indiginous peoples in order to maintain "good order" within his organization.
Brad
Darn and there goes my alternate hypothesis - Madam Earhart's Pacific Paradise Escort Service - dusky maidens for the jaded Coastie and their role in the Nikumaroro Naughty Nookie scandal of 1944. I suppose all we have to fall back on now is the strange behaviour of Petty Officer 3rd Class Kowalski and the rouged coconut crab. Look everyone, seriously, we have to come up with a better script if we are ever going to make a musical better than South Pacific out of the Nikumaroro story. ;D
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How can you possibly interpret "Therefore be it resolved; First: No Push Push with any natives on said island" to mean anything else but what it says? Ens. Sopco could have been brought up on charges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternization) had he said or enforced anything else. No means No in English and any other language you care to list. The Navy had and still has faily strict rules that govern the conduct (http://doni.daps.dla.mil/Directives/05000%20General%20Management%20Security%20and%20Safety%20Services/05-300%20Manpower%20Personnel%20Support/5370.2C.pdf) of it's members. The policy is such that a commander can order no contact between his personnel and indiginous peoples in order to maintain "good order" within his organization.
Brad
But wait, don't orders include the word "order" not "resolved?" I seem to remember that from somewhere. Oh I know, I learned that at the Judge Advocate General's school in Charlottsville Virginia where I got my commission in the JAG Corps. In fact, I am confident that I have never seen the word "resolved" in any official military communication. I'm sure that this humorous greeting to the incoming coasties does not satisfy the requirements for the promulgation of a general order so that the violation of it could be punished under Article 92, FAILURE TO OBEY ORDER OR REGULATION, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So I am sticking with my original opinion, that it means exactly the opposite of what it purports to say.
gl
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No but doing a bit of target practice and chatting up the ladies are not the same thing!
Who says they didn't have permission to keep their eye in with the rifle?
Still time to ask those who were on the ground!
And they just happened to take the M1s out to the 7 site where they sat around all their campfires just blasting crabs instead of having an organized range on the LORAN station. I don't know if you have any experience with the way military ranges are run, but they are very formalized (to keep people from accidentally getting shot) and not just some plinking at coconut crabs whenever and wherever somebody feels like it.
gl
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Here are some statements and questions for the islander fraternisation hypothesis.
It’s Micronesian not Polynesian.
A compact is a high status item, a simple mirror not so. “Hey Mack, those island girls sure like shiny mirrors, lets fashion some from our shaving kit? If we don’t get lucky we might get some of those nice wooden boxes with aluminium bits on!”
Same applies for islander to trader, “I want shiny thing! OK sounds like a mirror to me.
Now my college education was in Marketing and Malcolm trumps me with a PHd but my masters is still good going. Trade is all about profit, you’ve seen the cowboy movies where the white guys buy the local stuff for beads and fire water. Same scenario, trade low for high, ladies compact could buy the island when you think a couple of bottles of suds would get you a nice Kanawa Box.
1, Are you saying that Micronesian ladies are not as attractive as Polynesian ladies? What about to a guy who has been away from home for a year? I've heard somewhere, that sometimes a guy's standards change after a long absence from home.
2, Do you have some contemporary source for your statement that a "compact is a high status item" or are you just assuming that? I know my mother had a dozen of them, they were a dime a dozen.
3, The islanders were brought there to harvest copra and were paid for their work so they had money and other possible trade goods to use in purchasing western stuff from crewmen on the copra schooners or from the coasties.
gl
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How can you possibly interpret "Therefore be it resolved; First: No Push Push with any natives on said island" to mean anything else but what it says? Ens. Sopco could have been brought up on charges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternization) had he said or enforced anything else. No means No in English and any other language you care to list. The Navy had and still has faily strict rules that govern the conduct (http://doni.daps.dla.mil/Directives/05000%20General%20Management%20Security%20and%20Safety%20Services/05-300%20Manpower%20Personnel%20Support/5370.2C.pdf) of it's members. The policy is such that a commander can order no contact between his personnel and indiginous peoples in order to maintain "good order" within his organization.
Brad
BTW, just exactly what does "push push" mean? You seem to think it has some sexual connotation while I think a more reasonable interpretation is "shoving" that could lead to fighting as that is the literal meaning of "push." And my interpretation is also supported by the use of the word "natives" meaning those of both genders, not obviously showing a relationship to activity with native women.
gl
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BTW, just exactly what does "push push" mean? You seem to think it has some sexual connotation while I think a more reasonable interpretation is "shoving" that could lead to fighting as that is the literal meaning of "push." And my interpretation is also supported by the use of the word "natives" meaning those of both genders, not obviously showing a relationship to activity with native women.
gl
Personally I think it's all Petty Officer Kowalski's fault - unseemly behaviour seems to have become endemic when he arrived in late 1944. No wonder Ensign Sopko had to slap a few wrists ;D I am lead to believe that nylons weren't in high demand because the women had big feet so compacts became the currency du jour. :)
This thread is beginning to sound like an episode of McHale's Navy .
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Perhaps you three should come to the symposium and perform your new play. Perhaps you could convince TIGHAR to change the hypothesis to include this play.
Better yet, get the rights to the play for Broadway. Then when TIGHAR proves the hypothesis you can hit Broadway with Andrew Lloyd Webbers new production of the musical "You Turned Right When I Said Left Amelia" or the alternate title "Your Hearings Not What It Used To Be". Starring Lindsay Lohan as Amelia and Charlie Sheen as Fred Noonan. Both of them have lost their ways so it's type casting.
Tongue in cheek. No disrespect intended.
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GLP Wrote
I know my mother had a dozen of them, they were a dime a dozen.
Sure looks to me that if not high status they wern't 'throw away' :D
She kept so many, not because they were not "throw away" but because they had different shades of face powder which is why she had so many. She carried a number in her purse for use in the "powder room" where she went to "powder her nose."
gl
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I don't know if you have any experience with the way military ranges are run, but they are very formalized (to keep people from accidentally getting shot) and not just some plinking at coconut crabs whenever and wherever somebody feels like it.
gl
Plenty thank you as a cadet and reservist.
And yes at a permanent base with the correct facilities. However when at tempory camps we made the most of what we had. I remember once when on a two week exercise we had to setup a tempory range. A big reason was to keep the locals away so we made sure they knew and it was well sign posted.
May have been the same reason, shoot out in the bush and let the locals know so they will keep away.
The LORAN station was a "permanent base," it was there for years, so should have had a permanent rifle range just as you stated so no reason for the guys to take pot shots out at the seven site.
gl
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I'm not saying anything about the looks good or bad re micro or polynesian.
BTW Gary don't come over here and call a Welsh Man English, not unless you want to eat through a straw ;D
This confused me. I reviewed my posts and I couldn't find any where I accused you of being "English."
gl
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I decided to look at the "compact" artifact located here (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Expeditions/NikuV/Analysis_and_Reports/Compact/NikuVanalysiscompact.html). I expected to see a picture of a "compact" but all they actually have is a couple of chunks of material that are probably makeup from the period. Assuming that this is makeup, it could have come from a "compact" or from separate boxes of face powder. TIGHAR did NOT find a "compact!"
And I love this line:
"The Coast Guard personnel did visit the site, but none has reported any use of makeup or other material which might mimic makeup. This leaves the castaway."
What reports did TIGHAR review that all the coasties were required to fill out that had a box to check, "USED MAKEUP, Y/N?" Did they query every coast guardsman? Did they expect that the ones who did use makeup or used it to charm a lady would tell them?
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
gl
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http://tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/2008Vol_24/archupdate.pdf
I believe a mirror that matched one from a 30's compact was found too.
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http://tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/2008Vol_24/archupdate.pdf
I believe a mirror that matched one from a 30's compact was found too.
O.K. so they found a mirror that was not too large to fit in a compact, that doesn't prove that it was originally in a compact. The mirror is also of the same size as a pocket mirror or a shaving mirror, mirrors that size are ubiquitous. Where is the compact itself? TIGHAR has found an exemplar of a compact that had belonged to Earhart but we know that that Earhart compact did not end up on Gardner because it is at Purdue.
gl
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Just my opinion but 1/16" thick glass would be too thin to not be protected by a case front and back. A case and the size of the glass tells me compact. Also the rouge. I don't know where the case is. Maybe they will find it later with more searching. If it has not been detroyed by mother nature.
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Just my opinion but 1/16" thick glass would be too thin to not be protected by a case front and back. A case and the size of the glass tells me compact. Also the rouge. I don't know where the case is. Maybe they will find it later with more searching. If it has not been detroyed by mother nature.
Maybe, but I just picked up a mirror that has been on my coffee table for years and measured its thickness, 0.08 inches, just very slightly thicker than 1/16th inch.
gl
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I'm not saying anything about the looks good or bad re micro or polynesian.
BTW Gary don't come over here and call a Welsh Man English, not unless you want to eat through a straw ;D
This confused me. I reviewed my posts and I couldn't find any where I accused you of being "English."
gl
No but you called the islanders Polynesian
FTR I hold a British Passport but am neither 'British or English'
You've lost me now. I called the islanders Micronesian not Polynesian, which they were.
gl
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So no compact! How does the makeup get there then?
The reason it was called a "compact" was that it was a container for a small amount of makeup to be conveniently carried in a purse instead the normal larger container left on the dressing table. In addition, they sold replacement makeup to refill your compact so the makeup (if it is makeup) could have been one of the refill packages or from a larger container.
gl
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As to the 'rifle range', there are pictures of the Loran station layout and camp - any 'range' in evidence?
How much of that did the coasties do? Did every man have a rifle? I guess they might have - and ongoing practice would be required I suppose - but how formally was that in place for the coasties in a place like Gardner?
Regardless of the range or not and what may have gone, we still have evidence of cartridges as I understand it at the 7 site: something happened there. But I remain confused as to what it had to do with fraternising with islanders, or anything else there - just thought it was part of the record of human activity at the place.
I dunno, maybe dead-eye shooting demonstrations became a sort of preening exercise in the hopes of promoting a little push-push. Gunfire seems like a good way to spook people off though. :D
LTM -
I only brought that up to raise the idea that the coasties didn't always follow orders since it seems unlikely that the official range would be outside the land occupied by the LORAN station. I have been the "Officer In Charge" of many rifle, machine gun and tank gunnery ranges and there is nothing informal about how they are run so nobody is going to authorize anybody in the military to just take a rifle out in the woods and start blasting away. My point was that the shooting was not authorized at the seven site but it happened anyway just as "push-push" may not have been authorized but it also could have happened anyway at the seven site. I think it quite humorous that those who feel compelled to defend the TIGHAR theory have now had to make the humorous claim that every single one of the 18 to 21 year old coasties with testosterone coursing through their young brains were all saints and every one of the women on the island was a vestal virgin and would not even flirt with the coasties. But they are forced into this silly position since they have to try to avoid the inconvenient truth that there are other sources for the female artifact beside Earhart.
gl
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Did every man have a rifle?
My impression is "no," but this would be a hard fact to dig out of TIGHAR's archives, if it is in there.
The material collected from the Seven Site shows that there were two different kinds of ammo expended there, so there were at least two guns in the armory.
Nothing in the debris at the Seven Site gives us a good date for when the Coasties were shooting there. There is, of course, a "not earlier than" date, of sorts--not earlier than the construction of the facility. But shooting up plates and tubes may have happened at any time in the history of the unit.
Again, working from my fallible memory, I think that there isn't evidence of more than 100 rounds being fired at the Seven Site. That's not much shooting. Some friends and I fired 500 rounds at clay pigeons from three shotguns in just a couple of hours one day. A real rifle range produces a lot of spent cartridges. I've never been in the military, but my wild guess is that soldiers have to "police their brass" at the end of the day. The distribution of shells at the Seven Site suggests plinking by a couple of guys to me, not something organized to keep a platoon ready to repel invaders.
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I think we actually have three firearms at the 7 site as we have found shell casings for .30 cal, .45 cal, and .22 cal, as well as one .45 bullet I found in 2007. We also have a .303 casing from up by the village.
We know that Gallagher had a Colt .22 Woodsman automatic pistol, so that helps to explain the .22s. We also have interview recollections from at least one former Coastie who remembered wandering through the woods with a buddy plinking at things, including putting a hole in the water tank, which later turned into an issue when the islanders complained to the CO, and they were sent out to fix it. His description was pretty much that they took the trail into the woods from the beach, and wandered through popping off shots at birds etc as they went, and the distribution of .30 cal shells supports that as it is distributed throughout the site and into the woods beyond, and not concentrated into any one area as it would be if they were using it as a rife range.
I also believe that the interviews support the ban between fraternizing with the natives, and indicates that contact between the two populations was pretty tightly controlled.
What troubles me about this thread is that we have evidence that fraternization was not condoned, and personal recollections from former Guardsmen that it wasn't allowed or didn't happen, yet Gary and Malcolm have veered off into the wildly unsupported "speculative fantasy" that they so strenuously object to in other threads such as the post loss radio signals, which they reject as being not credible because there is no "proof" that they directly linked to Amelia.
At least TIGHAR is following evidence that there are in fact a couple of known missing persons in the area, the fact that there was a castaway on the island somewhere down on that end, possibly a female, and the fact that the castaway seems to have had in their possession a former US Navy sextant box of the type Fred Noonan was known to carry with him on the Clippers, etc etc, so at least we have a reasonable line of thinking to link the various facts together into a hypotheses as to what happened.
What facts do you have to support the thought that the 7 site was a love nest? None that I can tell. Your story is all full of supposition "would haves" and "should haves", and it flies in the face of the available evidence.
I'd like to see you guys apply your own standards of "proof" to your own "speculative fantasies" regarding your thoughts about the 7 site.
Andrew
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... yet Gary and Malcolm have veered off into the wildly unsupported "speculative fantasy" that they so strenuously object to in other threads such as the post loss radio signals, which they reject as being not credible because there is no "proof" that they directly linked to Amelia.
The trouble with that is that I was posting very much tongue in cheek, except for the part where I agreed with Gary that there are other ways a compact could have got onto the island. But if you don't like the idea that Petty Officer Kowalski needed a layer of make up then who am I to quibble. ::)
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I think we actually have three firearms at the 7 site as we have found shell casings for .30 cal, .45 cal, and .22 cal, as well as one .45 bullet I found in 2007. We also have a .303 casing from up by the village.
We know that Gallagher had a Colt .22 Woodsman automatic pistol, so that helps to explain the .22s. We also have interview recollections from at least one former Coastie who remembered wandering through the woods with a buddy plinking at things, including putting a hole in the water tank, which later turned into an issue when the islanders complained to the CO, and they were sent out to fix it. His description was pretty much that they took the trail into the woods from the beach, and wandered through popping off shots at birds etc as they went, and the distribution of .30 cal shells supports that as it is distributed throughout the site and into the woods beyond, and not concentrated into any one area as it would be if they were using it as a rife range.
I also believe that the interviews support the ban between fraternizing with the natives, and indicates that contact between the two populations was pretty tightly controlled.
What troubles me about this thread is that we have evidence that fraternization was not condoned, and personal recollections from former Guardsmen that it wasn't allowed or didn't happen, yet Gary and Malcolm have veered off into the wildly unsupported "speculative fantasy" that they so strenuously object to in other threads such as the post loss radio signals, which they reject as being not credible because there is no "proof" that they directly linked to Amelia.
At least TIGHAR is following evidence that there are in fact a couple of known missing persons in the area, the fact that there was a castaway on the island somewhere down on that end, possibly a female, and the fact that the castaway seems to have had in their possession a former US Navy sextant box of the type Fred Noonan was known to carry with him on the Clippers, etc etc, so at least we have a reasonable line of thinking to link the various facts together into a hypotheses as to what happened.
What facts do you have to support the thought that the 7 site was a love nest? None that I can tell. Your story is all full of supposition "would haves" and "should haves", and it flies in the face of the available evidence.
I'd like to see you guys apply your own standards of "proof" to your own "speculative fantasies" regarding your thoughts about the 7 site.
Andrew
When I raised the possibility that the "makeup" could have come from contacts between the coasties and the local women the response was basically "oh no, that could never have happened, it would have been a violation of regulations." ROF LOL
I then remembered that it was also a violation of regulations (called statutory rape) for young guys to knock up their high school sweethearts so I guess that never happens either. And the possible punishment for statutory rape is much more severe than any for violating a Coast Guard order to avoid the local ladies. I mentioned the TV show about all the navy guys lined up to use the whore houses in Honolulu and they were also violating regulations, didn't seem to slow them down none. Young, testosterone soaked, men violate these kinds of laws and regulations all the time. And I am certain that taking an M1 out in the woods was also a violation of regulations so, guess what, in the military, regulations do get violated.
I asked a friend of mine, who flew a B-24 and was based on Moratai Island in the Celebes Sea between New Guinea and Borneo, if men on his base had contact with the local women. He said: "A couple of days after we arrived on Moratai I went for a walk with one of my crew to see what we could find. We only got as far as the base perimeter where we were stopped. 'Just where do you two think you're going, don't you know, the whole island is crawling with Japs!'" If I remember correctly, there were no Japs on Gardner.
The one thing we know for certain about Earhart's compact is that it is not on Gardner because it is safely tucked away at Purdue. Unless you are speculating that she carried a duplicate with her, is there evidence of this? And then your theory on the provenance of the makeup is that Earhart left other useful stuff in the plane, like parachutes, but made sure she kept her makeup kit with her to the very end so that she could freshen up for the photographer when she got rescued. But, if you are so certain that there is no other possible explanation for the makeup, other than that it was brought there by Earhart, then call a press conference and declare the mystery solved, cancel the upcoming expedition and use the money saved to find L'Oiseau Blanc.
gl
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Gary is asking the right questions and also taking a more realistic approach to the possibility of social interaction between the USCG and the Nikumaroroans.
That is a very good point about Earhart's compact and the surprising lack of trace of useful items that could have been salvaged from the Electra. I am also reminded of her reply declining the invitation to attend dinner at Government House in Darwin because she didn't have any suitable clothes to wear - perhaps also she didn't have any makeup as well? - I'm sure the Administrator would have forgiven her slacks (Darwin in the 1930s was a frontier town). Now if her compact is held by Purdue whose then is the purported "compact" on Nikumaroro, so you see all these nagging questions remain no matter how optimistically some happily multiply the number of compacts Earhart had with her.
That's the problem with artifacts - they exist and rational accurate explanations for their presence have to be found. And I do remind everyone that the fragments of mirror and the fragments of makeup have yet to be accurately traced to the existence of a compact (Amelia's or anyone's) or for that matter scientifically linked as coming from the same item.
Now I know it is really fun to make a leap of faith and say "Wow!! mirror, rouge, wow!!! Amelia's compact!!!!" but that is all it is, a leap of faith and like so much in this hypothesis unsupported by anything other then assumptions based on circumstantial evidence. No matter how many times people try and defend circumstantial evidence it remains simply circumstantial and evidence of nothing except assumption. It rather reminds me of the Atlantean theories I referred to in another thread.
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I followed up on Jeff's reply to Malcolm (http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,693.msg13693.html#msg13693) in the New Britain thread (http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,648.msg13697.html#msg13697).
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There's one thing I do know and that Gary's mother had multiple compacts ;D
I'll tell you one more thing about my mother, she never attempted to fly around the world so she never was forced to limit the weight of makeup on her dressing table. Remember all the reports of Earhart being obsessive about eliminating "unnecessary" items from the plane. Is makeup truly "necessary?"
gl
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The policy is such that a commander can order no contact between his personnel and indiginous peoples in order to maintain "good order" within his organization.
Were under those same orders while building a Haitian Refugee Camp in Suriname. Too much to lose by violating the order.
LTM,
Don