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[Joe Cerniglia]

There have been a few mentions in our discussions lately of time machines and what one might be able to test with regard to the Nikumaroro hypothesis if one had one  It is wonderful to speculate.  I was thinking of a variation on this concept, however.  If one had access to a time machine, could be transported to any American city on July 3, 1937, but your mission was, instead of bringing back evidence, saving Earhart and Noonan, how would you do this?  You can bring with you any reference materials from the present that you wish, and you can cite the information, but you may not show the materials directly to anyone. You can use any extant materials from 1937. (Assume for the sake of this thought exercise that Nikumaroro is the place to look.) Which people would you try to contact?  Whom would you seek out as allies, avoid as obstructions, in your mission?  What would you say to them to persuade a more intensive searching of the island than the Colorado did?  Would you have any better luck than Betty, whose dad went to the Coast Guard to say what Betty had heard?  Could you change the outcome?

Joe Cerniglia
TIGHAR #3078 ECR

[Dan Swift]

157-337.  And take my case to George Putnam and Eleanor Roosevelt...and therefore to the President. 

[Greg Daspit]

If I arrived on July 3rd I would wait a few days while they plotted the DF bearings that pointed to Gardner. Then go to Putnam with the DF bearings that cross near Gardner and the LOP that crossed near Gardner. If he would not see me I would telegram all of the Pan Am Stations and point out to each operator the other DF bearings to Gardner, including the one taken from Howland by the Itasca CG detachment. They would see their own was correct and therefore may believe me.

I would try to recruit R.M. Hansen, the Wake DF operator,  since he was positive he picked up their signal and also got a good bearing of one.
Quotes from Hanson's report:
“I was positive at that time that this was KHAQQ. At this date, I am still of this opinion”
“There is not the slightest question in my mind that the signals I have reported on could have been those of a maladjusted GC phone, because (1) the abnormal and unusually erratic characteristics of these signals as compared to the steady operating CG phones. And (2), the fact that no CG boats were, to the best of my knowledge, anywhere near the line of the Wake DF bearing of 144 degrees appx. Hoping this report will meet with your approval, I remain”
Respectfully yours, /s/ R.M. Hansen”

If that didn’t work I would send a telegram to Lambrecht with all of the DF plots, LOP and describe in detail the Norwich City in advance and tell him to look carefully to the north of the NC on the reef. And tell him Gardner is not occupied.
Even if he thought the telegram was a hoax, once he got there with his search planes and saw the shipwreck it would be hard for him not to look there and think the island may not be occupied after all.

I think all of this has been tried before, but this big time vortex in the Pacific keeps swallowing up planes before they can do any good.

[Dave Potratz]

Much agreed on the wonders of the Thought Experiment.  Great fun!

Given the aforementioned experiment parameters I would very much concur with the notion of drawing additional attention to extant DF data.

However, with utmost respect for Mr. Cerniglia, and at the risk of introducing a spin-off experiment:  If I had access to a Time Machine  I would seek to set the controls to arrive at Lae, New Guinea on the morning of July 2, 1937. 

I would then work to engage and convince the ground support personnel to pay special attention to the state of the Belly Antenna with regard to the heavily laden condition of the craft and the unpaved condition of the runway.  I would further encourage said personnel  (if not the crew) to consider a contigency plan (e.g. Test the Radio!!!) in case this very critical component of the very critically important communications array were to, say, be ripped from the craft in a puff of smoke, er dust.

I believe this would have saved AE & FN (at least for that day) because I believe that, considering cause-and-effect, at that critical moment, this saga, their lives, quite literally "hung on a wire".

YTTMMV  (Your Time Travel Mileage May Vary)   

dp

[don hirth]

My thoughts re: Daspit, Cerniglia and Potratz posts.
"Great" accuracy by renowned people such as Ed Dames, Joe McMoneagle, Courtney Brown and Ingo Swann,
all proven remote viewers, comes to mind. I realize that in the past, several' psychics' have made statements regarding what they "saw" having happened. I believe that the disciplines of the two methods/
systems are considerably different and therefore, I would have to give the nod to the remote viewing element as having a greater potential for a definitive scenario/solution! I'm wondering if any attempt has
ever been made to engage one or more of these viewers. I believe no stone should remain unturned to
"reasonably" raise the curtain on this enigma. Good posts by all.