Hello All,
I have just recently joined this forum as an associate member in response to Les Kinney's post on page 10 of this thread from years ago. I realize it's been a awhile but I have recently been in contact with several people regarding the Earhart Saga and have finally felt the need to set the record straight.
I am the Eric Sussman, who was a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1968-1970 stationed on Enejet Mili. Enejet is an Islet in the south center of Mili Atoll and at that time had a population of 100 natives. My assignment was to teach English to the 30 children on Enejet as part of a TESL program. A few months after my arrival I received a letter from Fred Goerner who requested help in verifying his hypothesis that AE and FN had landed on the atoll before being taken to Jaluit Atoll and then Saipan. I responded that I would try but it would take time as I was a new arrival to Mili (the only foreigner), and the Marshallese culture is quite different than ours. Any new foreigner would be greeted warmly by them and to make that person at ease, would agree to most any question as a point of honor. Hard to understand, but universal in their culture. A love of legend and story telling is a long established tradition. I indicated to Fred that I would wait a year until I was accepted as part of their "family" before starting the inquiry.
During my second year I traveled throughout the atoll: Mili, Mili, Lukonor, Mili and to Nalu, Mili in the northwest corner of the atoll not far from the infamous Barre Islet. Les Kinney's assertion that I never saw other parts of the atoll is not true and an obvious attempt to promote his agenda. During the course of my second year on Mili, I sent Fred at least two letters stating the results of my search. When I returned to the states at the end of my PC service, Fred invited me to stay at his house in San Francisco to discuss the results in more detail before I returned home to New York.
Fred showed me documents from a folder labeled "top secret" that he obtained from Donald Rumsfeld, whom I had never heard of (remember this was 1970). The documents indicated that AE's Electra was to fly higher and faster than publicly known and at the direction of FDR, was to take reconnaissance photos of the Japanese occupied islands. In addition, Fred indicated the Japanese were in possession of the remains of both AE and FN. This was quite a surprise to me but more importantly Fred taped my interview with him, where I stated that I could find no evidence that AE and FN landed anywhere on Mili. I spoke to many people in their 50's and 60's and could find no concrete recollection. One gentlemen said he had heard of the "story" but the landing was in Jaluit. Even by 1970, the Earhart legend as part of Marshallese culture was starting to grow. It has since become common knowledge throughout the culture that she landed in the Marshalls. In my view, all of this is legend but when legend interferes with the facts, print the legend. So now there are stamps from the Republic of the The Marshalls as site of the landing.
I have recently been in contact with Mike Campbell, who trashes me in his book "Truth at Last" as an uninformed and ill-equiped investigator responsible for changing Fred Goerner's belief about the landing. It was not a pleasant conversation. I was never contacted by Mike Campbell before he wrote his book. Gary Benthin has also contacted regarding a follow up to his recent video on the History Channel.
As I told Fred years ago I found no credible evidence that AE landed on Mili but it is still possible, I could just not confirm it. I have no axe to grind here, I'm just as interested as the rest to find out what happened. I got hooked long ago and would love to find out what happened.
There, I feel better now. Thanks for reading, Eric Sussman
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Topic: Dust cover and cover plate (Richard Spink, Mili Atoll) (Read 228752 times)
