I'm a lawyer, a former naval officer, a lifelong fan of aircraft, and a history nut.
Like many others, I first encountered the mystery of Amelia Earhart while growing up, and always assumed that she ran out of fuel and crashed and sank. After all, the Pacific Ocean is a pretty big place.
I attended the United States Naval Academy from 1990 to 1994. In the spring of 1993, my father visited the Academy to attend a Naval Institute seminar. As a member of the Naval Institute, he had attended the seminar both to visit me, and to attend some other portion of the seminar that is now lost to my memory (probably not important anyway
). Somehow, the presentation that TIGHAR was giving spread by word of mouth like wildfire through the yard. During a break in classes, I was able to locate my father and his Naval Institute friends, who had somehow wandered into TIGHAR's presentation and debate. This was the first I had heard of TIGHAR and what was then called the Gardner Island hypothesis. I had already taken the Academy's course on celestial navigation, and had sailed with the Command Seamanship Training Squadron. I was also majoring in history. The presentation by TIGHAR was fascinating. Later during the seminar, I attended a dinner in Dahlgren Hall. The dinner was abuzz with talk of TIGHAR's presentation. All of the Naval Institute members that I spoke with that evening were impressed with Mr. Gillespie's presentation and the revelation of facts that many were either unaware of, or assumed lost to the ages.
I graduated in 1994, and went to serve in the engineering department on the USS Duluth (LPD 6). I transferred to the reserves in 1998, and worked as a historical aircraft restorer for the San Diego Aerospace Museum for several months, while waiting to go to law school. While at the museum, I encountered many volunteers who were again discussing TIGHAR, and the things that they had found on Nikumaroro. Some museum members were big fans of TIGHAR, and others were staunch critics. We would have heated debates over lunch, and it was impressive listening to the various opinions and knowledge from people involved in the history of aviation.
I now practice law in Los Angeles, but one of my big distractions for years has been following TIGHAR on the internet, and reading many forum posts. It is wonderful to have this forum, and catch up on the things that I had first encountered so many years ago.
