View source for Thomas A Willi, CDR USN (Ret.)

* [[TIGHAR]] #0537.
* Team member on [[Niku I (1989)]].
"The first clue we had [for the [[Niku hypothesis]]] was the navigational logic of a landfall at [[Gardner]]. That was first explained to us by TIGHAR members [[Tom Gannon]] and [[Tom Willi]] in 1988. As we dug into the historical record we discovered that, contrary to popular impression (and ours at the time), the likelihood of the [[Earhart]] having landed at one of the islands of the [[Phoenix Group]] was well recognized in 1937. The very same navigational logic and the significance of the [[LOP|157/337]] line, as laid out for us by Gannon and Willi in 1988, is written out in the report of Capt. Wilhelm Friedell of the [[Colorado|U.S.S. ''Colorado'']] in 1937. We’re not investigating a new Earhart theory. We’re re-investigating the oldest Earhart theory."[http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/forum/FAQs/nikuclue.htm]

"[[Harlan MacDonald]] (aka Don) Wade was, in fact, directly connected to TIGHAR's
initial involvement in the search for Earhart - although we only learned
about the connection years later.  As I understand it, the declassified
documents he referred to were the the reports of Pan Am DF bearings on
post-loss radio signals.  Wade deduced that the signals had originated from
the [[Phoenix Group]], although I seem to recall that he focused on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orona Hull (Orona)] rather
than [[Gardner]].  After one of his fund-raising talks, a former Navy aerial
navigator named Tom Willi offered to lend his expertise to Wade's effort.
Willi soon realized, and began talking about, the navigational connection
between the [[LOP|157/337 line]] and the Phoenix Group.  Before long he was getting
more press than Wade and the two had a falling out.  Willi recruited a
friend, [[Tom Gannon]], who had been an Air Force navigator and together they
worked up a navigational analysis of the Earhart flight which showed [[McKean]]
and [[Gardner]] to be the most likely places for the airplane to have ended up.
Willi applied for a grant from Rolex to fund an expedition, but they turned
him down.  Gannon had recently joined a nonprofit aviation archaeological
group called [[TIGHAR]] and in the spring of 1988 he wrote to us saying that he
and his friend wanted to come and tell us about their [[Amelia Earhart]] theory.
We sort of rolled our eyes and agreed to meet with Willi and Gannon more as a
member-relations thing than any serious interest in Earhart.

"We were surprised at the logic of their argument about the navigation.  They
never mentioned Wade or the [[plrm|post-loss signals]], but they did insist that we
sign a confidentiality agreement and agree that we would bring them along on
any expedition that we conducted.  Our follow-up research showed that Willi
and Gannon had many misconceptions about the [[Phoenix Islands]], but their
navigational logic continued to look valid.  We learned about the [[plrm|post-loss
radio signals]] on our own, and that seemed to provide further validation of
the theory.  We decided to mount an expedition but it became apparent that
the island environment was far too harsh for either of these retired
gentlemen, so they agreed to help man a radio base station in Fiji while we
sailed off to check out [[McKean]] and [[Gardner]].

"Only much later did we learn about Wade's role in getting Tom Willi
interested in the Earhart affair."[http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/forum/Forum_Archives/200002.txt]

== Links ==
* [http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/amelia-48949-earhart-.html "Local men assist in search for Amelia Earhart."]

[[Category:Biographical Data|Willi]]
[[Category:TIGHAR members|Willi]]