- Day One, Earhart Excavation, Typically Tropical Tinian.
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- The digging started today, Friday, November 12, about
8 a.m. as people were still clearing the site.
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- The canopies were up to protect the team from the downpours
and blistering sun.
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- Tinian is about 15 degrees north of the equator. The
UV index can exceed the maximum of ten and is commonly measured around
15.
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- It was mostly cloudy with scattered rain and isolated
thunderstorms.
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- East winds blew about 10 to 15 mph.
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- The downpours are stronger than your bathroom shower.
By the time you stop your car, open the door and get out, you are soaked.
Or. if you are wearing a shoulder-less sundress, since it's about 86 degrees
Fahrenheit or 30.5 Celsius, the rain just runs down your skin.
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- The 'my clothes are sticking to my body' humidity is
so high; it may as well be raining
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- The two depressions that are in the spot that Saint John
Naftel remembered being shown as Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan's graves
were labeled 'Pit 1' which was under the oversight of Mike Fleming, Chief
Archeologist. 'Pit 2' was under the oversight of Dr. Tom King, senior archeologist
of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (acronym TIGHAR,
pronounced 'tiger').
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- Shovel-scraping and careful hand brushing in Pit 2 revealed
bedrock, so other pits were designated.
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- There were only two backhoes on the island but only one
works. Tomorrow, Saturday, trenches will be dug between the new pits as
time quickly runs out.
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- Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Karin Ramey Burns is flying
out at 5 a.m. Sunday, so if anything is to be found and fly out with her,
the expedition has till 4pm on Saturday. Their permit from the Commonwealth
of the Northern Mariana Islands allows the expedition to dig from November
12-16, but skeletal identification would take more time after her early
departure.
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- So far, no human remains have been found; only pottery
shards, bits of metal, and artifacts.
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- Many have been listening to Naftel as he literally tells
old war stories. It was fitting that he returned to Tinian on Veteran's
day, a little over a year after he and the Tinian Earhart Expedition discovered
the site he was shown in 1944.
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- How is the 82 year old Naftel doing?
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- "I'm doing real good," Naftel said. "We're
not discouraged after not finding any remains our first day because no
one can say this is the spot. What we're doing is based on authentic information
and all we're trying to do is find out."
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- How sure is he that this is the right area?
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- "Well, I can't pin point it to a 2 by 4 spot,"
he continued. "This is the general area. I don't know how much the
terrain has changed the past 67 years. The road I traveled no longer exists.
It looks very much like the right spot. Like being in the right church,
but not the right pew."
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- "We're not discouraged because we're digging through
rocks and stuff. We don't know exactly what kind of digging was done at
first, so in time, the dirt confirms to the terrain," he observed.
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- "I am very happy with everything that so many people
have done," he said. "They are concerned enough to come here
and do this and there is a lot of interest in the Amelia situation because
if we find her, it will be the end of the Amelia Earhart saga."
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- "So many people are here; several people I feel
indebted to. They have sacrificed a lot to get it all moving and to set
the whole thing up. It's amazing how big it is and all that it took to
make it happen," he concluded.
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- There are about 6 PhDs in charge as the science of archeology
is systematically documented and recorded. Everyone has paid their own
way.
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- Yesterday, an archeology professor and six lucky students
arrived from the University of Guam. These college kids are working side
by side with international experts as they try to solve this 70 year old
mystery.
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- But according to Bob Silvers, expedition member, everyone
remains hopeful.
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- "There are so many stories about sightings and different
theories that they are located in Saipan and Tinian and many haven't been
acted on," he explained.
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- "One of the reasons we're here," he said "ìs
that time is critical."
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- "Everyone has decided it's time to take a look at
these stories and either prove or disprove Naftel's recollections and record
what is going on. WW2 was almost 60 years ago. It's time to do this and
we'll see more in the next few days like what happened to the aircraft
and about the sightings of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan in jeeps on the
islands, that kind of thing," Silvers concluded.
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- _____
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- Cassandra 'Sandy' Frost is an award winning e-journalist
and editor who has covered the topics of Intuition, Remote Viewing and
Consciousness from an Athabascan or Alaska Native point of view the past
three years.
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- More of her articles can be found at: http://blogs.salon.com/0003531/
http://blogs.salon.com/0004117/
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