- When Jim Sullivan sat in the Newstalk K-57 studio for
the inaugural airing of his science talk radio show, "The DEEP,"
he had no idea that a year and a half later, he'd be in the field helping
about two dozen others search for the remains of Amelia Earhart and her
navigator, Fred Noonan.
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- Sullivan became involved with the search for Earhart
after a man named Jennings Bunn called his show. Bunn had received a letter
that explained what happened to Saint John Naftel when he was in the Marines
on the Pacific Island of Tinian back in 1944.
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- Last week, the three plus Bob Silvers, the other member
of the Tinian Earhart Expedition, found themselves on Tinian with about
20 others looking for the burial place that a Hawaiian man had showed Naftel
in 1944.
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- What does Sullivan have to say about the expedition?
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- "We're in Phase 2 now," he began. "We're
now working on getting in contact with two people who actually saw Amelia
Earhart on Saipan."
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- "Once the map work is done with the Office of Historical
Preservation," he said, "we'll go back to the island and utilize
the data weíve gathered. We will then be able to find more specific
spots and, hopefully, will have the use of ground penetrating radar and
other high tech detective tools to help us."
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- The islands of Tinian and Saipan figured heavily in World
War II because of their proximity to Asia and, more specifically, Japan.
They are in the Northern Mariana Islands, which are about half of the way
from Hawaii to the Philippines and are about 15 degrees north of the equator.
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- The islands are actually mountaintops that are rising
up out of the Marianas Trench, the deepest place on earth.
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- Hence, the names for Sullivan's show, 'The DEEP,' as
he lives on Guam, which is both an island and a mountaintop.
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- "After the dig, when I got off the plane on Saipan,"
Sullivan said, "I met a congressman who claimed that he could introduce
me to two people who saw Amelia Earhart."
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- "I'm not disappointed that we did not find her,"
he continued. "We're excited about the human response and support
we've gotten. It's most encouraging that we all worked together so well."
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- Sullivan is now able to network with people like Dr.
Tom King of TIGHAR, another expeditionary group, and John Mark Joseph,
an archeologist at the Office of Cultural Preservation on Saipan. The OCP
is currently working on layering the old maps that Sullivan and the others
have been using. A search is being conducted on Hawaii for aerial photographs
of the area from the late '30s and '40s.
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- This information, plus GPS coordinates, will all be fed
through a geographic program called ArcView that should, hopefully, provide
some delineation of the old road they need to find.
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- "This expedition is all about science," Sullivan
said. "Today, with shows like Jeff Rense's, science is cool. We can
make science personal, like a love story or your best friend."
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- "Talk radio doesnít need to be political,"
Sullivan explained. "It's up to people like us, all of us, to address
and talk about things like runaway global warming and how we can use things
like remote viewing to save our planet."
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- "Most importantly," he said, "we will
all be able to work together on projects other than the Earhart expedition.
I hope to soon be in contact with the man who is searching for Noah's ark."
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- Sullivan is a passionate eco-humanitarian. He began a
journey in September 1997 to circumnavigate the world to spend quality
time with hospitalized children, school kids, the underprivileged and the
often forgotten group - the elderly. The mission was to make new "OceanFriends"
and share their lives and triumphant stories on the OceanFriends website
at www.oceanfriends.org.
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- He'd been at sea for 32 days when "We encountered
a tropical depression with wind gusts of 80 knots and huge seas,"
Sullivan writes on his website. "The 'Elusive' suffered three knock
downs and hull damage from hitting a submerged object. Our main sail had
blown out and we were taking on water, which caused engine failure. Another
problem to contend with was a super typhoon had developed and was heading
toward us. We set off our emergency beacon, sealed the hull up as much
as we could, manned the pumps and waited."
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- An auto carrier that had 10 more minutes to search rescued
Sullivan and his faithful K-9, Captain Melody. They were rescued, but he
lost his 30-foot sailboat.
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- Today, he's thankful to be alive and is dedicated to
working and networking with other professionals and environmental organizations
that are dedicated to saving our planet.
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- "I'm grateful to Sorensen Pacific Broadcasting and
Rex Sorensen," Sullivan concluded. "And Jon Anderson. They gave
me a chance and here, a year and a half later, through my show, we were
able to go to Tinian again, blend science and history and come closer to
solving this 70 year old mystery."
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- Next: An Interview with Bob Silvers.
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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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