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THe official BS: https://earharttruth.wordpress.com/tag/howland-island/ The probable truth-with grains of 80 year old salt:

The essential outlines of the truth—as opposed to the myth—concerning what happened to Earhart, Noonan, and their twin-engine Lockheed Electra are by now well established through the testimony of a large number of witnesses. The airplane went down on an island in the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands to the north of Howland Island. Earhart and Noonan were taken prisoner by the Japanese and treated as spies. From there they were transferred to the Japanese headquarters for the region, the island of Saipan, for incarceration and interrogation, with a likely intermediate stop at Kwajalein Atoll.

https://earharttruth.wordpress.com/tag/saipan-witnesses/ The marines dig up two caucasian bodies on Saipan; the word from the top: <

Marine Gen. Graves B. Erskine, deputy commander of the V Amphibious Corps at the Battle of Saipan. In late 1966, Erskine told Jules Dundes, CBS West Coast vice president, and Dave McElhatton, a KCBS radio newsman, “It was established that Earhart was on Saipan. You’ll have to dig the rest out for yourselves.”

The Rest: https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/ResearchPapers/AEinMarianas.html In summary, the evidence for Earhart and/or Noonan dying and/or being buried in the Marianas consists of a number of eyewitness and secondhand accounts, together with a piece of cloth interpreted as a blindfold and two collections of human bones. The accounts variously have the woman identified as Earhart dying of dysentery and/or being executed by firing squad, while the man identified as Noonan is executed either by firing squad or beheading. Too many non-corroborative independent witnesses from Mili Atoll to Saipan incl. a US Lt nurse, Mary Adams https://earharttruth.wordpress.com/tag/mary-adams-patterson/ corroborate her arrival and demise on Saipan. Whether by beheading, firing squad or dysentery: she was at Saipan. To marines, Burks and Henson . who allegedly dug up remains are of interest under the watchful eye of an intelligence officer :Griswold, who later denied being part of this grave digging episode, yet his language clearly suggests otherwise. He kept repeating, “I’m not denying what you are saying but I have to go on record that I can’t recall.”....Why not a simple grave-registration officer; and who makes good marines dig in a 1944 civilian cemetery in the middle of Pacific War anyhow??!!? And, in all of the accounts, why do the bones and the Electra keep disappearing Bear in mind on this routine 'round-the-world trip, coverage was provided from the top-FDR himself: From midpoint stationed USS Ontario and cutter USS Itaska:

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had made the arrangements for U.S. Government cooperation with the flight, immediately ordered the American battleship USS Colorado which was on a summer reserve training cruise near the Hawaiian Islands to proceed at top speed to the Howland Island area to assist with the search. Colorado carried three catapult observation planes that could cover wide areas of ocean.

That's a lot of government $hekel$ for a simply civilian flight project imho.