J has a framed photograph, poster size, of the famed aviator Amelia Earhart hanging on his classroom wall. It's there for the purpose of showing a person who can inspire children to be whatever they are capable of being.
This female flyer took risks and challenges during a time when it - in many circles - wasn't considered 'lady like' to venture into the heavens in small planes to outmatch, which she did numerous times, her male aviation counterparts.
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| Okay, not Amelia but pretty brave and risky! |
In the nineteen-thirties, a woman's place may have been thought to be at home with the children, but with Amelia, her calling wasn't for such a life. Her place was to stand alongside those other adventurers and world changers who smirked at danger and were willing to risk everything to prove they were correct.
Eleanor Roosevelt as first lady paved the way for a president's wife to hold her own news conferences, write syndicated columns for newspapers, and never hold her tongue on national or international news.
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| A first for a First Lady |
Jesse Owens - the African-American track and field star of the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, shattered Adolf Hitler's ridiculous conception of Aryan supremacy. Four gold medals later, he proved he was one of the best in the world. To this day, according to ESPN, he is considered one of the top six greatest American athletes of the twentieth century.
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| Thanks, Jesse |
Gertrude Stein was American novelist, poet, playwright and avid art collector. This woman almost single-handily broke the 'paper' ceiling. She hosted and inspired such notables as Pablo Picasso, 'Papa' Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, The Fitzgerald's, and others at her Paris salon.
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| Gertrude - couldn't say it any better |
This was a time when the 'outsiders' made the 'insiders' nervous.
Amelia Earhart was such a person. Her passion had always been flying even from a young age. She was the first woman to fly a plane to 14,000 feet, setting a world record for female pilots. In 1923, she was the 16th woman to receive her pilot's license in the United States. She even went so far as to purchase a small biplane, she named 'Canary' to continue with her flying adventures.
She wanted to make it in the rare world of flyers, but she realized that her young appearance could be a hindrance at being taken seriously. She cut her hair short, as was the fashion for those few other female pilots at the time, and even slept in her signature leather flying jacket for three months to give it the appearance of a well worn old friend.
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| Now, that's a true flyer by the looks of her. |
But sometimes reality stands in the way of immediate fame.
Sadly when her inheritance ran out, she had to sell almost everything, including the 'Canary' and she took a job as a social worker in 1925 near Boston at a settlement house. Not to be deterred, she stayed as close to the runways as she could when time allowed, to ensure she was not forgotten and was finally approached for a transatlantic flight by Captain Hilton H. Railey. He was wondering if she'd like to copy Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic.
So, in April 1928 and the young woman eagerly accepted the offer. Unfortunately, Amelia did not have adequate personal experience, so the flight from Newfoundland to South Wales was really instrument flown by Wilmer Stultz - a fellow pilot. She always felt as though she was nothing but baggage and not the woman who flew the Atlantic solo for the first time.
Fame came anyway and so did her marriage to George P. Putman - who was the one who had truly coordinated the Atlantic flight in the first place. Amelia fell in love with the book publisher and publicist whom she married in 1931. Of course, she wasn't really the marrying type and it did take Putman asking her six times before she agreed.
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| Mr. and Mrs. George P. Putman - but just call her, Amelia |
As a publicist, George knew a good thing when it was standing or flying in front of his eyes. With the newly married couple, there was a strategy to make Amelia a household name. They did and Amelia's influence was in the fashion industry, luggage, household products, and even Lucky Strike cigarettes.
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| Amelia - we're in - where next? |
She was one of the most recognizable people in the world.
It even got better - she had dreamed of actually flying solo across the Atlantic and achieved that feat in May of 1932. From Newfoundland to Derry, Northern Ireland. The nearly fifteen hour flight catapulted Amelia in the record books once and for all.
After this incredible feat, she continued on breaking record after record, but the main thing for which she is remembered, is for her attempt to fly around the world. She wanted to be the first woman to fly a plane around this floating rock in space called earth. Of course, a navigator would be aboard but only to provide critical information to the pilot when needed.
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| Ah, Fred - maybe a left here? |
Amelia would be at the controls the entire time.
The first attempt ended with the plane damaged in March of 1937. The second attempt - the one that made her more famous than she ever had envisioned, began in Oakland, California May of 1937 (that's where her plane, the Electra had been repaired from the first attempt). She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, announced in Miami, Florida that they would circumnavigate the globe, shocking the world but probably not the flying community. Anyone who knew this brave woman realized this day was bound to to come. It came on June 1st, 1937 when they took off from Miami planning to circle the planet. Twenty-eight days later the duo found themselves with only 7,000 miles left in this epic journey. The problem was it would be mostly above the wide and dangerous Pacific Ocean.
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| Where the Electra went down, perhaps? |
What happened to both Earhart and Noonan has gone down in history as one of the greatest mysteries of aeronautics.
There were sporadic radio signals from Amelia but in the end none of those hearing the comments could be sure the Electra was on the right track. They were heading for was Howland Island.
The USCGC Itasca was stationed near Howland Island just in case the flyers needed assistance in finding this small outcrop in the Pacific. The last communication they had was near the Nukumanu Islands.
At 7:42 a.m. was one of the last, if not the last, call from Amelia to the Itasca: "We must be on you, but cannot see you - but gas is running low. Have been unable to to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet."
There may have been one or two more radio calls but the fact was Amelia and Noonan were in serious - make that deadly trouble. It has to be understood that the bottom radio antenna on the Electra may have been sheared off at take-off from Lae, New Guinea due to the amount of fuel the plane had to carry for the voyage. This could make accurate radio tracking signals almost impossible.
The Electra was never seen again.
One of the largest air and sea search and rescues began, but to no avail.
In the past eighty years there have been rumors, intrigue, eye-witnesses, researchers, and a host of others who have tried to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart's last moments. Countless articles have been written spawning countless documentaries. Books, both fiction and non-fiction, have been published in an attempt to explain how a person so talented and accomplished as Amelia Earhart could just 'disappear' from existence and not leave one single piece of evidence.
Perplexing to say the least.
Recently, on July 5th, 2017, a photograph surfaced perhaps proving Amelia and Noonan had survived the crash and were taken prisoners by the Japanese. That rumor has been around since World War II. The photo shows a group of people on a dock in a large bay. One boat has what looks like a plane similar to the one Amelia had been flying and the woman sitting on the dock appears to be Amelia -same build and characteristic hair style. A tall man on the left of the photograph has an uncanny appearance to Fred Nooaon, her navigator. All of the others appear to be either islanders or of Asian descent.
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| Hmm - looks like Earhart and Noonan |
Was the mystery solved?
Whoops - not so fast.
On July 11th, a military history blogger by the name of Kota Yamano declared that the photograph was taken two years earlier in Palau. He stated that the woman nor the man were either Earhart or Noonan. The blogger didn't say who the two obvious 'foreigners' were though. Those crazy bloggers!
By the way, Palau was under Japanese control during that time. And by the way again, the ship in the photo towing the plane which looks a lot like the Electra was a Japanese navy survey ship - the IJN Koshu. And by the way again, this ship supposedly helped in looking for the real Electra in 1937, but with no luck.
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| The Electra on the rear of the IJN Koshu - hmm, again |
Coincidence? Who knows but the mystery is not solved - yet.
'Breaking news as of July 21st, the long time searcher for the truth behind Amelia Earhart's disappearance has reiterated that the photograph from the Jaluit Atoll is indeed Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. It was taken in July of 1937. Former FBI official Shawn Henry - who starred in a History Channel documentary says he is one hundred percent certain the photograph is real and taken in 1937 showing Amelia and Fred were taken prisoners by the Japanese.'
The plot thickens. One searcher says it's her and a blogger says it was taken two years earlier. Though, this team of bloggers sees quite a resemblance there in that photo of the two missing aviators. Just saying.
So the photograph of Amelia Earhart hangs on one wall in J's classroom as a reminder to his students that they can be whoever they can - as long as they have the skills - and to never give up on their dreams.
They may succeed with those dreams.
But, sometimes dreams are mysterious things - such as in the case of Amelia Earhart.
Then again - sometimes mysteries are to remain a mystery. They seem to assist in the human condition called - imagination.
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| An adventurer? Yes, and an icon for such. |
