Tom, you’re killing me, man!

Earhart went down in “shark infested waters”? Sharks live in the water. Do you also refer to “people infested cities”?

It is kind of amusing that Lindbergh was annoyed by Earhart’s posing, as he saw it, as the female Lindbergh. I have seen some hints that, in spite of her very impressive achievements, that her piloting skills were a bit shaky. I wonder if there are any judgements of her skill by other pilots (male and female — Jacqueline Cochran, Ruth Nichols, etc.)

Bernard B

I’m just curious to know why everyone is so enthralled with Amelia when she wasn’t the first woman to fly. Bessie Coleman was before Amelia and she was also the first person within the United States to ever hold an international aviation license. I don’t ever hear anyone speak about her. What makes Amelia more than Bessie? I have a notion why but maybe your guest can explain that to me?

Thanks

As a 10 year old tomboy growing up in the mid-1970’s, I did my 6th grade biography school report on Amelia Earhart. I remember vividly dressing in knickers and jacket to proudly portray my hero. As a girl she inspired in me possibility and courage.

Queen Bess should be mentioned also people!

I find the focus on Amelia’s flying both interesting and frustrating. Her earlier history as a social worker here in Boston with immigrants in what is now Chinatown at a settlement house is equally, if not more, admirable and timely in my opinion. I live next to what was briefly her property on Quincy Shore Drive, where she sold airplanes and gave flying lessons. It is notable that the peninsula, now occupied by Marina Bay, was a key site of early airplane expeimentation and design by Harvard University, which once owned the Marina Bay site and had an aeronautic facility there.

There’s another terrific book on women’s pilots: Haynsworth/Toomey’s *Amelia Earhart’s Daughters.* It’s an entertaining and inspiring book.

Amelia Earhart is a great American hero. I think she was successful because she was basically a very positive person, a hard worker, and she possessed a boldness that many people didn’t expect women to have.

Also, she was certainly a very good pilot. Though, to some extent the skill of flying is not completely relevant. She became a example to other women that they could excel all kinds of jobs… not just gardening and cooking.

- Dan

I went to high school in Medford, MA, and Amelia Earheart’s sister, Muriel Morrisey,who was a retired teacher, often sat in the back of the classrooms. I have heard she was a big supporter of her sister in her career.

Are you certin that Maggie Gee was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and not a congressional Medal or Congressional Gold Medal, which is an honorific award given to many distinguished persons? CMOH recipients are usually deseased or have died in the act of winning the medal. While I applaud those ladies who service in the WASP, ferrying combat aircraft would prove difficult to result in the award of the CMOH. I also checked the CMOH Society web site and found no evidence of an award to her.

Great show–thanks!

AE did fail on her first takeoff for Howland Island because she allowed it to groundloop. That’s bad piloting.

On the second attempt, she and FN got lost because of poor radio skills on BOTH their part. That’s not piloting; it’s a failure to plan for the last part of the navigation puzzle.

Marty Moleski, SJ
TIGHAR member (an Earhart group)

Ay, we need to acknowledge there are super charismatic people in the world and as long as they don’t do too much harm, its nice to have them around.
I can’t imagine why one of your callers thinks that the fact that Amelia finally crashed on one of her flights is a “failure”! What fascinates people is what she did before and who she was as a person. We all die and some of us die in accidents!
On Lindberg and why he no longer captures our imagination – simple, he was a Nazi sympathizer. Hard to idealize him too much….

I’m delighted that you put Ric on the air!

TIGHAR sent me to Fiji in 2003 to look for the bones found on Nikumaroro. (No joy.)

Marty

Hanna Reitsch ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Reitsch ) is a much more interesting aviator to talk about. Unfortunately, doing so may be politically un-correct.

Further investigation regarding Maggie Gee’s congressional “medal” determined that the award was, in fact, a Congressional gold Medal, not the CMOH. The San Fransisco Chronicle confirmed this on their website.

People should make certain that they have the fact right when refering to the award of the nation’s highest citation.

Another great woman pilot, much revered in her home of New Zealand: Jean Batten.

A splendid appreciation of her 6-year-career as a pilot and the sad tale of her later years, lonely death from an untreated dog bite, and burial in a pauper’s grave:

Mackersey, Ian, Jean Batten: The Garbo of the Skies, Warner Books, 1999.

Marty

No it’s not politically incorrect to mention Hanna Reitsch however her political record cannot be ignored.
She seems to me to be like Werner Von Braun in some ways.

Lindbergh fell out of favor for his nazi sympathies and open support for Hitler.

There is another inspirational and intriguing female pilot who seems to get little attention or interest – Beryl Markham. She is the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic east to west.

Raised in Kenya by her father she may also have been the first woman in Kenya to receive a commercial pilot’s license.

I wish she and other important female aviators would be more widely recognized and celebrated.

I was thrilled to listen to On Point this morning! I loved listening to the information on Amelia Earhart, and especially the interview with Maggie Gee. My mom was a member of the WASP’s, and she was very proud of that accomplishment. Before she died in 2008 my mom had the opportunity to go and “visit” with the planes that she used to fly, thanks to Gina Moore at Warbirds Sky Adventures. The thrill that she felt seeing her old planes brought much joy to her.

Hans, your comment about “shark-infested waters” cracked me up. However, there is a logic to what Tom said. If I am in the water and there are no sharks swarming around, as is sometimes the case even in the ocean, it is not shark infested. If there are sharks schooling everywhere, then it is indeed “shark infested” and I am, therefore, not in it or anywhere near it. That is, unless my plane went down in such waters, in which case I am somewhat concerned.

As to cities, “people infested” is probably the right term, which is why I like to stay out of them as much as possible so as not to be eaten by sharks.

In the late 1950s, I attended high school in Belmont, MA, and had a 10th grade English teacher named Muriel Morrissey. It wasn’t until several years after graduation that I found out she was Ameilia Earhart’s sister! How I wish I had known at the time!

Jeff — Thanks for catching that error on our part. You’ll see that we’ve corrected it.

The fact that Bessie Coleman was a black woman, kept and keeps her from receiving the recognition she surely deserves. Your guest barely acknowledged her and didn’t have the guts to say why Bessie didn’t get the recognition. Which is so typical and why there continues to be such resentment and a need for “dialogue” around race in this country. When white folks make such “mirations” over someone like Amelia I want to scream. Not because Amelia is not worthy of some recognition, but because the racist rears its ugly head in some shape, form or fashion.

Linda, I was unaware of Bessie Coleman. Had never heard of her. So, through the modern miracle of the Internet search engine, I now know her inspiring story. How sad that I’ve lived into my mid 50s in a family of airplane pilots (except for me — I hate flying) without ever once hearing the name Bessie Coleman.

That alone says something about how far we have left to travel on the journey to true racial justice. The rest of you can fly on that journey if you want to. I will drive, thank you.

[...] the Wednesday, October 21 NPR program On Point, host Tom Ashbrook interviewed Susan Butler, author of “East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia [...]

I enjoyed Susan Butler’s biography of Amelia and I was enjoying this interview until Butler made that crack at the end about Amelia’s flight having failed because she depended on a man, her navigator. I feel this remark, though punchy, was unwarranted and unfair to Fred Noonan. Fred’s job was to get them to the near vicinity of Howland Island through the use of celestial navigation; Amelia’s job was to take radio bearings to zero in on their destination once they were sufficiently close. All indications are that the navigational failure had much more to do with radio than with celestial.

For Linda McCone: If it’s any consolation, Bessie Coleman has become well-known and respected among those of us who study women’s aviation history.

Driving to work, getting to know Amelia Earhart better made my day. Great newsreel, writer, Maggie, the callins with Tom’s winning recap and advance moderation of the discourse. Hearing Amelia’s matrimonial letter was sensational. There are whole generations who still don’t believe that men and women both benefit if women are more adventurous, independent and well educated. Amelia’s purpose. Great Show Mr. Ashbrook.

[...] [...]

There is an old expression my Dad used when he was a pilot. “Danger will find you”. He was talking about pilots that did not plan well or too unnecessary risks. He was never impressed by Earhart’s stunts and felt she would have not died if she took the danger of flying more serious.