Editor’s note: This commentary is by Stephen C. Terry, who was legislative assistant for Sen. George Aiken from 1969 to 1975. He is also a former managing editor of the Rutland Herald and a retired vice president at Green Mountain Power. He is an occasional columnist for the Rutland Herald and Times Argus, in which this was first published, and does political analysis for WCAX-TV and WDEV-Radio. He lives in Middlebury.
[G]eorge D. Aiken loved flying, and as governor (1937-1941) he took private lessons. With the beginning of World War II, he gave up his hobby after logging 30 hours at the controls.
Aiken’s interest in flying was clearly supercharged by his dinner meeting in Montpelier in 1935 with the world’s most famous female aviator, Amelia Earhart. At the time, Earhart, in her late 30s, had completed a solo flight across the Atlantic and was planning her flight to circumnavigate the world, which was scheduled to start two years later. Her fame, like that of Charles Lindbergh before her, was worldwide. She was a role model for women’s equality and leadership.
One of her famous quotes was: “Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”
Earhart never completed the 1937 flight, and disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
Now, 80 years later, the mystery remains.
Did Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, ever land their Lockheed Electra, or did it crash into the ocean never to be found again?
Another theory, which has been highlighted by History — the name for the History Channel — is that Earhart and Noonan landed in the Marshall Islands, where they were captured by the Japanese and died in captivity.
Researchers are continuing their efforts to solve the Earhart mystery. It remains one of the most fascinating cold cases ever. The official finding of the U.S. government was that Earhart’s plane plunged into the Pacific Ocean on a failed attempt to reach a scheduled stopover at Howland Island. She was officially declared dead in 1939 at age 40.
Aiken often talked about his encounter with Earhart, and he had his own theory why she never finished her flight. He told me the story several times during the time I worked for him in his Senate office in Washington from 1969 to 1975.
It wasn’t until 1981 — three years before Aiken died at age 92 — that he put his Earhart theory into writing for his family.
Aiken wrote longhand a series of small stories under the general heading “The Way It Was — and Is.” Ever mindful of history, the cover page also carried the following byline: “By George D. Aiken — copyright 1981.”
My longtime journalism colleague and friend Bill Porter and I received a copy from an Aiken family member in the late 1990s as part of an Aiken book research project.
Here is what Aiken wrote about Amelia Earhart in 1981. It is now made public for the first time:
“After listening to the radio to one who claimed to know all about what happened to her — I feel I should tell what actually was her last hours as I know them.
“After soloing over the Atlantic, Amelia visited places in New England. I was Lieutenant Governor at the time she visited. Charlie Smith was Governor. He was to take her to supper that night, but didn’t feel up to it, and so asked me to take Amelia, which I did.
“I had never met her before and we visited. I asked her what her next long flight would be and she said to solo across the Pacific Ocean.”
Aiken said that Earhart had a navigator. While he didn’t name him, it was Fred Noonan.
“They went to Asia and began the flight. Amelia was the pilot and had the front seat — of course,” Aiken wrote.
“Her navigator sat behind her with a partition between them.” Aiken reported that Earhart was heard on radio transmission saying, “I am lost and don’t know where we are.”
“What happened, we never knew for sure. It was a fact that she could not change seats with her navigator because of the partition in place. If she could have swapped seats, she would be her own navigator.”
Aiken explains why Earhart may have wanted to take over the navigator role.
“It was known that her navigator (Noonan) may have overindulged in alcohol while on their last stop on land.”
Then Aiken softens his judgment somewhat with this last comment: “I did not know him at all — he may have been stricken by physical trouble.”
The last stop on land was in Lae, New Guinea, before taking off for their next scheduled stop, 2,556 miles away, on tiny Howland Island.
“But after getting that last message, nothing more was ever heard from Amelia,” Aiken wrote.
Aiken never told me exactly where he got his information, but I always surmised it came from his deep sources in the U.S. government, given his senior status on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his membership in the then-secret group of eight congressional leaders who were always briefed on top-secret intelligence matters. In those days, secrets remained secret.
The notion that Noonan had been drinking heavily the night before the pair left New Guinea was a theory that was discussed in 1937, but 80 years later, recent news stories about Earhart’s mystery disappearance do not mention Noonan’s drinking.
Aiken told me on several occasions his firm view that Noonan’s drinking caused Earhart’s plane to crash. While I now regret I never pressed Aiken on the source of his information, I have always assumed it was from U.S. intelligence sources, as the government had investigated the cause of the crash.
What prompted Aiken to write for his family how he thought Earhart died?
My only answer is that he was impressed by the dynamic, spirited young woman he met in Montpelier in 1935. And her role in history remained seared in Aiken’s memory until his death in 1984.
Aiken’s view of Earhart helps explain the ongoing fascination with this remarkable pioneering woman.