We have to live in the real world these days, and the real world, at least regarding WWII artifacts, is utterly ruthless. It’s ALL about the money. Scrapping priceless aircraft is bad, but what is worse, to me, is the maggots in SE Asia who dive on the WWII wrecks to get the valuable metals, There are rumors that any human remains found, if they come up with a piece of salvaged wreck, are either dumped back over the side, or in an unmarked mass grave on land. Disgusting doesn’t even begin to cover it.

ZRX61 said, “Anyone else find it odd that they didn’t release one photo of the wreckage they claim to have filmed?

Paging Mr Gillespie….”

Gillespie has already latched on to Mr. Knott, saying, “Yes, Grahame did a great job locating what’s left of the C-130. We discussed it at some length when Ernie LeRoy, Mark Smith and I met him in Weymouth earlier this month. There are still many questions to be answered about the circumstances of that loss.

Grahame and I instantly recognized that we are kindred spirits. He’s now helping us with the Glenn Miller Project.“

This should be … interesting. On the one hand we have a man who spent a relatively modest amount of money (including bar tabs), used low-tech equipment, a lot of brute force labor, and found what he was looking for.

I am at a loss as to why he would even consider partnering with a man who has spent millions of dollars, used lots of different high tech equipment (and wanted to use lots more if he could get it), has not found a single thing he’s looked for in the past 30 years, and along the way made more than $2 million for himself.

Well, the Glenn Miller Research Expedition has been back in the colonies for almost a week, now, and no official word on what was unearthed. Unofficial word, though, is depressingly predictable.

This pretty much sums up the current state of things at TIGHAR – Gillespie has declared, “the basic (Earhart) mystery is solved. Earhart and Noonan landed and died on Gardner Island (Nikumaroro), but there is still plenty to learn.” Which means, On to the next cash cow, I mean, Research Project:

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Whoever bought it, doesn’t look like you can see much at all out of the second seat.

J Boyle said, “Not to mention his own very healthy salary.”

I think “healthy salary” is a fair term for this situation. Even when TIGHAR was posting yearly losses on its tax forms, Gillespie managed to take home hefty salaries – an average of $142,783 yearly since 2000. That doesn’t include the $276,000 in rent he’s charged TIGHAR to use part of his various homes as his office.

Since there has been no public announcement of how much the Glenn Miller Research Project has raised, although Gillespie has said it isn’t enough, what, exactly, is he hoping to accomplish with this admittedly underfunded “research expedition”?

J Boyle asked, “Couldn’t you interview the fishermen via skype? Can’t you ask the Hydrographic office what they have via email?”

Nope. That’s not how Gillespie does things. Doing things the most cost-effective way doesn’t yield the dramatic video and first-person encounters that give you the stuff you need for the really serious fund-raising. Gotta’ have that dramatic video and those thrilling photos so you can show your members that you are doing something. I’ve seen this time and again with TIGHAR.

So that’s the radiator underneath?