European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 6 the stars and stripes Box May help group solve mystery of ear Hart flight fort Walton Beach Fla. Apr a Metal Box found in the South Pacific initially dismissed As junk May be a promising clue to the disappearance of Pilot Amelia Earhart say members of an organization trying to unravel the mystery Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished without a Trace 53 years ago while attempting to make an around the world flight. Tom Willi and Tom Gannon both retired military fliers living in this Florida Panhandle City used 1930s navigation techniques to plot Earhart a Likely course. They persuaded the International group for historic aircraft recovery or to Giliar based in Wilmington del., to mount a $250,000 expedition last year to the Pacific atoll Nikuma Orland nearby Mckean Island. Tighary s 28lmernber team returned with several items but he most intriguing is the aluminium Box now identified As a navigators Bookcase. The Box about i foot by 1 fool by 10 inches was buried in Sand on the atoll and discovered with someone using a Metal Detector. Gannon said he believes the Bookcase came from Earhart a a plane. A a it a More than a promising Lead. It s a convincer a he fold the Northwest Florida daily news. But Tighary s president Patricia thrasher was1 More cautious. A we Arentt ready to say a this is it Tada a a she said. Quot we can to do that until we see a photograph of it in the Earhart air plane or find somebody who says a yeah i installed one Lor Noonan but we arc very excited about it.�?�. Researchers have determined the Bookcase was manufactured by consolidated aircraft corp Ofsan Diego by Catalina flying boats used to resupply a co for _ Oast guard navigation and communications base on now uninhabited Nikuma Roro during world War ii. However Tighary reported in its August newsletter that wartime pays carried a later Model Bookcase and that the one found by the Earhart expedition had mounting holes and fixtures that a Are All wrong for installation in a by. The researchers have speculated that Noonan could have bought or borrowed a Bookcase from the Navy and modified it for use m Earhart a two engine Lockheed Electra. Early versions of the Bookcase were available Earhart in 1936 and 1937, thrasher said. Earhart and Noonan vanished in july 1937. The organization has been unable to find any ear Hart photographs or official sketches of the Interior of the missing Electra r a the focus for photographers was always Earhart and that meant the cockpit not the Back of the aircraft where the navigators Bookcase would be been a she said. Thrasher said the group plans to return to Nikuma Roro in september 1991 to look for the missing plane with Remote underwater search equipment. A if its where we think the air plane is going to be Down about 2,000 feet a thrasher said. At least 13 killed in crashes of Small planes in 3 states by the associated press two Small planes plunged into the Ocean after a Southern California midair collision killing Al least two people,.while had weather was blamed in a Wisconsin air wreck that killed sewn and a Montana crash that killed four. Divers were to resume work monday morning to recover remaining bodies off Long Beach Harbor in California after two bodies were found in the submerged wreckage of one plane sunday the victims names were withheld until Lami by could be notified. Tire seven people who died in the Watertown. Wis., crash late saturday were relatives including four children. Their plane crashed in a Cornfield shortly alter Takeoff and was discovered the next Day. Four people died sunday night in the Montana crash of a Iwin engine Jane at the Kalispell City Airport during a rainstorm officials said. The plane hipped while try ing to land in rain and heavy wind. Victims identities were not immediately available. It was not known what brought the two planes in California so close together sunday afternoon in mostly Clear skies hut a witness said they appeared to be mane vering playfully As if intentionally dodging each other. Quoth was terrible really bad a said Frank Gennaro 44, of Downes a Alii who was in a boat fishing when the planes collided Quot it looked like they were try ing to do some kind of acrobatics. They were try ing to avoid each other arid one plane chopped off the others  1 he isso bodies recovered were in the cockpit of a Piper Turbo Arrow with one severed Wing in about 35 feet of water inside the Harbor authorities said. Wreckage of the other plane believed to be a four seat Cessna was thought to have been spotted outside the Harbor breakwater but divers could not get to it before the search was suspended because of diminishing underwater visibility said Long Beach fire department spokesman Bob Caldon. Wheels from Landing gear headphones and pieces of an air plane door were among wreckage scraps recovered by divers. It was not known How Many were aboard the second plane but All were believed to be dead officials said. Federal aviation administration officials said the planes were not in Contact with air traffic controllers at the time of the collision. The National transportation safety Board was investigating the separate crashes Faa officials said. In the Wisconsin crash the wreckage of the Piper Comanche sat unobserved in 6-foot-High com until a search Pilot spotted it from above. The search was launched when the wife of the downed planets Pilot reported him overdue. There were showers lightning and Thunder in the area late saturday. The plane was being used for a Short flight authorities said. A we done to know Why anyone would take a plane up in that weather a said Jefferson county sheriffs Deputy Michael Sullivan. Stateside prison inmates Volunteer for service in saudi Arabia Sebrino a. Up a Call them the dirty dozen plus two fourteen state prison inmates including one serving a life sentence for murder have offered to Volunteer for militia a service in the Sands of saudi Arabia. All they re asking in return is a decent burial if they re killed or a Pardon if they survive. / the inmates at the Cross City correctional institution spelled out their offer in a letter to president Bush saying that serving in the . Deployment to the Middle East would a restore some of the lost Honor we have inflicted on ourselves and this  no one in authority appears to be seriously considering the offer. A while House,spokeswo1 Man laughed when told about it. A it sounds like they be been watching too Many movies a said Bob Macmaster a spokesman for the Florida department of correction recalling the 1967 movie a the dirty dozen Quot in which a group of murderers rapists and other criminals Are sprung from a military prison for a dangerous world War ii  makes headlines with 1945 newspaper Brownwood Texas apr Marion Smith was putting a new roof on Howard Payne University a Mims auditorium in May 1945 when he was distracted by newsboys Yelling a extra a on the Street below. Smith was 18 and about to be drafted for world War ii. What he found when he climbed Down changed his life and set into motion what became a reunion of sorts. The bold headline on the Brownwood bulletin screamed a nazis quit a and it was followed by a slightly smaller headline a unconditional surrender ends War in  Smith went Back on the roof Laid the paper Down and placed shingles Over it. A i remember thinking that if and when the roof was redone someone would find the newspaper Quot he said. Smith was recently Given the Job of a roofing the auditorium and he found the old newspaper. A the funny thing is that it Wasny to where 1 had remembered putting it a he said. He said the discovery thrilled the roofing Crew. A it also pleased me to know that at 63, in a still roofing a Smith  in Law who ran a fkr a Campaign Dies at 62 new York apr Stephen e. Smith who married into americans most illustrious political family and managed brother in Law John f. Kennedy a presidential Campaign has died at age 62. Smith who died in his Home sunday after a Long illness was married to the former Jean Kennedy. He was administrative chief of the Kennedy Campaign in 1960 and also ran several family businesses and advised the Kennedy family on finances. Boeing shows off 8-2 stealth factory to Public is 111 to Huting co opened its High set in 11s b 2 Lectory Fiir the Tarsi time , i in a i ices an .1 employ Cess unifies shoe my Oil some of the exotic structures  to into the top arc stealth bomber. Pompan p Moltu  also  my that it Money Toi the bomber is curtailed Seei Al thousand employee would be fired Oxer the next two y ears i lie 4sii, Complex in jul South of the itty is one of the would s largest plants Tor urn King with Compo site materials the plastic and Graphite Tabriz used Tor the Fly mgr me bomber. Among the gear hoeing a weaned Sun Day was the worlds largest autoclave a  Long 25-Tooi-diameter oxen for curing huge a remit pints some at 350 d leg tees under High pressure. Ii egg Field its b-2 family Day to give Wmk Eis a Thanee to show their relatives what they do said Dale Shellhorn b-2 program manager fur hoeing defense amp space group. A Ness Lour was added last week because Fri Ruig wanted to defend the endangered defense program. Shellhorn said. Quot we read too Many of your editorials and opinions that say that an investment in b-2 is Kirly placed. We who do it Beheye that the a peace dividend is what we be been gets aug All these years Quot he said. 3 he u-2 Lias been criticized in Congress because of its Price in a time of huge spending deficits and a diminishing soviet threat. A detente Secretary Dick Chenev wants to buy 75 of the planes for $6 1.1 billion Down rom the original plan to gel 132 Tor $75.4 billion. A House proposal would limit the Purchase to the 15 planes now in production at a Cost of $27 billion. 1 Hough it s a subcontractor. Hoeing makes most of the components of the Bat shaped aircraft. It makes the outer Wing sur taxes the Center tart of the plane All of the cockpit the Landing gear weapons system Lud system and the electronics to gel the aircraft a bombs to their targets. Other major subcontractors include Ltd which makes inboard sections of the wings where the engines and tanning gear Are general electric which supplies the two engines. And Hughes aircraft co., which provides electronics. Northrop builds the cockpit and nose pub and the parts together at its Palmdale cab factory and does the flight testing. The b-2 is a Long Range bomber designed to Fly deep into enemy territory without being selected. It Quot an carry mme than 40,000 pounds of explosives including up to 16 nuclear weapons or r-1 conventional bombs