The Post by "Jerry and Bev" dated 14 Apr. 99 posits that Dave McEnery wrote the song on the afternoon of July 2nd, 1937, the very day the accident occurred, and performed it that night with his band.

I have thought about the timing of the events, and I don't believe Red River Dave wrote the song on July 2nd as he claimed. First, I don't believe there was sufficient time or information available, (and I'll tell you why in detail a little later), and second, bear in mind that Red River Dave was first and foremost a showman. Like any other actor or performer, he wanted his name to be mentioned, and mentioned often. What better way to accomplish that end than to have his name linked with Amelia Earhart, arguably the most famous woman of her day?

I started researching Amelia Earhart on the Internet. While there is a lot of information available, the details concerning timing of events, especially as those events relate to time-of-day in the continental US are sparse and confusing.

The more I looked, the more confusing things became. So I decided to pose the question to an unimpeachable source, Ric Gillespie, the Executive Director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR)… "The wonderful thing about TIGHARs is, TIGHARs are wonderful things…" My apologies to A. A. Milne and Ric Gillespie, but I just couldn't resist that quip… Ahem, on to the subject at hand.

TIGHAR has pursued the Amelia Earhart case for over 20 years. And they have done so with rigorous attention to logic and the fine points of forensic archeology. They are undoubtedly the most knowledgeable source of information on Amelia Earhart's disappearance.

On 7 Mar. 2011, I wrote to TIGHAR requesting information on the timing of events surrounding Earhart's disappearance, and when that information would have been available stateside. The following is the key excerpt from my letter to TIGHAR:
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"One poster in the Mudcat discussion thread (Jerry and Bev on 14 Apr. 99) noted that McEnery claimed to have written the song on the afternoon of July 2nd, 1937, the day the accident occurred, and performed it that night with his band. I am concerned with timing.

Earhart's last transmission was at 0843 local time in the Pacific somewhere near Howland Island. (times are also recorded as being GMT and GCT - very confusing). From what I read on your site Howland was in the same time zone as Hawaii. Hawaii is approximately 5 time zones west of Texas. So, If I did my time zone math correctly, Earhart's last transmission would have occurred in Texas at about 1400 Central Time.

Now to my question... How soon after Amelia was officially reported as lost did the news break in the continental US? Did Red River Dave really have enough time do what he claimed to do?"

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On 8 Mar. 2011, I received a response to my question from Ric Gillespie the Executive Director of TIGHAR. The entire text of Mr. Gillespie's response appears below:

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Hi James,

Fascinating question. I've long been familiar with Red River Dave's song (know it by heart) but I wasn't aware he claimed to have written it on the night of July 2nd.

Itasca's first notification to Coast Guard San Francisco Division that all was not well was sent at 10:15 AM local time aboard Itasca which was 1:45 PM in San Francisco.

"EARHART CONTACT 0742 REPORTED ONE HALF HOUR FUEL AND NO LAND FALL POSITION DOUBTFUL.
CONTACT 0646 REPORTED APPROXIMATELY ONE HUNDRED MILES FROM ITASCA BUT NO RELATIVE BEARING.
0843 REPORTED LINE OF POSITION 157 DASH 337 BUT NO REFERENCE POINT. PRESUME HOWLAND.
ESTIMATE 1200 FOR MAXIMUM TIME ALOFT AND IF NONARRIVAL BY THAT TIME WILL COMMENCE SEARCH NORTH WEST QUADRANT FROM HOWLAND AS MOST PROBABLE AREA.
SEA SMOOTH, VISIBILITY NINE, CEILING UNLIMITED.
UNDERSTAND SHE WILL FLOAT FOR LIMITED TIME.

It was not until 1:15 PM local time aboard Itasca (4:45 PM in San Francisco) that the word was official:
"EARHART UNREPORTED HOWLAND AT 1200
BELIEVE DOWN SHORTLY AFTER 0915 AM.
SEARCHING PROBABLE AREA AND WILL CONTINUE."

Media representatives were standing by at Coast Guard San Francisco Division so the word that Earhart was missing went out immediately and was included in the major radio networks' evening news broadcasts.

Let's look at Red River Dave's lyrics.

"Well a ship out on the ocean, just a speck against the sky Amelia Earhart flying sad that day With her partner, Captain Noonan, on the second of July Her plane fell in the ocean, far away."

This could have been written on the evening of July 2nd. (Although often quoted as you have it, the lyric was almost certainly "Amelia Earhart flying that sad day. Amelia was not sad. The day was sad.)

"She radioed position and said that all was well Although the fuel within the tanks was low But they'd land on Howland to refuel her monoplane Then on their trip around the World they'd go"

The information that she had radioed that her fuel was running low was not reported until July 4th, so that line could not have been written earlier than that date.

"Well a half an hour later an SOS was heard, Her signal weak, but still her voice was brave.
Oh, In shark-infested waters her plane went down that night In the blue Pacific to a watery grave."

This line also could not have been written on the night of July 2nd. The first reports that SOS calls had been heard from the plane did not appear in the press until the late editions of the July 3rd newspapers. The news that she was missing was first announced in the evening of July 2nd, creating the impression that "her plane went down that night" when, in fact, the disappearance occurred in the morning. For the first several days of the search, expectations were high that Earhart and Noonan would be rescued. The reference to a "watery grave" suggests that the stanza was written after the search was abandoned.

"Now you heard my story of that awful tragedy We pray that she might fly home safe again In years to come, though others blaze a trail across the sea, We'll ne'er forget Amelia and her plane."

This stanza holds out hope that she will "fly home safe again" but is not optimistic.

Red River Dave may well have conceived the song on the night of July 2nd but it was certainly not completed before July 5th and was probably completed some time after the search was abandoned on July 18th.

That was fun.

Thanks,

Ric Gillespie
Executive Director
TIGHAR
www.tighar.org

tigharic@mac.com


author of
"Finding Amelia - The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance"
Published by the Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD

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Given that Earhart was not officially reported missing until 4:45 PM Pacific Time, which would have been 6:45 PM Central Time in Texas (Red River Dave's location). It is chronologically impossible for McEnery to have written the song in the" afternoon" as it was already 45 minutes into "evening" in Texas.

Mr. Gillespie's scholarly dissection of the lyrics, and comparison of them to the ACTUAL timing of events, makes it very doubtful that Red River Dave did little more than conceptualize the song on the NIGHT (NOT afternoon) of July 2nd, 1937. And that in all probability, the song did not appear in its final form until two or three weeks later.

Give Red River Dave his due, he successfully liked his name forever with Amelia Earhart, even if only peripherally… And he wrote a great song to boot, but written on the 2nd of July it wasn't.

For those of you who have not visited the TIGHAR website to view their extensive information on Amelia Earhart, I strongly urge you to do so. The information, which takes about two hours to read through in its entirety, is utterly fascinating and worth every minute it takes to read it all.

A big T H A N K   Y O U! to Ric Gillespie for his help in answering this question.

James. W. Phillips
Avionics Repairman
US Army 70th Aviation Detachment
Korat Royal Thai Airbase 1969-70

And self-taught guitar-player and folksinger since 1965