Sixteen (16) New Permits, Including Four More Helling Trust Federal Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Active rigs:

	4/4/2014	04/04/2013	04/04/2012	04/04/2011	04/04/2010
Active Rigs	192	186	207	172	102

Sixteen (16) new permits --

• Operators: CLR (6), Oasis (4), MRO (2), BR (2), Hess, Petro-Hunt
• Fields: Stoneview (Divide), Alkali Creek (Mountrail), Moccasin Creek (Dnn), Keene (McKenzie), Antelope (McKenzie), Union Center (McKenzie)
  Comments: Four (4) more Oasis Helling Trust Federal permits;

Wells coming off the confidential list today were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

I look forward to the day that the older granddaughter becomes interested in Amelia Mary Earhart.

I have just begun the centennial biography of Amelia Earhart, c. 1997, by Donald M Goldstein and Katherine V Dillon.

The biography was published by the "first name in aviation publishing," Brassey's. I have read many, many publications by Brassey. I first came across Brassey while stationed in England. I suspect I still have some of their books, though I threw away most of my aviation books away after I retired from the USAF. As noted earlier, when I retired from the Air Force, I cut almost all links with the military.  I have fond memories of the Air Force, but I wanted to make sure I moved on. But I digress.

The background to the book is interesting. At the time of publication, Donald Goldstein was a professor at the University of Pittsburgh and former air Force officer. Katherine Dillon was a retired Air Force chief warrant officer who had collaborated with Dr Goldstein and the late Dr Gordon W. Prange on eight bestselling books, including At Dawn We Slept and Miracle at Midway (both of which I read while assigned overseas). I don't know if I still have my copy of Miracle of Midway but I know that I have At Dawn We Slept still in some packing box.

It turns out that Goldstein and Dillon were provided some incredibly good material, previously unpublished by two remarkable men: the late Captain Laurence F Safford, USN (Ret.) and John F. Luttrell, a Georgia businessman.

It turns out that Safford had been Chief, Naval Communications Security, in 1941. Prange had interviewed Safford for his book, At Dawn We Slept, and after publication they kept in touch.  Safford eventually sent Prange a copy of a manuscript concerning Amelia Earhart for comments and suggestions. Prange was too busy with other commitments to work on the Safford/Earhart project. The manuscript languished in Prange's files until after his death and Goldstein/Dillon "discovered" them again.

In retirement, Safford had discovered that the US Navy had installed a high-frequency direction finder on Howland Island in the Pacific in 1936. Amelia Earhart buffs will recognize Howland Island; it was in the immediate area that Earhart was presumed to have been lost. As Chief, NCS, Safford should have been apprized of the high-frequency direction finder on Howland Island, but he was unaware of it until his research during retirement. One thing led to another, including details that might help solve the Amelia Earhart mystery.

Safford's manuscript was an engineering manuscript meant for engineers written by an engineer. Goldstein and Dillon needed the human touch to round out the Amelia Earhart story.

Enter John Luttrell.

Safford had tried to solve the Amelia Earhart mystery from an engineer's point of view, "on the basis of such factors as radio wavelengths, fuel capacity, the aircraft's capabilities, air routes, strip maps, weather, and preparations for the project. In contrast, Luttrell was and is a romantic, fascinated by the mysterious, the bizarre. It was not his nature to accept the idea of a simple if regrettable accident. He plunged deep into the various theories -- some of them indeed weird -- as to what might have been Amelia's fate. Like Safford, he gathered an enormous amount of material, much of it unpublished."

The library is closing. I will have to continue later. Sorry.