Who Is Amelia Earhart A Hero

By definition a hero is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Throughout Amelia’s life she had many achievements. She broke record after record and took on tasks that were life threatening. She was determined to make a difference in the lives of women. Amelia Earhart is a hero for women because she proved that they can do the same things that men can do. Amelia’s mother is Amy Otis. She was also a very honorable woman and had many achievements throughout her life (Randolph 12). Amelia’s father is Edwin Stanton Earhart who attended law school at the University of Kansas and was a hard working man (Randolph 12-13). Amelia’s parents were in love from the beginning, but did not marry right
away. Judge Otis, Amy’s father, did not approve of Edwin at first. He said that Edwin could not marry his daughter until he earned at least $50 a month. After five years the couple married and moved into a house furnished by Amy’s father (Randolph 13). Amy struggled when she moved out of her parents home because Edwin was usually away on business. She visited her parents often and stayed with them when she was pregnant for the second time because her first pregnancy was a stillbirth (Randolph 13). Amelia was born on July 24th, 1897 at her grandparent’s house in Atchison (Randolph 12). Money was a struggle for the Earharts, especially because Edwin’s job required a lot of traveling and Amy insisted on traveling with him. Because of this, Amelia spent the winters with her wealthy grandparents in Atchison and her summers with her less fortunate parents in Kansas City. When with her grandparents, Amelia attended a private and proper college preparatory school and exceeded in her studies (Randolph 15). In June 1916, Amelia graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago (“Amelia Earhart, 1897-1937”). In the fall of 1916-1918, Amelia attended a prestigious finishing school outside of Philadelphia called Ogontz School. She was very smart and did well in school. She even became the class Vice President, but chose to take a different path and did not graduate. Instead, she chose to volunteer as a nurse for World War I soldiers at Toronto’s Spadina Military Hospital (“Amelia Earhart, 1897-1937”). In the fall of 1919-1920, Amelia attended a pre-med program at Columbia University but dropped out and met up with her parents in Los Angeles (“Amelia Earhart, 1897-1937”). Although Amelia was very smart and went to school for nursing, she chose a career as an aviator. Amelia had many accomplishments throughout her flying career.
During her entire flying career she had more than 1,000 hours in the air (Shore 13). She set many different records, such as setting a new altitude record of 14,000 feet (Shore 13). Amelia was the first woman to do many things, including flying across the Atlantic as a passenger and flying alone across the United States from New York City to Los Angeles and back (Shore 13-14). One of Amelia’s biggest accomplishments was when she flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set out on the journey across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20, 1932 (Shore 13). The Atlantic was a dangerous place to fly because of its unpredictable weather patterns (Shore 13). Although the weather was very dangerous, it was not the only difficulty that Amelia faced while flying over the Atlantic. One of the first problems that Amelia faced was when the altimeter failed (Shore 14). After the altimeter broke, Earhart flew into a thunderstorm with heavy rain and strong winds. The thunderstorm caused several things inside the plane to freeze and the plane itself was getting too cold to fly. Amelia knew that she would have to get the plane to warmer air. At one point she flew so low that she could see the waves breaking on the surface of the ocean (Shore 15). Another major problem that Amelia faced was when she saw flames coming from the plane. She had to find somewhere to land because she did not know how long the plane would last. The closest spot
she found was in a meadow near Londonderry and she landed there after fifteen hours and eighteen minutes of flying (Shore 17). News of her landing and success was spread to people around the world (Shore 17-18). She received congratulations from King George V and the royal family when she returned home (Shore 18). Andrew Mellon invited her to stay at the U.S. Embassy (Shore 18). President Herbert Hoover invited her to the White House and presented her with a gold medal from the National Geographic Society (Shore 18-19). Amelia had many achievements in her flying career but there was one in particular that would mysteriously cause an end to her life.
Amelia’s next big task was to fly around the world with Frederick Noonan. Their trip was cut short on their longest route from Lae to Howland. Amelia and Noonan were communicating with the Coast Guard cutter Itasca stationed off of Howland Island in the Pacific. When they were close enough they were to communicate with Itasca to find where they were supposed to land. Itasca had not heard from Earhart and Noonan for 20 hours (Beheim 22). Itasca tried several different times to communicate with Earhart and Noonan but every time resulted in a failure (Beheim 22-23). After these failures, search operations were put underway (Beheim 23). Word spread that Earhart’s flight was overdue and many people were recruited to help with the search (Beheim 23). The Navy assumed that Earhart and Noonan turned southeast when they could not find Howland, this way they could find the nearest land (Beheim 24). Starting on July 7, 1937, searches were made around the Colorado and the Phoenix Islands for four days, which covered about 25,490 square miles (Beheim 24). On July 12, another search crew aboard the Lexington took over the search and moved to the water north and west of Howland. They searched 151,556 square miles of the ocean and did not find any evidence of Earhart and Noonan (Beheim 24). The search for Earhart and Noonan was officially called off on July 18 (Beheim 24). Although the search was officially called off by the U.S. government Amelia’s husband was not ready to forget. After the failed attempts of the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard, George Putman, Amelia’s husband, went looking for any evidence of his wife’s disappearance (“What Happened to Amelia Earhart?”). George was unsuccessful in finding any traces of his wife but organizations were established to uncover the mystery of Earhart and Noonan’s disappearance.
Earhart and Noonan’s disappearance was unexpected and puzzling.
The official report by the U.S. government reads that Earhart and Noonan ran out of fuel, crashed into the water, and sank (“What Happened to Amelia Earhart?”). One of the most common hypotheses made about Earhart and Noonan’s death is that they landed on Nikumaroro (“What Happened to Amelia Earhart?”). For a while this island was left uninvestigated because at the time it was “uninhabited” (“What Happened to Amelia Earhart?”). Evidence later found by the TIGHAR, or International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, contradicts this idea with The Earhart Project (“What Happened to Amelia Earhart?”). TIGHAR found improvised tools, remnants of shoes, traces of a campfire, and aircraft wreckage that looked much like Earhart’s plane (“What Happened to Amelia Earhart?”). They also discovered that a British colonial officer found parts of a castaway and sent them to Fiji for examination and they were “misplaced” (“What Happened to Amelia Earhart?”). Lastly, on its 2010 expedition, TIGHAR found pieces of a pocketknife and cosmetic jar, shells that had been sliced open, bits of makeup, and, even more astounding, bone fragments that appeared to be human (“What Happened to Amelia Earhart?”). The evidence found provided hope and could lead to closure for Amelia and Noonan’s
case.
The accomplishments Amelia made throughout her difficult life make her a great role model for women around the world. She helped prove that women are able to do the same things that men can do. She will forever be admired for her hard work that helped her make so many accomplishments. In the eyes of women, Amelia will be remembered as an astounding hero who worked to achieve her goals.