I can remember, when I was very little, paging through one of the airport books my father had written and seeing a picture of a young woman standing next to a small airplane. I think I noticed her because, like me, she had very short hair—at the time, my older brother and I received our haircuts from our father’s barber, so my hair never grew past my ears. She was tall and lithe, possessing a gamine beauty I found enthrallingly relatable. I liked her smart bomber hat with its insectile goggles, her unruly, moppish hair, the ease in which she existed in a tight, cropped leather jacket and buoyant riding pants. There is a relaxed confidence and serenity in pictures of Amelia Earhart. For someone with everything to prove, she projects an air of having absolutely nothing to prove at all.
     The cover of the January issue of Smithsonian Magazine features a gorgeously monochrome Amelia Earhart, and boasts “New Clues, New Controversy” regarding her disappearance. Again, Amelia appears calmly angelic in whitewashed tones of cream and grey and charcoal, and I can’t help but wonder if our fascination with her isn’t simply because she was the first woman aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic, but because every portrait of her projects a dreamy, subdued quality, as if we’re catching someone not meant to be frozen in film. Her knowing look beguiles us. I challenge anyone to look at her picture and not read a chilling intelligence and sadness in those eyes—she looks as if she knew what was coming.
     The Smithsonian article vacillates between the believable and the utterly fantastic. A man named Ric Gillespie harbors a sheet of aluminum he claims originated from Earhart’s Lockheed Electra. The sheet was found in 1991 on Gardner Island in the Pacific Ocean, and Ric and his wife, who founded TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) are convinced it belongs to Earhart’s Lockheed Electra—a replacement piece for a window in the right rear fuselage. They believe Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, crash-landed on Gardner Island. The only problem with this narrative is that, according to Smithsonian Magazine, “Navy planes searched the four-mile-long Gardner Island on July 9 without seeing Earhart.” Still, Ric Gillespie’s theory would fall under the ‘believable’ category.
     Other, less savory, theories abound.
     A retired Pan Am navigator named Paul Rafford Jr., author of Amelia Earhart’s Radio, believes Earhart was working for the U.S. government (specifically, the Navy) and purposefully got lost so that the Navy would have an excuse to search the Pacific without raising any eyebrows amid the rising tensions there. There are other theories that involve Japan. According to Smithsonian Magazine, “In July 1944, Army Sgt. Thomas E. Devine arrived on the just-liberated island of Saipan. At the airfield, he met some Marines guarding a closed hangar they said contained Earhart’s plane.” Sgt. Devine claims he later saw the Electra fly over the island, and that it was later “destroyed by U.S. soldiers.” He believes “Earhart and Noonan flew there by mistake, were captured, imprisoned and executed as spies.”
     There are a few theories that involve Earhart and Noonan’s being captured: “after failing to make landfall at Howland, [they would have] turned northwest” and crashed “760 miles away in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.” The theory has been accepted as fact in the Marshall Islands: in 1987, the Marshall Islands issued a set of stamps detailing her flight and crash-landing at Mili Atoll. Sgt. Devine’s theory was picked up by Mike Campbell, who wrote Amelia Earhart: The Truth At Last.      Campbell believes Earhart and Noonan landed in the Marshalls in 1937 and were taken to Saipan, where they were likely executed as spies. He also believes we’ve all been fed a pack of lies in order to protect the reputation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who knew where Earhart was “but didn’t want to risk a confrontation with Japan.” In an email to Smithsonian Magazine, Campbell wrote, “Roosevelt could never have survived public knowledge that he failed to help America’s No. 1 aviatrix of the Golden Age of Aviation.”
     Whatever happened to Amelia Earhart, our fascination with her disappearance continues. For Dorothy Cochrane, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, the obsession is enough to drive a person mad. “Now that she’s long gone, why are people holding on to this?” she asked Smithsonian Magazine.
     I can’t speak for all the treasure hunters, conspiracy theorists, historians, and others interested in finding Amelia, but for myself, there is something almost unnatural in how naturally she vanished. One of the most bizarre theories about her disappearance assumes that she survived the war and lived out the rest of her days as a woman in New Jersey named Irene Bolam. We seem to want to revive her in some way—she survived, and lived fully in New Jersey; she was forgotten by one of our most beloved Presidents, and perhaps if we debase him, we can exhume her; she slipped away into the Pacific Ocean, and if we reach deep enough we might raise her up from the watery depths of obscurity.
     For as long as I can remember, when the night gets very deep and dark, and the lights have been turned down in our home in Queens, and a fire in the hearth sends the scent of earthy wood careening across Cunningham Park, adjacent to our home, my father will put on Joni Mitchell’s watery dreamscape, “Amelia.” It’s a song that sounds like flying—it’s full of the hollow airiness of sound that accompanies flight, the soporific din of air passing over fuselage. But it also feels aqueous, as if Mitchell recorded it under water, or at least sang it while bobbing over passive waves at sea. Wherever Amelia Earhart may be, I take comfort in how much of her I find in that song, and those lyrics. She may elude us in every picture, but she can still be found in certain small spaces, if we look hard.
                         “A ghost of aviation
                         She was swallowed by the sky
                         Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly
                         Like Icarus ascending
                         On beautiful foolish arms
                         Amelia, it was just a false alarm.”

Pictured at the 2014 EMO Trans Annual Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, (L to R)— Tom Harlin, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President; Sven Frigger, Director Compliance and Advisory Board Representative; Karin Frigger; Jo Frigger, Chairman; Jennifer Frigger-Latham Vice President, Sales & Marketing and member Board of Directors; and Marco Rohrer, President and CEO EMO Trans.

     The meteoric growth of EMO Trans has continued unabated since it launched in 1965, and now, fifty years later, many of the employees who helped ensure its success will be leaping forward within the company.
     On January 1, 2015, Jo Frigger effectively transferred his role as CEO to current Presdent Maro Rohrer, who will now assume the title of President and CEO.
     “Since taking on the role of President in 2013, Marco has demonstrated a remarkable energy and unwavering drive to lead this company forward with a steady hand and resolute determination,” Jo Frigger says.
     “Having Marco assume the CEO role will not change day-to-day operations and only serve to further strengthen customer focus,”he added.
     Mr. Frigger will continue to serve as Chairman of EMO Trans, focusing on strategic global development and delivering greater global visibility to customers.
     Vice President – Sales and Marketing, Jenni Frigger-Latham, a staple at EMO Trans, is now a member of the Board of Directors.
     Responsible for furthering growth at home and overseas, Frigger-Latham is also juggling board membership in the Air Forwarders Association.
     CFO Tom Harlin is now also the executive vice president, expanding his responsibilities to include EMO Trans’ investments abroad.
     The Southeast Region’s Peter Crooks (right) was promoted to vice president, whose expanded responsibilities will now include a new Advisory Board of representatives from key departments within the company.
     Director of Compliance Sven Frigger will serve as a representative on the Advisory Board, responsible for ensuring conformity with rules and regulations.
     “We have created this group to ensure that the ideas and concerns of all offices, down to the grass roots level, will be properly recognized and addressed by the Board of Directors,” says Jo Frigger.
     With an interest in further developing EMO Trans’ presence in the Midwest Region, Uwe Kaeding (left) has been promoted to vice president, with additional responsibilities for the West Coast.
     “Uwe has shown his skill in successfully growing the offices in the Midwest, and we are confident that under his guidance, the West Coast offices will expand and continue to thrive,” Mr. Frigger assures.
     Lastly, a new EMO Trans convert, Donna Landeck will head the Human Resources department to help manage EMO’s expanding workforce.
     “In keeping with our deep-rooted culture of Success by Performance, all of the appointees, with the exception of Donna, are long term members of the EMO Trans group.
     “They satisfy my utmost concern that our culture, spirit, and open management style of mutual trust and respect will be maintained and nurtured,” Jo Frigger said.
Flossie

   Forty-four years ago, a teacher named Geoffrey Bardon was visiting a resettlement community of Aboriginals in Papunya, Australia. Bardon was distributing art supplies to schoolchildren, but the men in the community, looking for something to do, took up the brushes and paint and, with Bardon’s assistance, formed a cooperative of 11 artists called Papunya Tula Artists in 1972. The group later grew from its 11 original members to approximately 60 Aboriginal arts cooperatives.
   Now, thanks to IAG Cargo and the British Museum, the UK will have the opportunity to witness Aboriginal art in person, without the 23-hour drag of a terminally long flight to Australia. Today IAG Cargo has announced it is the official logistics partner for the British Museum’s upcoming exhibition Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilization, supported by BP. Utilizing their high-security service, Secure, IAG Cargo will transport nine irreplaceable indigenous artifacts from Australia to London, on loan to the British Museum by the National Museum of Australia and Museum Victoria, Melbourne.
   “The British Museum is delighted to be able to borrow these important Australian objects and make them available to audiences in London as part of the Indigenous Australia exhibition. IAG Cargo help to make this possible, by ensuring the loans arrive on time and are provided the highest standards of security and care at all times,” said Jill Maggs, registrar at the British Museum.
   “The BP exhibition Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilization promises to be a landmark event at the British Museum and we are proud to be associated with such an important cultural experience,” sad IAG CEO Steven Gunning (left).
   “Through our excellent network reach we have been able to play an important part in realizing the exhibition and I have complete confidence in our exceptional, highly-skilled staff in carrying this precious cargo from Australia to England and back with total safety and impeccable service. We look forward to what promises to be an enlightening and entertaining exhibition.”
   The BP exhibition Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilization runs from April 23 – August 2, 2015 and includes over 170 objects of art and everyday life that reflect indigenous culture, colonial history, and the struggle for recognition and rights.
Flossie

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