Hillary Clinton has been doing some pretty impressive work as Secretary of State for the Obama administration, especially when it comes to standing up to protect women and girls around the world (and at home), but it looks like her next project will take her from "highly effective senior-level government official" to "awesome historical detective." A longtime fan of famed aviator Amelia Earhart, Clinton is putting her considerable weight behind a new search for the wreckage of Earhart's doomed final flight, which went down almost seventy-five years ago.
The latest expedition comes on the heels of some intriguing new evidence — photos taken on the South Pacific island Nikumaroro, which some believe show the strut and wheel of a plane, possibly Earhart's, sticking out of a body of water. This is particularly exciting because Nikumaroro is the same island where researchers found what they believed to be one of Earhart's finger bones in 2010. Tests to determine the veracity of that claim were inconclusive, but finding the wreckage of a 1930s twin engine plane in the vicinity could go a long way towards bolstering the case.
Sadly, Clinton won't be going to Nikumaroro to investigate the wreckage herself, which means we can't quite upgrade her to real-life Indiana Jones status quite yet. But she gave a press conference today at the State Department to kick off the expedition, which is being mounted by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, with a bang. "Even if you do not find what you seek, there is great honor and possibility in the search itself,” she said. “So, like our lost heroine, you will all carry our hopes.”
It should go without saying that, while I recognize all the many extremely important matters the Secretary of State must devote her time to, I fully support her spending a bit of time investigating infamous mysteries of history. Next up: Hillary Clinton finds the Lindbergh baby the identity of Jack the Ripper.