Lae Airfield crane above the aircraft. The Lae airport is probably best remembered for being the point of departure in July 1937 for Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan on their flight to Howland Island. Earhart's plane disappeared near Howland Island some 19 hours after departing Lae airport. Lae Airfield Lae Airfield is a former World War II airfield and later, civilian airport located at Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The airport was closed in the 1980s, in favour of Lae Nadzab Airport, which was able to accommodate larger jet aircraft. The airport was known as Lae Drome or Lae Aerodrome
Thomas P. Noonan Jr. Thomas P. Noonan Jr. Thomas Patrick Noonan Jr. (November 18, 1943–February 5, 1969) was a United States Marine who was posthumously awarded the United States' highest military decoration — the Medal of Honor — for heroism during February 1969 in Vietnam. Noonan was born on November 18, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood, New York in June 1961 and attended Hunter College in the Bronx, New York, graduating with a B.A. degree in Physical Education in June 1966. Coincidentally, he grew up with Sergeant Robert Emmett O’Malley, who would also be awarded