Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins Silver (October 16, 1911 – disappeared October 26, 1944) was the only
Women Airforce Service Pilots
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...
member to go missing during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Early life
Gertrude Vreeland Tompkins was born October 16, 1911, in
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.''née'' Towar). The family later moved to Summit, New Jersey. Gertrude attended Ambler School of Horticulture and moved to New York City following her graduation. Following the death of her boyfriend, who took her flying and later died while flying for the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
, Gertrude applied to the WASP program.
Disappearance and search
She departed from Mines Field ( Los Angeles International Airport) for Palm Springs, on October 26, 1944, flying a North American P-51D Mustang destined for New Jersey. She never arrived at Palm Springs and due to reporting errors a search was not started until three days later. Despite an extensive ground and water search, no trace of Silver or the aircraft were found.
Follow up and aftermath
In January 2010, search efforts to locate the possible crash site in
Santa Monica Bay
Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in ...
were unsuccessful.
Also, a TV show known as Expedition Unknown, Season 6, Episode 8, "America's Lost WWII Hero", aired on the Discovery Channel on May 22, 2019. In this episode they searched for Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins' crash site. Areas searched included the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles. They also searched the departure corridor off of runway 25 out over the nearby ocean. These searches were unsuccessful.
See also
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List of people who disappeared
Lists of people who disappeared include those whose current whereabouts are unknown, or whose deaths are unsubstantiated. Many people who disappear are eventually declared dead ''in absentia''. Some of these people were possibly subjected to enfo ...