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Seized by the Sun
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Of the 38 Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) confirmed or presumed dead in World War II, only one—Gertrude “Tommy” Tompkins—is still missing. On October 26, 1944, the 32-year-old fighter plane pilot lifted off from Mines Field in Los Angeles. She was never seen again.
Seized by the Sun is the story of a remarkable woman who overcame a troubled childhood and the societal constraints of her time to find her calling flying one of the fastest fighter planes of World War II. It is also a compelling unsolved mystery.
Born in 1912 to a wealthy New Jersey family, Gertrude’s childhood was marked by her mother’s bouts with depression and her father’s relentless search for a cure for the debilitating stutter that afflicted Gertrude throughout her life. Teased and struggling in school, young Gertrude retreated to a solitary existence. As a young woman she dabbled in raising goats and aimlessly crisscrossed the globe in an attempt to discover her purpose.
As war loomed in Europe, Gertrude met the love of her life, a Royal Air Force pilot who was killed flying over Holland. Telling her sister that she “couldn’t stop crying, so she focused on learning to fly,” Gertrude applied to join the newly formed Women’s Airforce Service Pilots. She went on to become such a superior pilot that she was one of only 126 WASPs selected to fly fighter planes. After her first flight in the powerful P-51 Mustang, her stutter left her for good.
Gertrude’s sudden disappearance remains a mystery to this day. Award-winning author James W. Ure leads readers through Gertrude’s fascinating life; provides a detailed account of the WASPs’ daily routines, training, and challenges; and describes the ongoing search for Gertrude’s wreck and remains. The result of years of research and interviews with Gertrude’s family, friends, and fellow WASPs, Seized by the Sun is an invaluable addition to any student’s or history buff’s bookshelf.
JAMES W. URE is a former staff writer and editor at the Salt Lake Tribune and wrote features for the Deseret News, as well as other newspapers and magazines. He is also a former publicist and executive director of the Sundance Film Festival. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
WOMEN OF ACTION
Women of Action is a lively, accessible biography series that introduces young adults to women and girls of courage and conviction throughout the ages.
Jacket design: Sarah Olson
Front cover image: Gertrude Tompkins, courtesy of The WASP Archives, Texas Women’s University Libraries
Printed in the United States of America
Other Books in the Women of Action Series
Code Name Pauline by Pearl Witherington Cornioley, edited by Kathryn J. Atwood
Courageous Women of the Civil War by M. R. Cordell
Double Victory by Cheryl Mullenbach
The Many Faces of Josephine Baker by Peggy Caravantes
Marooned in the Arctic by Peggy Caravantes
Reporting Under Fire by Kerrie L. Hollihan
She Takes a Stand by Michael Elsohn Ross
Women Aviators by Karen Bush Gibson
Women Heroes of the American Revolution by Susan Casey
Women Heroes of World War I by Kathryn J. Atwood
Women Heroes of World War II by Kathryn J. Atwood
Women Heroes of World War II—the Pacific Theater by Kathryn J. Atwood
Women in Blue by Cheryl Mullenbach
Women in Space by Karen Bush Gibson
Women of Colonial America by Brandon Marie Miller
Women of Steel and Stone by Anna M. Lewis
Women of the Frontier by Brandon Marie Miller
A World of Her Own by Michael Elsohn Ross
Copyright © 2017 by James W. Ure
All rights reserved
First edition
Published by Chicago Review Press Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978-1-61373-587-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ure, James W., 1939– author.
Title: Seized by the sun : the life and disappearance of World War II pilot Gertrude Tompkins / James W. Ure.
Description: First edition. | Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press Incorporated, 2017. | Series: Women of action | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016047279 (print) | LCCN 2016050005 (ebook) | ISBN 9781613735879 (cloth) | ISBN 9781613735886 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781613735909 (epub) | ISBN 9781613735893 (kindle)
Subjects: LCSH: Silver, Gertrude Tompkins, 1911–1944. | Women Airforce Service Pilots (U.S.)—Biography. | World War, 1939–1945—Participation, Female. | World War, 1939–1945—Aerial operations, American. | Air pilots, Military—United States—Biography. | Women air pilots—United States—Biography.
Classification: LCC D790.5 .U74 2017 (print) | LCC D790.5 (ebook) | DDC 940.54/4973092 [B] —dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047279
Interior design: Sarah Olson
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
To Cassandra, Demetria, Forrest, Jesaia, and Winonna
The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn’t it be? It is the same the angels breathe. —Mark Twain
CONTENTS
Note on Names
Prologue: Lost Wings
1. It’s Awful Having a Stutter
2. Childhood Ups and Downs
3. Confidence Grows
4. Traveling Abroad
5. Finding Her Footing
6. Taking Flight
7 The WASPs Are Born
8. Welcome to the WASPs
9. Basic and Advanced Training
10. Pecos
11. On Silver Wings
12. Flying for Her Country
13. Dilemma
14. Seized by the Sun
15. Searching
Epilogue
Afterword
Acknowledgments
US Air Force List of Gertrude Tompkins Silver’s Personal Effects Recovered from Footlockers and Quarters
General Barton Younts Tribute to WASPs Killed in Service
Notes
Bibliography
NOTE ON NAMES
Originally called the Air Service, today’s US Air Force has undergone several name changes. It became the Air Corps in 1926, and the Air Corps became an element of the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) on June 20, 1941. USAAF continued to exist under command of the US Army until 1946—the time during which Gertrude Tompkins served. Readers will see frequent references to the army being in command of the air force.
The United States Air Force became an entity separate from the army on September 18, 1947. For the sake of simplicity, in this book “air force” will be used.
Women’s Airforce Service Pilots are correctly abbreviated with the acronym WASP, in the singular. However, over time, books and stories written by WASP have added the s to the end of the word. It has become common usage to say and write WASPs, which is frequently used in this book.
Note that England and Britain are used interchangeably.
PROLOGUE
LOST WINGS
The new P-51D Mustang fighter plane rested on the Mines Field runway with its nose lifted to the sky. The shiny aluminum craft reflected the Southern California light, in spite of a haze that filtered the sun’s rays.
A woman with gray eyes walked toward the aircraft. Her curly dark hair bounced lightly against the collar of her leather flight jacket. As a Women’s Airforce Service Pilot, or WASP, Gertrude Tompkins’s job was to fly this sleek plane across the country to Newark, New Jersey. From there it would be shipped to Europe for combat against Nazi Germany. It was brand new, one of 45 Must
angs that North American Aviation would have manufactured that day at its Los Angeles plant.
As a former test pilot, Gertrude, or Tommy, as her sister WASPs called her, knew how important her preflight inspection was. Even new planes had flaws. She slowly walked around the airplane. Gertrude pushed on the rudder to make certain it moved freely. Stooping, she tugged at a hydraulic line running through the scissor assembly over one of the 27-inch wheels. Every P-51 pilot made certain the line was tight. There had been reports of problems with Mustang wheels that wouldn’t retract. She checked to be sure the tape was tight over the openings for the six .50-caliber Browning machine guns. The guns would be installed in Europe.
Gertrude “Tommy” Tompkins’s official Women’s Airforce Service Pilots portrait. Note the Fifinella logo—the WASPs’ cartoon mascot designed by Walt Disney—on her leather flight jacket. Courtesy of The WASP Archives, Texas Women’s University Libraries
She walked around the left wing, touching the red running light, making certain the access compartment to the guns was tight and flush. It had a tendency to come off.
The woman gripped a hinged slot on the fuselage and lifted herself onto the wing. The cockpit yawned, waiting for her to settle in and fly away at 400 miles per hour.
Gertrude placed her small leather flight bag in the cockpit, working it alongside the seat amid the tight array of handles, toggles, tubes, and wires. The bag contained her PIF—Pilot’s Information File. The PIF held weather information, maps, flight orders, and forms authorizing refueling and ground transportation. It also held first-aid supplies. As she tucked it away, Gertrude breathed in the new plane’s smells: fresh paint and rubber, adhesives, and oil.
She knew how this plane would perform. The Mustang was a high-strung thoroughbred, a little balky at low speeds, but once free and running at full throttle, it would take your breath away. Gertrude climbed into the cockpit and settled in the metal bucket seat, using her parachute as her cushion. She latched the seat belt and shoulder harness.
Gertrude punched the ignition switch. The four-bladed propeller made a slow, hesitant turn. The exhaust ports exploded noisily, streaming acrid smoke back into the cockpit as the big paddles bit into the air faster and faster. She ran up the throttle. The engine reached a high-pitched snarl. The exhaust ports breathed clear now. It had come alive, this airplane, and was shivering to be away.
Next Gertrude set the altimeter, which would measure the plane’s altitude. She flipped on the toggle switches for the radio and waited for its tubes to warm up. Squawks and static hisses filled her headset as she dialed in the sending and receiving frequency. She adjusted the silk scarf that pilots wore to prevent their necks from chafing against the collars of their leather flight jackets as they constantly swiveled their heads in flight.
A moment later, the control tower radioed her clearance for takeoff. Gertrude cranked the handle to bring the cockpit canopy forward. It snagged on something. She backed it off and tried again. After a couple of minutes she called the tower and told them she had a problem. Other WASPs were forming for takeoff in their P-51s; at least 30 of them would fly from Mines Field that day.
Factory-new airplanes often experienced problems. Most new planes were briefly tested after coming off the assembly line. Some were turned over to the WASP ferry pilots without any flight testing.
A Jeep screeched to a stop. Out leaped a North American Aviation factory technician. The mechanic examined the three tracks on which Gertrude’s canopy rode and started making adjustments.
Since she was going to get a late start, Gertrude was redirected to the army air force base at Palm Springs, less than an hour’s flight time in this swift craft. At Palm Springs she would “RON”—remain overnight—then continue to Newark tomorrow. Her mother and father lived in nearby Summit, New Jersey, and she planned to spend time with them after delivering the airplane.
Once airborne, she could consider her month-old marriage and her future. The familiar ring of the Mustang engine would soothe her. Flying gave her comfort and self-assurance. She was her own pilot, her own navigator, her own radio operator. Piercing the clouds on her race eastward, painful memories would fall away. Everything would be made right as she throttled up the 1,490-horsepower Rolls Royce Merlin engine. She wished the mechanic would hurry up and finish with the canopy.
1
IT’S AWFUL HAVING A STUTTER
Nothing in Gertrude Tompkins’s early life or upbringing would hint that this well-bred girl would grow up to fly fighter planes. She came from a wealthy family with roots deep in New Jersey’s Hudson River villages. The Vreeland farm was settled around the year 1658 by Gertrude’s Dutch ancestors on her father’s side. Gertrude’s mother, Laura Towar, was born in 1878 into the well-off Bentley and Towar families of Jersey City Heights, both involved in finance in New York City. Laura’s grandfather, Thomas Towar, who died in 1903, had a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, an expensive position purchased by a privileged few.
As a child Laura yearned for adventure, and she confessed that once she had wanted to become a missionary in China. “She was very strong minded in some ways, but was brought up in a repressive era,” Laura’s daughter Elizabeth Tompkins Whittall recalled years later. “She had an easy life and was provided with servants all her life. Maybe she didn’t feel useful…. Mother was nervous and had poor eyesight. She had to drop out of school. She had what she called nervous headaches.” This undercurrent of depression and anxiety would continue to surface in Laura in the years to come.
Gertrude’s father, Vreeland Tompkins, was a graduate of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 1894, at age 23, Vreeland was working for John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company as a chemist. Because he stuttered badly, Vreeland was quiet and shy. He threw himself into his work. Each night he returned to his father’s home at 533 Communipaw Avenue in Jersey City and in the basement puttered with chemical concoctions. Vreeland patented one of these mixtures. With a loan from his father he formed a company called Smooth-On to manufacture the compound, leaving Rockefeller’s employment in 1895. Smooth-On Iron Cement was ideal for repairing leaks in cast iron and quickly became the industry standard for maintenance and repair. A contract with the US Navy for boiler repairs assured his fortune and the family’s future. (Smooth-On Inc. is still in existence in Macungie, Pennsylvania, making molds and materials for a variety of applications, including special effects for motion pictures.)
It’s uncertain how Vreeland Tompkins met the prettily freckled Laura Towar, but it is known that when he proposed to her in writing, she turned him down in writing. She felt she couldn’t live with Vreeland’s stuttering handicap. Later she changed her mind, and he agreed to leave his Dutch Reformed church to join her Episcopal church. They married on May 18, 1904, and purchased a three-story house at 113 Bentley Avenue in Jersey City. Its living room was big enough for their baby grand piano, which Laura loved to play. On the second floor were three bedrooms and two baths, one attached to the master bedroom.
Their first child, Stuart, died at birth, which tipped Laura into a lasting depression. “After she lost her first child, maybe it was just too much,” her daughter Elizabeth later said. Life went on, and Margaret Tompkins arrived in 1906, blonde and bright-eyed. The witty Elizabeth was born in 1909. Gertrude, whose name in German means “strong spear,” was born October 16, 1911. She was the last child born in the family.
From the beginning Gertrude had golden strands in her otherwise dark hair, a sure sign of her good fortune, her father said. To make certain the children were not spoiled, Vreeland and Laura maintained some distance from them. The parents were not demonstrative, leaving the care of the children to the servants. Vreeland and Laura routinely dined separately from their children.
By age four it was apparent that Gertrude was having difficulty with her speech. She had trouble getting her words out. Vreeland believed she must have inherited her stutter from him, and he felt both guilty and sorrowful.
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p; Friends and family volunteered explanations for her stuttering. “It happened because you cut the child’s hair before she said her first words,” a relative insisted. “The child was frightened as a baby. Make her hold nutmeg under her tongue,” suggested the family cook and nanny, Maggie. She and her husband, Thomas, who served as handyman, chauffeur, and gardener, occupied quarters on the third floor of the house.
Vreeland took a special interest in his youngest daughter. He had had difficulty being listened to when he was growing up. “S-s-someone else always said what I wanted to say long before I could get it out,” he complained. He insisted that everyone patiently wait as young Gertrude shyly spoke.
The Mystery of Stuttering
The definition of stuttering is to speak in such a way that the rhythm is interrupted by repetitions, blocks or spasms, or prolongations of sounds or syllables, sometimes accompanied by contortions of the face and body.
Specialists believe that stuttering can be managed through various therapies but that looking for a cure for stuttering is generally not realistic. A number of famous people are stutterers. The actress Emily Blunt and National Football League running back Darren Sproles manage their stuttering. Other stutterers include Marc Anthony, Nicole Kidman, and James Earl Jones. Winston Churchill and Marilyn Monroe were stutterers.
Her father vowed to get her the help that he had never gotten for his own speech difficulties and decided to send her to a doctor in Jersey City who claimed he could cure stuttering. The doctor put Gertrude through a brief speech exercise, slapping her cheek each time she stumbled over a word.
“If we do this every time she stutters, she’ll eventually stop,” the doctor said over the crying of the little girl. “I’ll need to see her three times a week.”
Her father fled in outrage, Gertrude in tow.